Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca, as the tone and context of its verses show. Al-Mizan: the theory that it was revealed at Badr should be discounted, as should the theory that some of its verses were revealed in Medina. → Introduction
Verse 1, the splitting of the moon: The verse refers to the miracle God brought about at the hand of the Prophet in Mecca, before the Emigration, when the Meccan idolaters demanded a sign. Narrations from Anas, Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿUmar, Jubayr b. Muṭʿim, Ibn ʿAbbās and Ḥudhayfah b. al-Yamān, and Shia narrations from Imam ʿAlī and Tafsīr al-Qummī, describe the moon splitting in two, the Quraysh calling it sorcery, and the verse being revealed. Al-Mizan: the narrations are abundant, scholars of hadith and exegesis agree on their authenticity, and some Sunni scholars call the report mutawātir; only al-Ḥasan, ʿAṭāʾ and al-Balkhī took the verse to mean a splitting of the moon when the Hour comes. → Commentary on verse 1 · Narrations
Verse 45: Al-Mizan: it foretells the defeat and rout of the idolaters in a war they would start, as happened at the Battle of Badr; it is one of the Qur'an's prophecies of the future. → Commentary on verse 45
Verses 48–49: Imam al-Ṣādiq said they were revealed about the Qadariyyah. Al-Mizan: this means that the verses apply to them (jary), not that they were the occasion of revelation, since the verses are general in meaning. → 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.