The Flow of the Qur’an (al-Jary)

In his commentary on al-Fātiḥah the ʿAllāmah sets out a principle he calls the “flow” (jary) of the Qur'an: a verse is applied wherever its meaning applies. He takes the term from the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt, who said that the Qur'an “runs along as run the sun and the moon”. Because the Qur'an was revealed as guidance for all the worlds, a verse is not confined to the person or event it came down about: wherever the qualities it praises or condemns are found, it applies. So a narration that applies a verse to the Imams or to their enemies usually points to its most perfect instance, not to its only meaning; and many reports of the “occasion” of a verse are only applications of it to an event.

There are, he says, perhaps hundreds of such narrations, and he quotes them only where they help explain a verse. This page brings together the passages where he explains the principle and the places where he uses it. In the commentary, each of these places is marked The flow of the Qur'an and links back here.

The principle in al-Mizan’s words

The term “flow” ()

Narrations from Imam al-Ṣādiq say that the straight path is the Leader of the Faithful (ʿAlī), and the imam whose obedience is obligatory.

Al-Mizan: Such traditions are based on the “flow” of the Qur'an, that is, applying the Qur'an wherever it is applicable. The term, which he uses often in the book, is taken from the traditions of the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt. → Read in the commentary

Why a verse is not confined to its occasion ()

Imam al-Bāqir, asked about the exterior and interior of the Qur'an, says that it “runs along as run the sun and the moon”.

Al-Mizan: The Imams apply a verse to everything it can be applied to, because the Qur'an was revealed as guidance for all the worlds: its teachings are not limited to a time or place, and the occasion of a verse does not restrict its general import. If it praises or condemns some people, it is for qualities that are found in others too, and wherever they are found the verse applies. → Read in the commentary

The traditions of “flow” ()

Traditions, perhaps in the hundreds, apply various verses to the Imams or to their enemies.

Al-Mizan: These are called the traditions of “flow”. Having explained the principle, he does not include them in the book except where they are needed to explain a verse or for a discussion. → Read in the commentary

“It runs along as run the sun and the moon” ()

Imam al-Bāqir: the Qur'an's exterior is its revelation and its interior its interpretation; some of it has passed and some has not yet come; it runs along as run the sun and the moon.

Al-Mizan: For the revealed word, this means applying a verse to every situation in which its import comes true, which is called the flow of the Qur'an. Be with the truthful () was addressed first to the believers present when it was revealed, and applies to every believer after them until the Day of Resurrection. → Read in the commentary

Occasions are one of many applications ()

The verses fit the reported occasion: Jewish scholars wanted to replace stoning with flogging for two married persons of standing who had committed adultery, and asked the Prophet's ruling.

Al-Mizan: Yet the verses are not restricted to their occasion. This holds for every verse revealed on a particular occasion: the event of its revelation is only one of its many applications, because the Qur'an is a comprehensive and everlasting Book, not confined to a time or place or to a particular group or event (; ). → Read in the commentary

An occasion does not restrict a verse ()

The same reports of the occasion of the verses forbidding alliance with the Jews and Christians.

Al-Mizan: Such events cannot particularize or restrict a verse's generality. If verses were restricted by their occasions without warrant in their wording, the Qur'an would have died with those about whom they were revealed and could not be cited for any later event, an idea that neither the Book, the Sunnah nor reason approves. → Read in the commentary

The Qur'an's addresses are never personal ()

Some exegetes object that, since the whole sūrah argues against the polytheists, when they say: Allah has not revealed anything to a mortal cannot refer to the Jews.

Al-Mizan: The verses do not argue against the polytheists as particular individuals: whenever the Qur'an addresses a person or group, it addresses them for a quality in them, and its addresses are never personal, so its audience is anyone who denies all or some of these principal beliefs. → Read in the commentary

Matching a verse to an event ()

Ibn ʿAbbās relates the command to put on adornment to those who circumambulated the House naked, and Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah to things the pre-Islamic Arabs made unlawful, such as clothes.

Al-Mizan: These narrations match the verse with the event, as opposed to interpreting the verse by the event; this is how most narrations should be viewed. → Read in the commentary

Where al-Mizan applies it

2. Al-Baqarah

• () A narration from the fifth or sixth Imam: whoever earns evil… are those who deny the wilāyah of the Leader of the Faithful. Al-Mizan: The traditions are based on the flow of the Qur'an and fit the verse to one of its best examples: God counts love of the Prophet's family as a good deed (). → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: Those to whom We have given the Book are the Imams. Al-Mizan: Based on the flow of the Qur'an, it gives the best example of those to whom God has given the Book. → Read
• () Many Shia traditions say wherever you are, Allah will bring you all together was revealed about the companions of al-Qāʾim. Al-Mizan: Some of those traditions say it is applied to them according to the flow of the Qur'an. → Read
• () Imams al-Ṣādiq and al-Bāqir: those who conceal the clear proofs means “us” (the Imams, who must make clear who comes after them); another report: the People of the Book. Al-Mizan: All these traditions are based on the flow of the Qur'an and its application; the verse itself is general. → Read
• () Imams al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq: the near of kin are the relatives of the Prophet. Al-Mizan: It is an application of this verse, in the light of the verse on loving the near relatives (). → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir, as reported by Jābir: seek bounty from your Lord means seeking forgiveness from your Lord. Al-Mizan: The tradition takes “bounty” in its generality and explains it by its best example. → Read

