Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Medina, as the tone and context of its verses evidently show; some have even claimed a consensus of the exegetes on this. → Introduction
Verse 7: There is a view that Have faith in Allah and His Messenger, and spend… was revealed on the eve of the Battle of Tabūk; Al-Mizan cites it as support for reading the command to spend here as spending especially for jihād. → Introduction
Verse 10: Some exegetes take the victory in Not equal are those of you who spent and fought before the victory to be the conquest of Mecca or the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyyah. Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī reports the Prophet citing this verse at ʿUsfān, in the year of Ḥudaybiyyah. Al-Mizan: the apparent context is that the verses were revealed after the victory, whether Ḥudaybiyyah or the conquest of Mecca, so they do not accord with this report, which places them before Ḥudaybiyyah. ʿIkrimah reports that when the verse was revealed, Abū al-Daḥdāḥ gave away half of everything he owned. → Commentary on verse 10 · Narrations
Verse 16: Al-Aʿmash reports that when the Companions came to Medina and found life easier after their hardship, they grew lax in some things, and Is it not time yet for those who have faith that their hearts should be humbled…? was revealed. Al-Mizan: this is the most sound of the narrations on the context of this sūrah. A report from Ibn Masʿūd ("we had not been Muslims for four years" before this rebuke), and another saying ʿUmar became a Muslim after the sūrah was revealed, suggest Mecca; but the sūrah is clearly Medinan, and Ibn Masʿūd's report could mean that only this verse, or this verse and those after it, were revealed in Mecca. Reports dating the verse seventeen, or thirteen, years after revelation began are not in keeping with the context and tone of the verses either. → Narrations
Verses 28–29: Saʿīd b. Jubayr reports that forty of al-Najāshī's people who believed came with Jaʿfar to the Prophet, then went back and returned with their wealth to share with the Muslims, and was revealed about them. When unbelieving People of the Book mocked the Muslims over the two rewards promised there, God revealed O you who have faith! Be wary of Allah and have faith in His Messenger…, promising them a double share, light and forgiveness. → 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.