Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca. Exegetes and narrators agree that the sūrah is Meccan, though some except verses 91–93 and 151–153 as Medinan, others verses 151–152, others two verses revealed in Medina about a Jew who said Allah has not revealed anything to a mortal (), and one person verse 111. Al-Mizan's view: there is no contextual proof for any of these exceptions; the sūrah has a single, well-connected theme, addressed almost entirely to the polytheists. → Introduction
Revealed all at once: The unbroken context shows that the sūrah was revealed all together, and this is narrated from the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt and from Ubayy, ʿIkrimah and Qatādah. Imams al-Ṣādiq and al-Riḍā say it came down all together, escorted by seventy thousand angels. Al-Mizan uses this repeatedly to judge the reports of particular occasions for its verses. → Introduction · Narrations
Order: Al-Mizan: verse 34 suggests the sūrah came after Meccan sūrahs that tell the stories of the prophets, such as al-Shuʿarāʾ and Maryam, which came after sūrahs such as al-ʿAlaq and al-Muddaththir; so al-Anʿām belongs to the third stratum of Meccan sūrahs. Verse 119 shows that the forbidden foods had already been set out, which means Sūrah al-Naḥl () was revealed before it; and a hadith citing Luqmān's words shows that it came after Sūrah Luqmān. → Commentary on verse 34 · Commentary on verse 119 · Narrations
Verse 26 (they prohibit others from it and go far away from it): Tafsīr al-Qummī applies it to the Hāshimites, who held Quraysh back from the Prophet but kept away from him and did not believe in him; Al-Mizan notes that this is near to what is narrated from ʿAṭāʾ and Muqātil, who apply it to Abū Ṭālib. Al-Mizan's view: the context does not agree, since from it refers to the Qur'an, not the Prophet; and the traditions from the Ahl al-Bayt on Abū Ṭālib's faith are very numerous. → Narrations · Key Debate
Verse 35 (if their turning away is hard on you): Imam al-Bāqir reports that it came down when the Prophet was grieved that al-Ḥārith b. ʿĀmir b. Nawfal would not accept Islam. Al-Mizan: the report is weak, with missing links, and does not agree with the many traditions that the sūrah was revealed all together; at most, the cause existed before the sūrah came down and the verse applies to it. → Narrations
Verse 47: Tafsīr al-Qummī says it was revealed after the Hijrah, when the Companions in Medina complained to the Prophet of hardship and illness. Al-Mizan: the report is weak, contradicts the sūrah's revelation in Mecca all together, and does not fit the verse. → Narrations
Verses 51–54, the poor believers: Ibn Masʿūd, ʿIkrimah and Khabbāb report that leaders of Quraysh, or al-Aqraʿ b. Ḥābis and ʿUyaynah b. Ḥaṣīn, asked the Prophet to drive away Bilāl, ʿAmmār, Ṣuhayb, Khabbāb and other poor Muslims, and that And warn with it those who fear () or do not drive away those who call their Lord morning and evening () was revealed; another report sets it in Medina, among the people of the Ṣuffah, and is weak because the sūrah was revealed all together in Mecca before the Hijrah. Al-Mizan's view: since the sūrah was revealed all together, these reports are applications: the Companions found a verse fitting an event of the Prophet's time and described the event as its occasion. There is no reliance on such reports of occasions, especially in this sūrah. → Narrations
Verse 65: Many reports say that when this verse was revealed the Prophet prayed that his community be spared some of these punishments, and was granted some. Al-Mizan: these reports are feeble: they go against the verse and the warnings after it, disagree among themselves, and many place the prayer at Ḥurrah of Banū Muʿāwiyah in Medina, after the Hijrah, though the sūrah was revealed in Mecca before it. The one report he would prefer, from Shaddād b. Aws, does not tie the prayer to this verse, and that prayer was in the early days of Islam, before the sūrah was revealed. → Narrations
Verse 91 (Allah has not revealed anything to a mortal): Al-Suddī names a Jew called Finḥāṣ, and Saʿīd b. Jubayr a Jewish scholar, Mālik b. al-Ṣayf, who said it in anger when the Prophet reproached corpulent scholars. Al-Mizan: the details of the verse leave no doubt that it answers the Jews, and the Jews were not out of reach of a Meccan sūrah; the words reported from Finḥāṣ differ too much from the verse. → Commentary on verse 91 · Narrations
Verse 93: ʿIkrimah says or says: It has been revealed to me concerns Musaylimah, and others say I will reveal the like of what Allah has revealed concerns ʿAbd-Allāh b. Saʿd b. Abī Sarḥ, the scribe who altered the revelation, apostatized, and was pardoned at the conquest of Mecca at ʿUthmān's request. Al-Mizan's view: the Musaylimah reading does not match the theme of the verse, and his claim came after the Hijrah, while the sūrah is Meccan; the third clause promises something in the future, while Ibn Abī Sarḥ's claim was in the present, so it relates the claim of some Arab polytheist. The authentic narrations place Ibn Abī Sarḥ's story in Medina, and the verse is so uniform with the next that part of it cannot have been revealed in Medina. → Commentary on verse 93 · Narrations
Verse 122: Zayd b. Aslam says it was revealed about ʿAmmār b. Yāsir; Ibn ʿAbbās and Zayd, about ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb in contrast with Abū Jahl. Al-Mizan: the context suggests that the verse is not about particular individuals. → Narrations
Verse 141 (do not act extravagantly): Imam al-Ṣādiq names a man of the Anṣār who gave away his whole harvest, and Ibn Jurayj says the verse was revealed about Thābit b. Qays b. Shammās. Al-Mizan: the verse was revealed in Mecca, so this is matching and applying the verse to the man's conduct (jary), not its occasion. → 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.