3. Āl ʿImrān

• () Traditions say that those firmly rooted in knowledge are the progeny of Muḥammad. Al-Mizan: All this is part of the flow of the Qur'an: applying the verses wherever they fit perfectly. → Read
• () Verses on fighting, hypocrisy and sin, applied at ever finer levels as one advances on the spiritual journey. Al-Mizan: Their finest application is when God's most perfect and beloved servants apply those verses to themselves, thinking in their love of God that they have fallen short of their duty to Him. → Read
• () Ibn ʿAbbās reports that Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends was revealed about Helpers who kept company with certain Jews. Al-Mizan: The tradition has applied the verse to that story; it is not its occasion. The Qur'an's “unbelievers” is wider than the People of the Book, and a verse revealed about that story would have been the one forbidding friendship with the Jews and Christians. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq applies sitting on the right and on the left to a guiding angel and a tempting Satan at the heart's two ears; other traditions apply it to the two recording angels. Al-Mizan: The two sets of traditions do not conflict: the verse says only that there are two watchers, and does not say whether they are angels only, or angels and satans, so it may be applied to either. → Read
• () Conflicting traditions say the verse was revealed about various disputes over land or a sale. Al-Mizan: The verse explains the reason for the verse before it; at most these traditions apply the verse to those events, and cannot be accepted as the circumstances of its revelation. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq explains the covenant as made with the people of every prophet, who did not keep it. Al-Mizan: The tradition applies the verse to a particular situation, so it does not conflict with the commentary that the covenant was made with the prophets together with their peoples. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: those who follow the pleasure of God are the Imams, and those who bring upon themselves God's wrath are those who rejected the right of ʿAlī and the Imams. Al-Mizan: It is based on the flow of the Qur'an, and applies the verse to its most prominent example. → Read
• () Numerous traditions give occasions of revelation for these verses. Al-Mizan: He leaves them out, because they are evidently people's attempts to apply the verses to various events, not real occasions of revelation. → Read

4. Al-Nisāʾ

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq (Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad): then if you find in them maturity of intellect, make over to them their property means that if you see them loving the progeny of Muḥammad, raise them up in grade. Al-Mizan: It is based on the flow of the Qur'an, of the esoteric meaning of the Book: the Imams are the fathers of the believers, and believers who cannot reach them are orphans of knowledge, to be raised in degree by being taught true knowledge, the inheritance of their fathers. → Read
• () ʿIkrimah reports that And all married women except those whom your right hands possess was revealed about a woman called Maʿādhah who left her elderly husband. Al-Mizan: Such stories purporting to describe the occasion of a verse, especially those about parts or clauses of a verse, are merely the narrators' attempts to fit events to verses; they do not give the real reasons of revelation. → Read
• () Ibn Shahrāshūb narrates from al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq that That is Allah's grace; He grants it to whom He pleases and do not covet that by which Allah has made some of you excel others were revealed about ʿAlī. Al-Mizan: This tradition is based on the principle of the flow of the Qur'an; in other words, it points to an application of the verses. → Read
• () Abū Sālih narrates from Abu al-ʿAbbās that the companion at your side means the companion on a journey. Al-Mizan: Probably this explanation of the companion looks at one of its applications. → Read
• () Many reports through Sunni chains say that these verses were revealed about the Jews. Al-Mizan: The context may support this, but such reports more probably merely apply the verses to a known situation rather than describe the actual reason of revelation, as with most such reports; so he does not quote them. → Read
• () Ibn ʿAbbās and al-Suddī report that the verses were revealed about particular Jewish leaders, such as Rifāʿah b. Zayd b. al-Ṭābūt and Mālik b. al-Sayf. Al-Mizan: The verses were revealed about the Jews, but these reasons of revelation are no more than attempts to apply the verses to some known persons, as with most such traditions. → Read
• () al-Qummī writes that the signs in those who disbelieve in Our signs are the Leader of the Faithful and the Imams. Al-Mizan: It is based on the principle of the flow of the Qur'an. → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir, as reported by Zurārah: in make over trusts to their owners, God commands the Imam to hand over the trust to the Imam coming after him. Al-Mizan: This interpretation is based on the flow of the Qur'an: the verse was revealed about the general administration of justice and giving everyone his due, and so it applies also to the imamate. → Read
• () Many stories are reported as the reason of revelation of the verse on obeying those vested with authority. Al-Mizan: Anyone who ponders them will have no doubt that all are mere attempts by the narrators to apply the verse to one view or situation, so he does not quote them. → Read
• () Other traditions apply But no! by your Lord! they do not believe… submit with total submission to the wilāyah of ʿAlī or of the Imams of Ahl al-Bayt. Al-Mizan: They give examples of applying a verse to one of its prominent models; the verse certainly applies to God, His Messenger and the Imams of Ahl al-Bayt, and continues in them. → Read
• () Narrations from the Imams explain the grace of Allah upon you and His mercy as the Messenger of God and the Commander of the Believers, or as the Messenger and the wilāyah of the Imams. Al-Mizan: These traditions are based on the flow of the Qur'an and explain divine grace and mercy in terms of messengership and imamate; the last one, which names the Messenger as the mercy, is more in keeping with the Qur'an (). → Read
• () Many Sunni traditions, such as one from ʿIkrimah, name Meccan men who went out with the polytheists to Badr as those about whom those whom the angels cause to die while they are unjust to their souls was revealed. Al-Mizan: Apparently all these are attempts to apply the verses to suitable incidents, yet it is a good application; they show that there were hypocrites in Mecca both before and after the hijrah. → Read
• () Ibn ʿAbbās says that whoever goes forth from his house emigrating was revealed about Aktham b. Sayfī, and that it is “particular (and) general”. Al-Mizan: That is, it was revealed for Aktham in particular and then applies to others in general; but it is hard to tell whom it was revealed about, and the traditions are probably the narrators' attempts to apply the verse to this or that person. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: goodness in who enjoins charity or goodness means giving a loan. Al-Mizan: It is based on the flow of the verse and describes a relevant example. → Read
• () Many traditions give diverse reasons of revelation for these verses. Al-Mizan: He does not quote them, because apparently they are based on the flow of the Qur'an, which people have used to fit the verses to likely events. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: the one in whom every one of the People of the Book must believe before his death is the Messenger of God. Al-Mizan: Its apparent meaning goes against the context, which is about Jesus, but it can be justified by the flow of the Qur'an: after Muhammad's coming, a person of the Book believes in Jesus only by believing first in Muhammad, who will be a witness over them. → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir, as reported by Jābir: everyone of every religion, of the earlier or the later people, sees the Messenger of God and the Commander of the Believers when dying. Al-Mizan: The tradition is obviously based on the flow of the Qur'an; besides, it may not be meant as an exegesis of the verse but as a separate matter mentioned in connection with it. → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir recites But Allah bears witness by what He has revealed to you with the words “about ʿAlī”. Al-Mizan: It is based on the flow of the Qur'an and applies the verse to a proper example, since some verses were revealed about the wilāyah of ʿAlī; it does not mean that the Qur'an was altered, nor is it a particular reading of the verse. → Read

