Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Medina, plainly: the sūrah concerns the friendship of some believers in Medina with the disbelievers of Mecca, the women who emigrated to Medina, and the pledge of allegiance of believing women. → Introduction
Verses 1–3, Ḥāṭib b. Abī Baltaʿa: Al-Mizan's view: the verses show that some of the Emigrants were secretly offering friendship to the polytheists of Mecca to protect the relatives and children they had left there, and what is historically related confirms that they were revealed about Ḥāṭib b. Abī Baltaʿa, who sent a secret letter to Mecca telling of the Prophet's resolve to march on it. Narrations (Tafsīr al-Qummī, and Imam ʿAlī) relate how Gabriel informed the Prophet and ʿAlī, with al-Zubayr (and al-Miqdād), took the letter from the woman carrying it. In ʿAlī's narration ʿUmar asked leave to kill Ḥāṭib, and the Prophet said he had fought at Badr and God may have said to the people of Badr, "Do as you wish, for I have forgiven you." Al-Mizan: that part of the report needs critical scrutiny and does not stand: the Prophet applied the penalty to Misṭaḥ b. Athāthah, a veteran of Badr, after the slander, and these very verses censure all the believers for what one of them did. → Commentary on verse 1 · Narrations · Key Debate
Verse 8: Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr reports that it was revealed when her polytheist mother came to her seeking help, while Quraysh were making the truce with the Prophet at al-Ḥudaybiyyah, and she asked whether she should keep ties with her. Al-Mizan rejects Qatādah's claim that the verse was abrogated by . → Narrations · Commentary on verse 8
Verses 10–11: Al-Mizan's view: the content shows verse 10 was revealed after the Treaty of al-Ḥudaybiyyah, which provided for returning men who came from Mecca, not women. Ibn ʿAbbās reports that while the Prophet was still at al-Ḥudaybiyyah, Sabʿah bint al-Ḥārith al-Aslamiyyah came as a Muslim and her disbelieving husband demanded her back, and the verse came down; al-Jubbāʾī tells of Umm Kulthūm bint ʿUqbah b. Abī Muʿayṭ, whose brothers asked for her return and were refused because the treaty concerned men, not women. Al-Mizan: the same is transmitted in many Sunni reports. → Commentary on verse 10 · Narrations
Verse 12: Imam al-Ṣādiq reports that it was revealed when the women came to pledge allegiance to the Prophet after the men, at the conquest of Mecca. Al-Mizan: such reports are extensively transmitted (mustafīḍah) through Shia and Sunni chains. → 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.