Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca, as the tone and context of its verses show. → Introduction
Revealed all at once: It appears to have been revealed in a single revelation, because of the close connection between its verses. Al-Mizan uses this to judge the reports that name a separate occasion for single verses. → Introduction
The occasion: From the verses themselves, the polytheists among the Prophet's people demanded that he give up his call to monotheism and turn to their deities, threatening him with them. The sūrah was revealed in response, and is in some ways a companion to Sūrah Ṣād (38). → Introduction
Verse 3: Ibn ʿAbbās reports that and those who take guardians besides Him was revealed about three tribes, ʿĀmir, Kinānah and Banū Salamah, who worshipped idols and held the angels to be God's daughters. Al-Mizan: the verse is general and covers all idolaters, and says nothing about the angels being God's daughters; the report is an application of a general verse (taṭbīq). → Narrations
Verse 9: Reports say Is he who is devout in the watches of the night… was revealed about ʿAmmār b. Yāsir; or about Ibn Masʿūd, ʿAmmār and Sālim, the freedman of Abū Ḥudhayfah; or, in a report from Ibn ʿUmar, about ʿUthmān. Al-Mizan: all of these are applications of a general verse, not genuine occasions, since the sūrah was revealed in a single revelation. → Narrations
Verse 10: Al-Mizan: and Allah's earth is vast encourages the believers to emigrate from Mecca as the idolaters' persecution grew, though it is phrased as a universal maxim. → Commentary on verse 10
Verses 17–18: Zayd b. Aslam reports they were revealed about three men who said "There is no god but God" before Islam: Zayd b. ʿAmr b. Nufayl, Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī and Salmān al-Fārsī; other reports name Saʿīd b. Zayd, Abū Dharr and Salmān, or a man of the Anṣār who freed seven slaves. Al-Mizan: all these appear to be applications to the verses, not genuine occasions of revelation. → Narrations
Verses 22–23: Tafsīr al-Qummī says Is someone whose breast Allah has opened to Islam was revealed about the Commander of the Faithful; Al-Mizan: this is incompatible with the sūrah having been revealed all at once. Ibn ʿAbbās reports that Allah has sent down the best of discourses came after people said, "If only you spoke to us!"; Al-Mizan: an application of the verse's general meaning. → Narrations
Verse 31: Ibn ʿUmar and Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī report that they did not understand how you will indeed contend before your Lord could concern them, until they saw Muslims strike one another with swords (Abū Saʿīd names the Day of Ṣiffīn), and knew it had been revealed about them. → Narrations
Verse 53: Reports say O My servants who have committed excesses against their own souls… was revealed about Waḥshī, the killer of Ḥamzah, who feared his repentance would not be accepted. Al-Mizan: these accounts are weakened by the fact that the sūrah was revealed in Mecca, while Waḥshī became a Muslim only after the Hijrah; and the report does not seem to make the forgiveness dependent on repentance, which does not accord with the context. → 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.