5. Al-Māʾidah

• () Ibn ʿAbbās says that no verse beginning O you who believe! was revealed without ʿAlī being its chief and head; other traditions quote al-Riḍā: “There is not in the Qur'an O you who believe! except about us.” Al-Mizan: This hadith is based on the flow of the Qur'an, or it describes the esoteric meaning of the revelation. → Read
• () Reports, such as one from ʿĀmir, say the verse on hunting with trained dogs was revealed when ʿAdiyy b. Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī asked the Prophet about the prey of dogs. Al-Mizan: Apparently, these and similar traditions are an attempt to fit some events on the verse, and an inconclusive one: the verse answers their question with a comprehensive principle for telling the lawful from the unlawful. → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir: the esoteric interpretation of whoever denies faith, his work indeed is forfeited is “whoever denies the wilāyah of ʿAlī; and ʿAlī is the faith.” Al-Mizan: This is the esoteric meaning; the tradition may also be based on the “flow of the Qur'an”, for the Prophet called ʿAlī “the whole of faith” when he went out to fight ʿAmr b. ʿAbd Wadd at the Battle of the Trench. → Read
• () Reports from ʿIkrimah, Ibn ʿAbbās and others connect these verses with particular exchanges between the Prophet and the Jews: over the law of stoning, their claim to be the sons of Allah, and their denial of any messenger after Moses. Al-Mizan: Like most reports of occasions, these are mere attempts to fit some occurrences on a verse and then claim it was revealed for that reason; the verses most probably have a general connotation. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq says a man who waylays and robs another in a Muslim town is covered by the verse on those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger; Sunni reports say it was revealed about the polytheists, or about the ʿArniyyīn of Bujaylah. Al-Mizan: The verse, with its generality, supports the tradition of al-Kāfī, and the occasion of revelation does not restrict the apparent meaning of a verse. → Read
• () al-Qummī reports the Imam saying that seek means of nearness to Him means “Come near God through the Imam”; Ibn Shahrāshūb reports the Leader of the Faithful saying, “I am the means of nearness to Him.” Al-Mizan: That is, through obedience to the Imam; it is based on the flow of the Qur'an and applies the verse to its best import. The two narratives may also be a sort of interpretation. → Read
• () ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUmar reports that whoever repents after his iniquity and reforms was revealed when a woman whose hand had been cut off for theft asked the Prophet whether she could repent. Al-Mizan: The tradition is in the style of application and looks at the verse's connection with the preceding one; obviously both verses were revealed together. → Read
• () Another report, from Ibn ʿAbbās, connects these verses with the blood money between Banū al-Naḍīr and Banū Qurayẓah. Al-Mizan: The report of the stoning case fits the context better; it is not unlikely that this one is an attempt to apply the story to the Qur'an, as with many reports of occasions: the narrator found it applicable to life is for life () and took all the connected verses as revealed about it. → Read
• () Ibn ʿAbbās says whoever did not judge by what Allah revealed, those are they that are the unbelievers … the unjust … the transgressors were revealed especially about the Jews. Al-Mizan: The three verses are unrestricted and nothing justifies restricting them; the place of application does not change the generality of the words. Besides, the third verse concerns the Christians. → Read
• () Reported occasions say the verses were revealed about pacts of mutual help between some Arab tribes and the Jews and Christians. Al-Mizan: Most of those traditions, apart from being weak, are merely attempts to apply historic events to verses that appear to have some relevance to them. → Read
• () Reports from ʿUbādah b. al-Ṣāmit, Ibn ʿAbbās and others say these verses (in one report, the seventeen verses ) were revealed when ʿUbādah renounced his pact with the Jews while ʿAbdullāh b. Ubayy held on to his. Al-Mizan: Such “reasons of revelation” are the personal opinions of exegetes who applied the stories to verses that seemed somehow relevant; the stories do not explain why the verses mention the Christians. The narrator applied the story to the verses, and not properly. → Read
• () ʿIkrimah says Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends was revealed about the treachery of Banū Qurayẓah, and about some Companions who corresponded with the Jews hoping for loans and benefits. Al-Mizan: There is no difficulty in it, as it takes wilāyah as love and affinity. If that was really the occasion, the verses are still unrestricted and apply to similar situations; if the tradition is merely an application, the case is clear. → Read
• () Majmaʿ al-bayān reports, from ʿAmmār, Ḥudhayfah, Ibn ʿAbbās and Imams al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq, that the people He shall love are ʿAlī and his companions who fought the pledge-breakers, the deviators and the heretics. Al-Mizan: What al-Ṭabrisī wrote fits ʿAlī, who is without doubt the best example of the verse's attributes; but applying it to the whole group who were with him at the Camel and Ṣiffīn is questionable, since many of them changed afterwards, while He shall love them and they shall love Him admits no exception. → Read
• () Qatādah and others say the verse refers to the group God raised with Abū Bakr to fight those who turned back from Islam and refused zakāt. Al-Mizan: The wording of the report shows it is merely an application based on personal opinion; what history records of some who fought in those battles leaves no room to apply He shall love them and they shall love Him to them. → Read
• () Reports from Ibn ʿAbbās and Zayd b. Aslam say Do not forbid (yourselves) the good things was revealed about a man who forbade himself meat, and about ʿAbdullāh b. Rawāḥah, who forbade himself a meal over a guest. Al-Mizan: Possibly these are the narrators' attempts to fit an event on the verse, which is very common in reports of occasions; it is also possible for one verse to have several occasions. → Read

