Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Medina, as the content of its verses attests. An exception is said to be verse 13 (O mankind! Indeed We created you from a male and a female…). → Introduction
Medinan address: Imam al-Bāqir said that O you who have faith! was not sent down before the Aws and the Khazraj accepted Islam. Ibn ʿAbbās is also reported to say that O you who have faith! was revealed only in Medina and O mankind! only in Mecca; Al-Mizan notes that some scholars have hesitated over this second half. → Narrations
Verse 1: Al-Mizan: the narrations in al-Durr al-manthūr and Tafsīr al-Qummī on the occasion of Do not venture ahead of God and His Messenger do not appear fully appropriate to the verse, and the ʿAllāmah omits them. → Narrations
Verse 2: Anas reports that when the verse against raising one's voice above the Prophet's came down, Thābit b. Qays b. Shammās, who had a very loud voice, stayed in his house, distressed, thinking his works had failed; the Prophet said, "No, rather he is a person of Paradise." Al-Mizan: the narration comes by various routes with minor differences. → Narrations
Verse 4: Al-Mizan: the context shows an occasion on which some uncivilized persons called the Prophet from behind the rooms of his home without regard for proper manners. → Commentary on verse 4
Verses 6–7 (if a profligate should bring you some news, verify!): Al-Ḥārith b. Ḍarār al-Khuzāʿī reports that the Prophet sent al-Walīd b. ʿUqbah to collect the alms he had gathered from his people; al-Walīd turned back in fear and claimed that al-Ḥārith had refused and tried to kill him, and the Prophet sent a party toward him; when al-Ḥārith came and denied it, the verse came down. Al-Mizan: many Sunni and Shia accounts say this verse was revealed about al-Walīd b. ʿUqbah, and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr reports no disagreement among scholars on it. Verse 7 shows that some of the believers insisted on acting on his report; in the commentary the ʿAllāmah says al-Walīd had been sent to the Banū al-Muṣṭaliq and reported that they had apostatized, and the Prophet prepared to confront them until the verse was revealed. → Commentary on verse 7 · Narrations
Verse 9: Anas reports a fight with sticks, shoes and hands between the friends of a man of ʿAbd-Allāh b. Ubayy's tribe and those of a man of the Helpers, after Ibn Ubayy insulted the Prophet's donkey, and that the verse on making peace between two fighting groups was revealed about it; other reports make it the Aws of ʿAbd-Allāh b. Rawāḥah against the Khazraj of Ibn Ubayy. Al-Mizan: it is not entirely clear how the verse and its ruling apply to these accounts. → Narrations
Verse 11: Reports connect it with a group of the Banū Tamīm who mocked Bilāl, Salmān, ʿAmmār and others; with Thābit b. Qays insulting a man by his mother's name; nor let women ridicule women with the Prophet's wives mocking Umm Salamah (Ibn ʿAbbās); and nor call one another nicknames with the Banū Salamah, whose men each had two or three names. → Narrations
Verse 12 (would any of you love to eat the flesh of his dead brother?): Reports say it came down after two men on a journey spoke ill of Salmān, who served them, when he had not prepared their food; one report names only Salmān, another only Abū Bakr and ʿUmar and the man who served them, and a third names Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, Salmān and Usāmah b. Zayd. Al-Mizan: the accounts appear to tell one and the same story, the two men being Abū Bakr and ʿUmar and the man Salmān. → Narrations
Verses 14–17, the Bedouins: Qatādah, Mujāhid and others say verse 14 was revealed about the Banū Asad; Ibn ʿAbbās reports that the Banū Asad told the Prophet, "We embraced Islam while the Arabs fought you, but we did not fight you," and verse 17 was revealed. It is said that verse 16 came down when the Bedouins swore they truly had faith. → Commentary on verse 16 · 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.