Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca, the whole sūrah. Al-Mizan: this is clear from the connectedness of its verses and the nature of its content; claims that some of it was revealed in Medina have no merit. → Introduction
Verse 55: Some scholars say celebrate the praise of your Lord morning and evening refers to the morning and afternoon prayers and that the verse is Medinan. Al-Mizan: the narrations, including the accounts of the Night Journey, show that the five daily prayers were all instituted in Mecca before the Emigration; so if the verse refers to two obligatory prayers, it was revealed in Mecca before the five were instituted. → Commentary on verse 55
Verses 56–57: Ibn al-ʿĀliyah, Kaʿb al-Aḥbār and Ibn Jurayj report that these verses were revealed about the Jews, who came to the Prophet magnifying the Dajjāl (or a king) who would arise from among them at the end of time. On the strength of these reports some have claimed the verses are Medinan, since the Jewish tribes lived there. Al-Mizan: disputing God's signs out of arrogance is the central theme to which the sūrah returns again and again (, 5, 35, 56, 69), so its context and tone rule out tying only some of these verses to a particular occasion; and the reports about the Dajjāl do not accord with the apparent meaning of the verses. → 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.