6. Al-Anʿām

• () Al-Qummī reports from Imam al-Bāqir that And if their turning away is hard on you… was revealed when the Prophet grieved that al-Ḥārith b. ʿĀmir b. Nawfal would not accept Islam. Al-Mizan: The tradition is weak and conflicts with the many traditions that the sūrah was revealed all together; it may be interpreted to mean that the cause had appeared before the sūrah was revealed and the verse pointed to it “by the way of application”. → Read
• () Narrations from Ibn Masʿūd, ʿIkrimah, Khabbāb and Salmān say that And do not drive away those who call their Lord… was revealed when Quraysh leaders asked the Prophet to send away the poor believers. Al-Mizan: Since the sūrah was revealed all together, these narrations are what he calls “application”: the Companions found the verse applicable to events of the Prophet's time and counted them as its occasions, not that it was revealed because of them. The purpose of the verse is the same while the stories differ. → Read
• () Many narrations say that the verses before And when those who believe in Our communications come to you… were revealed about the enemies of the Ahl al-Bayt. Al-Mizan: Apparently all these narrations are based on flow and application (of a verse to its best examples), or on the esoteric meaning, since the sūrah's revelation in Mecca all together rules them out as occasions of revelation. → Read
• () A narration from the Prophet, through Ibn ʿUmar, says that the keys of the unseen are five things that only God knows. Al-Mizan: If authentic, it does not contradict the general import of the verse, since the number is not meant literally; all five are future events, and the unseen has other applications besides these. → Read
• () Exegetes explain the chastisement from above you or from beneath your feet variously: tyrant rulers and lowly people, or modern warplanes, tanks and submarines. Al-Mizan: The expression in the verse can be applied to all these explanations, and similar chastisements sent down after its revelation can be applied to it; their common cause is the differences and divisions that appeared in the ummah. → Read
• () Narrations from the Prophet and Imam al-Bāqir apply those who engage in vain discourses about Our signs to those who insult an Imam or slander a Muslim, to the argumentative, to dissenters and to the story-teller. Al-Mizan: These narrations are broader than the content of the verse; they are applying its criterion to similar examples. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq says that the Knower of the unseen and the seen means what does not yet exist and what already exists. Al-Mizan: The hadith mentions the best-known examples of the unseen and the seen in our world; there are other examples of the unseen as well. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq applies We have already entrusted with it a people who are not disbelievers in it to the companions preserved for “the one who holds this matter”. Al-Mizan: The narration is based on jary (the verse having particular applications in different times). → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir applies the same words to the Prophet's Household, entrusted with the faith with which he was sent, who will never disbelieve in it. Al-Mizan: This narration too is an example of specific application (jary), like the previous one. → Read
• () Imam al-Kāẓim says that a dwelling-place and a repository “can be applied” to those whose faith is fixed and those to whom it is only entrusted, and many narrations in al-ʿAyyāshī and al-Qummī interpret the terms in this way. Al-Mizan: That narration makes clear that these narrations present a case of application and conformity (jary wa inṭibāq). → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir says that in Is he who was dead then We raised him to life and placed for him a light…, the light is an Imam whom one follows, and the one in darkness is one who does not know the Imam. Al-Mizan: This is an application of the verse (called jary); given its theme and context, the only plausible interpretation is that life means faith and light means God's guidance to true beliefs and righteous deeds. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq says that the uncleanness God lays on those who do not believe means doubt. Al-Mizan: This is a case of taṭbīq (application), where the hadith gives one instance and example of the term. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq says that a man of the Anṣār who gave away his whole harvest, leaving his family with nothing, is the one God described as extravagant in and do not act extravagantly. Al-Mizan: Since the verse was revealed in Mecca, the meaning is matching the verse with the man's behavior, not that it was revealed because of it. → Read
