Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca, as the themes and context of its verses indicate. → Introduction
Verse 12 (and that receptive ears might remember it): Narrations from Buraydah and from ʿAlī say the verse was revealed after the Prophet told ʿAlī that God had commanded him to bring him close and teach him, so that he might understand; in ʿAlī's version the Prophet adds: "you are the listening ear for my knowledge." Makḥūl reports that when the verse was revealed the Prophet said he had asked his Lord to grant him a receptive ear; Makḥūl adds that ʿAlī used to say he never forgot anything he heard from the Prophet. Al-Mizan notes that this meaning is narrated through many chains of both Sunni and Shia sources. → 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.