Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Medina; Al-Mizan calls it a sūrah of the Medinan period, revealed in the last days of the Prophet. → Narrations on verse 67
Time: All reporters agree that it was the last detailed sūrah revealed to the Prophet, near the end of his life; narrations of both Sunnis and Shias say it is the abrogating sūrah, not the abrogated. Al-Mizan: more reliably it was revealed in the year of the Last Pilgrimage, when Mecca had already been conquered; but not all its verses came down at once, and some were clearly revealed before that time. → Introduction · Commentary on verses 55–56 · Introduction to verses 51–54
Verse 2 (nor those going to the Sacred House): Al-Ṭabrisī reports from Imam al-Bāqir that it was revealed about al-Ḥuṭam of Banū Rabīʿah; Ibn Zayd says it came on the day Mecca was conquered, others on the day of Ḥudaybiyyah. Al-Mizan: neither story fits the near-unanimous view that the sūrah was revealed at the Last Pilgrimage, after and had already been revealed; the reports that this phrase was abrogated by those verses are to be discarded, since the sūrah was the last revealed and, as narrated from the Imams, is abrogating, not abrogated. → Narrations
Verse 3, the perfection of religion: Many reports, from ʿUmar, ʿAlī, Muʿāwiyah and Samurah, say This day have I perfected for you your religion was revealed on the day of ʿArafah in the Last Pilgrimage; others, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, Abū Hurayrah and the Imams, say it was revealed at Ghadīr Khumm on 18 Dhū al-Ḥijjah 10 AH, about the guardianship (wilāyah) of ʿAlī.
Al-Mizan's view: the two sentences on the despair of the unbelievers and the perfection of religion form a single passage set within the verse on forbidden foods. Their meaning fits no event except Ghadīr: the unbelievers' last hope was that the religion would die with the Prophet, and it was lost when God appointed a guardian to succeed him. So the Ghadīr reports agree with the Qur'an and are to be accepted. The ʿAllāmah suggests that the verse may have come down at ʿArafah together with the command of wilāyah, which the Prophet held back until Ghadīr, where he recited it again; this reconciles the two sets of reports. → Commentary · Narrations · Key Debate
Verses 41–50: Al-Mizan: the verses support the reported occasion: a married man and woman of high standing among the Jews committed adultery, their scholars wanted to replace stoning with flogging, and they sent to ask the Prophet; he ruled for stoning, and Ibn Ṣūriyā confirmed that stoning was in the Torah. Another report connects the verses with blood money between Banū al-Naḍīr and Banū Qurayẓah; Al-Mizan: the first report is truer, since the second does not fit the opening verses and seems an attempt to apply a story to the Qur'an. The verses are not limited to their occasion. → Introduction · Narrations
Verses 51–54: Reports say they were revealed when ʿUbādah b. al-Ṣāmit renounced his alliance with the Jews and ʿAbd-Allāh b. Ubayy held on to his. Al-Mizan: such "occasions" are the personal opinions of exegetes, who applied stories to verses that seemed relevant; these stories do not explain why the verses also name the Christians. ʿIkrimah's report connecting verse 51 with the treachery of Banū Qurayẓah poses no difficulty. The ʿAllāmah adds that the verses probably belong to the later half of the Prophet's stay in Medina, when the Muslims were dealing with the Christians. → Introduction · Narrations
Verses 55–56, the verse of guardianship: Very numerous narrations, from Companions including Abū Dharr, Ibn ʿAbbās, Anas, ʿAmmār, Jābir and Abū Rāfiʿ, and from the Imams, say these verses were revealed about ʿAlī, who gave his ring to a beggar while bowing in prayer. Al-Mizan: the exegetes of the narrations accept this without objection, and no attention should be paid to the claim that it is fabricated; the verses are therefore particular to ʿAlī and not general. → Commentary · Narrations · Key Debate
Verse 67, the verse of delivery: Al-Mizan's view: the verse stands alone, unconnected with the verses around it, and was revealed after the Hijrah, when Islam had the upper hand, not in Mecca or the early days. It concerns one particular command that the Prophet feared people would take as serving his own interest. This supports the narrations of both Sunnis and Shias that it was revealed about the guardianship of ʿAlī, which the Prophet then announced at Ghadīr Khumm: "Whoever's master I am, ʿAlī is his master." Reports linking the verse with the Prophet's dismissing his guards, or with Ghawrath b. al-Ḥārith, or with the Prophet's call at Minā, do not fit the verse as a whole. → Commentary on verse 67 · Narrations · Key Debate
Verses 87–89: Tafsīr al-Qummī reports from Imam al-Ṣādiq that verse 87 was revealed about ʿAlī, Bilāl and ʿUthmān b. Maẓʿūn, who had sworn, respectively, never to sleep at night, never to eat by day, and never to go near his wife; and that verse 89 followed when they said they had sworn to it. Al-Mizan: it is not clear how the words on vain oaths could refer to their oaths. From all the narrations it is certain that a group of Companions, among them ʿAlī and ʿUthmān b. Maẓʿūn, had chosen such abstinence, and that the Prophet said, "Whoever dislikes my sunnah is not from me." → Narrations
Verses 90–93: These were the last verses revealed on intoxicants. Many Sunni narrations, with great discrepancies, tell of incidents that led to them; Saʿd b. Abī Waqqāṣ reports that the prohibition was revealed about him. Al-Mizan's view: intoxicants had already been forbidden in Mecca () and called a great sin early in Medina (); these verses show that a group of Muslims had kept drinking in the meantime, out of old habit. → Introduction · Narrations
Verse 101: Abū Hurayrah reports that it was revealed when ʿUkāshah b. Muḥṣin asked whether the ḥajj was due every year; Al-Mizan: this fits his explanation of the verse. Al-Suddī reports that the verses came when a man of Banū Sahm asked the Prophet who his father was; Al-Mizan: this does not fit the verse. → Narrations
Verses 106–108: Al-Kāfī reports that they were revealed after two Christians, travelling with Tamīm al-Dārī, a Muslim, kept back a gold-patterned vessel and a necklace from what he left to his heirs at his death. A report from Tamīm al-Dārī himself tells a different version; Al-Mizan: apart from its weakness, it does not fully conform to the verse. → 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.