• () Ibn Jurayj says that And do not act extravagantly was revealed about Thābit b. Qays b. Shammās, who fed everyone from his palms until he had nothing left. Al-Mizan: The verse is Meccan, so it cannot include Thābit's act except by matching and applying it to a different context (jary wa inṭibāq). → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq explains Allah's is the conclusive argument as God asking His servant on the Day of Resurrection why he did not act on his knowledge, or why he did not learn. Al-Mizan: This is one miṣdāq (example, application) of the verse. → Read
• () ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn says that the indecencies, those which are apparent and those which are concealed are marrying one's stepmother and adultery. Al-Mizan: The narration should be taken as giving some of the examples and instances of the verse. → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir says of this is my path… and follow not (other) ways: “We are the way”, and whoever rejects them follows the other ways. Al-Mizan: This is an example of applying the verse to a different context (jary); it can be deduced by putting together () and (), and many Shia and Sunni narrations say that ʿAlī is the straight path. → Read
• () Narrations from Imam al-Bāqir and the Prophet say that the day when some of the signs of your Lord shall come is the rising of the sun from its setting point. Al-Mizan: Apparently the narration gives one particular application of the verse, though it could also be an interpretation of its general meaning; either way it refers to a day when God's wrath forces people to believe, and their belief will not avail them. → Read
• () Many Shia and Sunni narrations interpret Whoever brings a good deed, he shall have ten like it as fasting, prayer and the like. Al-Mizan: These narrations do not interpret the verse but present certain examples and applications of it, so he does not quote them. → Read

7. Al-Aʿrāf

• () Tafsīr al-Qummī: because they used to wrong Our signs means they used to reject the Imams. Al-Mizan: This interpretation presents some of the examples and applications of the verse. → Read
• () Imams al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq explain the garment of Godwariness as white clothes; Imam al-Bāqir also explains it as ʿafāf (chastity, self-restraint). Al-Mizan: These narrations give some examples and applications of the garment of Godwariness, which are also found in other narrations. → Read
• () The righteous servant (Imam Mūsá b. Jaʿfar): the indecency that people claim Allah has enjoined upon us is following wrongful leaders. Al-Mizan: This does not match the circumstances of the revelation, but after that period the best match for the verse is wrongful leaders and oppressive rulers, whose scholars made obeying them obligatory on the basis of verses like (); the narration is an application of the verse to the time after its revelation. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: Set your faces at every masjid refers to the qiblah. Al-Mizan: Given his exposition above, this narration too is an example of matching and applying the verse to a different context (jary wa inṭibāq). → Read
• () The righteous servant (Imam al-Kāẓim), writing to a man who called himself a skeptic, says that We did not find in most of them any covenant was revealed concerning the skeptics. Al-Mizan: The narration's application of the verse should be clear from his exposition above; al-ʿAyyāshī's version says it was revealed concerning an extreme skeptic. → Read
• () The Prophet says that people after him who will believe in a text written on paper are those meant by those who follow the light that has been sent down with him; other narrations take the “light” as Imam ʿAlī. Al-Mizan: The narration can be accepted as matching and applying the verse to a different context (jary wa inṭibāq); taking the light as Imam ʿAlī is likewise jary, or an inner layer of the verse's meaning (bāṭin). → Read
• () Some accounts say these verses were revealed about the poet Umayyah b. Abī al-Ṣalt al-Thaqafī. Al-Mizan: Since the verses of this sūrah were apparently revealed in Mecca, these accounts should be viewed as extensions and applications of the verse beyond its original context of revelation (taṭbīq). → Read

