Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca, as the style and content of the text indicate. → Introduction
Time: Before the Hijrah. Al-Mizan reads So turn away from them for a time () as a hint that the time was near: a short while later the Prophet migrated to Medina, and the leading men of Quraysh fell at Badr and elsewhere. → Commentary on verse 174
Verses 62–63, the tree of Zaqqūm: Majmaʿ al-Bayān reports that when Quraysh heard of it they said they had never heard of this tree; Abū Jahl had his slave girl bring dates and cream and told his companions to "eat of this" with which Muḥammad threatened them, and he swore that the fire the tree grew in would burn it, and God sent down We have made it a trial for the unjust (). Al-Mizan: this meaning is related through several chains. → Narrations
A summary prepared from Tafsīr al-Mīzān: where and when the sūrah was revealed, and the occasions reported for its verses, with the ʿAllāmah's view of them. Each point links to the full discussion.