8. Al-Anfāl

• () Imam al-Bāqir: the vilest of beasts before Allah are the Banū ʿAbd al-Dār, who said they were blind, deaf and dumb toward what Muḥammad brought. Al-Mizan: The narration is of the kind that gives a specific example of the verse, although the verse itself is general and not limited to that situation. → Read
• () Tafsīr al-Qummī: “life” in that which gives you life means Paradise; Imam al-Ṣādiq: the verse was revealed about the wilāyah of ʿAlī. Al-Mizan: These two narrations are examples of specific applications of the verse; its import is general. → Read
• () Imams al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq, al-Kalbī and al-Zuhrī say that Do not betray Allah and the Messenger was revealed about Abū Lubābah, who signaled to the Banū Qurayẓah that they would be slaughtered and then repented. Al-Mizan: The story of Abū Lubābah's penitence is authentic and acceptable as an application of these two verses, but it happened long after Badr, while these verses refer to a situation shortly after the battle. → Read
• () Narrations explain Prepare against them what force you can as arrows, archery, horses, and even black dye. Al-Mizan: These narrations, like others of the same meaning, are applications of its meaning. → Read
• () A narration from the Prophet: others besides them, whom you do not know are the jinn, and Satan does not rob of his senses a man who keeps a battle-horse; other narrations link these words with horses tethered. Al-Mizan: This is an application of the verse, not in any way its meaning (tafsīr); the verse is clearly about human enemies, such as the faithless and the hypocrites. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: the peace in if they incline to peace is that they become loyal to “us” (the Imams). Al-Mizan: This is an example of the application of the verse. → Read

9. Al-Tawbah

• () Various Shia narrations from the Prophet's Household apply these verses to the circumstances of the advent of Imam al-Mahdī. Al-Mizan: This is an example of extending the meaning of the verses to a new context (al-jarī). → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir: the two excellences are dying in obedience to the Imam or being present at the Imam's reappearance, and the punishment awaited for the others is transformation or being slain at their hands. Al-Mizan: This is extending the verse to a new context (jarī) rather than explaining its meaning (tafsīr). → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: in the Knower of the sensible and the Unseen, the Unseen is what has yet to be and the sensible is what has already been. Al-Mizan: The Imam gives some examples of the meaning of the verse; the terms themselves are broader. → Read
• () al-Ḥasan and Ibn ʿAbbās give occasions for God does not lead any people astray: Muslims who died before any obligations were revealed, and the ransom taken at Badr. Al-Mizan: The two narrations apparently apply the principle of the verse to a specific situation rather than give genuine occasions of its revelation; the verse is connected to the two before it and was revealed with them. → Read

10. Yūnus

• () Ibn Shahrāshūb reports from ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbbās (from his father) and Zayd b. ʿAlī that Allah invites to the abode of peace refers to Paradise, and He guides whomever He wishes to a straight path to allegiance (wilāyah) to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. Al-Mizan: Though its chain is incomplete, it is either an example of extending the verse's meaning to a new context (jarī) or of the esoteric meaning (bāṭin) of the Qur'an; many other narrations have the same meaning. → Read

11. Hūd

• () Narrations from Abū al-Ḥasan and from Imam al-Ḥasan (in a sermon before Muʿāwiyah) say the Messenger of God is the one who stands on a manifest proof from his Lord, and ʿAlī is a witness of his own who follows him. Al-Mizan: Al-Ḥasan's words best attest to the explanation given of the verse: by describing ʿAlī as the “witness” he applies the general meaning of the verse to this specific case. → Read

12. Yūsuf

• () Narrations in al-Kāfī from Imams al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq say I and he who follows me refers to the Messenger of God, the Commander of the Faithful and the legatees after them, and to ʿAlī as the first to follow him in faith. Al-Mizan: The two narrations support his explanation of the verse; perhaps this is a case of the verse's general meaning being applied to a specific and exemplary context. → Read

13. Al-Raʿd

• () Many narrations report the Prophet saying, “I am the warner, and ʿAlī is the guide,” about You are only a warner, and there is a guide for every people. Al-Mizan: It means that the Prophet is the referent of the warner and ʿAlī, the Imam, the referent of the guide; it does not mean that “the warner” means the Prophet and “the guide” means ʿAlī, which would contradict the apparent meaning of the verse. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq says every Imam is a guide for the people of his time, and that a verse revealed about a man does not die with him but continues in those who remain, as it did in those who have passed. Al-Mizan: The verse refers to ʿAlī as an application of its meaning to a new instance (jarī), and applies in the same way to the rest of the Imams; this is what the traditions saying it was revealed about ʿAlī actually mean. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq says the muʿaqqibāt (guardian angels) before and behind a person are the righteous deeds that endure. Al-Mizan: The tradition apparently makes these deeds one of the things the word refers to: they protect their doer from the evil of the decree, though only through the angels charged with watching over him, which accords with his explanation of the verse. → Read
• () The Commander of the Faithful says the scum in the verse is the statements of heretics about the Qur'an, what profits the people is the revelation, and the earth is the human heart. Al-Mizan: The heretics' statements are their explanations of the Qur'an based on their own opinions, some of which are false; the verse itself is general and encompasses all falsehoods. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq says those who join what Allah has commanded to be joined was revealed about the relatives of the Family of Muḥammad but can also encompass one's own kin, and warns against saying a verse was revealed only about one matter. Al-Mizan: When verses have a general meaning they should not be confined to a single meaning, as the Qur'an has an outward and inward aspect; love of the Prophet's near relatives, made the reward of his mission (), is one of the instances of maintaining kinship. → Read
• () Narrations from the Prophet say those whose hearts find assurance in Allah's remembrance are those who love God, His Messenger and his family or companions, or the Household of the Prophet and their followers. Al-Mizan: All these are examples of “analogizing the specific to the general”: the Prophet, his pure family, his chosen companions and the believers are true embodiments of God's remembrance, but the verse is general and applies to any form of remembrance. → Read
• () A narration from Jābir has the Prophet say that God erases or increases the provisions of some, just as He diminishes or prolongs their lifespans. Al-Mizan: Given the verse's general scope, erasing and confirming provisions and lifespans are only instances of the general principle of effacing and confirming. → Read
• () ʿAlī reports the Prophet saying that almsgiving done correctly, kindness to parents and righteous deeds transform misery into felicity, prolong life and protect from harm. Al-Mizan: The narration only lists some examples of what the verse refers to, without going deeper into its meaning. → Read

14. Ibrāhīm

• () Narrations say the days of Allah are His blessings, trials and wonders; al-Qummī says they are three: the day of al-Qāʾim, the day of death and the day of resurrection. Al-Mizan: What is meant is an elucidation of His majestic days, not an exhaustive enumeration of His days. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq says that of the good tree the Messenger of God is the root, the Commander of the Faithful the branch, the Imams the twigs, their knowledge the fruit and their believing followers the leaves; other narrations arrange it differently. Al-Mizan: The narration takes the “good word” to be the Prophet, but it is about the application of the term, and the variety of the narrations about its application supports this. → Read
• () Narrations from the Imams and the Prophet apply Allah fortifies those who have faith with a firm word in the life of this world and in the Hereafter to the questioning in the grave and to Satan's attempt on the believer at death. Al-Mizan: Their apparent meaning takes “the Hereafter” as the grave; but since every steadfast being owes its stability to God, the barzakh and the Resurrection do not differ in this, and it is preferable to take the narrations as a form of application. → Read
• () The Commander of the Faithful says of those who have changed Allah's blessing with ingratitude: “We are the favor of God with which He blessed His servants.” Al-Mizan: This is a matter of the flow and applicability of the verse. → Read
• () ʿAlī says those who changed God's blessing with ingratitude are the wicked of Quraysh, Banū Umayyah and Banū Makhzūm (ʿUmar and Ibn ʿAbbās name Banū al-Mughīrah and Banū Umayyah); in another report he says it is Quraysh, who belied the Prophet at Badr. Al-Mizan: The difference in his application of the verse shows that he is explaining its general applicability, not the reason for its revelation. → Read

15. Al-Ḥijr

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq says the known Day until which Iblīs is reprieved is the day the Qāʾim rises, or the day the Messenger of God slays him; another report says Iblīs dies between the two blasts of the trumpet. Al-Mizan: Narrations of the Ahl al-Bayt often interpret verses on the Resurrection as referring at times to the appearance of al-Mahdī, at times to the Return (rajʿah) and at times to the Resurrection: these days share the unveiling of truths though they differ in intensity, and the rule that applies to one extends to the others. → Read
• () The Prophet recited brothers, on couches facing one another about ʿAlī, al-Ḥasan, al-Ḥusayn, Ḥamzah and Jaʿfar, and again when he made ʿAlī his brother. Al-Mizan: The Prophet's recitation of the verse is merely from the perspective of flow and applicability, not that the verse was revealed specifically about the Ahl al-Bayt; its context does not fit that at all. → Read
• () Other reports say the verse was revealed about the people of Badr, or about various Companions: Abū Bakr and ʿUmar; Abū Bakr, ʿUmar and ʿAlī; or ten named Companions. Al-Mizan: Despite their variations, these are the narrators' applications of the verse, not explanations of its revelation; its context, among verses on God's decrees since the creation of Adam, the angels and Iblīs, suggests it was not revealed about any of them. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq and, from the Prophet, Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī say the percipient in There are indeed signs in that for the percipient are the perceptive; Imam al-Bāqir says they are the Imams of the family of Muḥammad, who know who is a believer and who a disbeliever. Al-Mizan: The narrations on this are abundant and corroborative, though this does not mean that the verse was revealed specifically about them. → Read

16. Al-Naḥl

• () A narration from the Prophet, through ʿUqbah b. ʿĀmir, describes a call before the Day of Judgment: The command of God has come, so do not hasten it. Al-Mizan: At most it shows that the coming of the Resurrection is one of the instances of the coming of God's edict, which no one doubts; that is different from the Resurrection being the intended meaning of the edict in the verse. → Read
• () Al-Nuʿmānī and al-Shaykh al-Mufīd report from Imam al-Ṣādiq that Allah's edict is coming! So do not seek to hasten it refers to the Imams' cause and the emergence of the Mahdī. Al-Mizan: This falls under applying a general verse to a specific instance, or is one of the symbolic explanations of the Qur'an. → Read
• () Narrations from Imams al-Bāqir, al-Ṣādiq and al-Riḍā say that the people of the reminder in So ask the people of the reminder if you do not know are the Prophet's Household. Al-Mizan: In its context the verse sends the polytheists to the People of the Book; taken on its own, it gives a general rule that anyone who does not know should ask those who know, and the epitome of such knowledge is the Household of the Messenger, whom he paired with the Qur'an in the tradition of the Two Weighty Things. → Read
• () Al-Qummī and Ibn Shahrāshūb report from the Imams that someone who enjoins justice and is on a straight path is the Commander of the Faithful and the Imams, or ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. Al-Mizan: These two narrations are specific instances of a general concept and are not related to the occasion of revelation. → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir says that They recognize the blessing of Allah and then deny it refers to those who were made aware of ʿAlī's guardianship (wilāyah) and denied it after the Prophet's passing. Al-Mizan: The narration applies a specific instance to a general principle: ʿAlī's guardianship was one of God's blessings that was recognized and then denied. → Read

17. Al-Isrāʾ

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: the two acts of mischief in the land are the killing of the Commander of the Faithful and the stabbing of al-Ḥasan, the great insolence is the killing of al-Ḥusayn, and the servants of mighty prowess are people God will send before the rising of the Qāʾim. Al-Mizan: Such narrations match the events of this nation with those of the Israelites, confirming the mass-transmitted saying that this nation will do what the Israelites did, “shoe for shoe”; they do not serve to interpret the verses, as their disagreement over what they match with the verses shows. → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir: this Qur'an guides to that which is most upright means it guides to belief in guardianship (wilāyah). Al-Mizan: This is an example of the flow (jary). It may mean guidance to the complete knowledge of the religion that the Imam has, which could also be the meaning of narrations saying the Qur'an guides to the Imam. → Read
• () The Prophet, citing and share with them in wealth and children, says the foul-mouthed person who does not care what he says or what is said about him is either of illegitimate birth or an associate of Satan. Al-Mizan: There are many narrations to this effect; they give instances and applications of the general meaning of the verse explained in the commentary. → Read
• () Zayd b. ʿAlī, from his father, and Imam al-Bāqir explain how God has preferred the children of Adam: he alone raises his food to his mouth with his hand, and he alone is created upright while other creatures are created bent. Al-Mizan: The two narrations mention some examples and instances of the preferment, as the Imam's words at the end of the first one show: “This is one preferment.” → Read

18. Al-Kahf

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: the severe punishment from Him is ʿAlī, with whom the Messenger of God fought his enemy. Al-Mizan: Ibn Shahr Āshūb narrates it from Imams al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq too. It is an application (taṭbīq), not exegesis (tafsīr). → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir, as reported by Abū Ḥamzah: And say: The truth is from your Lord, so whoever wills, let him believe is about guardianship (wilāyah) toward ʿAlī. Al-Mizan: This is the flow (jary) of the Qur'an. → Read
• () Many narrations from the Prophet and the Imams say the ever-abiding good works are the four glorifications; others say prayer, and others love for the People of the Household. Al-Mizan: All of them are along the lines of application, the Qur'an applying to its different instances; in the verse itself the words mean good works in general. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq, in narrations from al-Mufaḍḍal and Jābir: the fortified barrier is dissimulation (taqiyyah), an impregnable protection between the believers and their enemies. Al-Mizan: Both are examples of the Qur'an's continuing application (jary), not proper exegesis. → Read
• () In ʿUyūn akhbār al-Riḍā, Imam al-Riḍā applies those whose eyes were under a cover from My reminder to those who deny the guardianship of the Imams. Al-Mizan: This is an example of the Qur'an's continuing application (jary). → Read
• () Narrations from ʿAlī say the greatest losers in their deeds are the libertines of Quraysh, the People of the Book, or monks who shut themselves up in monasteries; another report says the Christians. Al-Mizan: All these traditions are like demonstrations of the Qur'an's continuing application (jary); the verses are addressed to the polytheists and fit idolaters best, so al-Qummī's view that the end of the passage was revealed about the Jews and applies to the Khārijites is not correct. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq, as reported by Abū Baṣīr: those who believe and do good deeds, their place of entertainment shall be the gardens of paradise was revealed about Abū Dharr, Salmān, Miqdād and ʿAmmār b. Yāsir. Al-Mizan: It must be taken as an application (jary); or it was revealed about the believers and the four were named as its best examples, since the sūrah is Meccan and Salmān became a believer in Medina. The chain is also not free of weakness. → Read
• () Ibn ʿAbbās reports that whoever hopes to meet his Lord … and not join anyone in the service of his Lord was revealed about Jundub b. Zuhayr, who was pleased when people praised his prayer, fasting and charity. Al-Mizan: This and similar reports that do not name him should be taken as the verse applying to the situation; it would be surprising for the end of a sūrah to be revealed for a reason all of its own. → Read

19. Maryam

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: he who has made a covenant with the Beneficent is one who holds fast to the guardianship of the Commander of the Faithful and the Imams after him; other narrations say it is bringing happiness to a believer, or performing the five prayers. Al-Mizan: Taken together, the narrations show that the covenant is true belief or a good deed that leads to salvation on the Day of Resurrection; the narrations give different instances (maṣādīq) of it. → Read

20. Ṭā Hā

• () Imam Mūsā b. Jaʿfar: speak to him a gentle word means address Pharaoh by his teknonym, Abū Muṣʿab. Al-Mizan: Explaining the gentle word as the teknonym is like giving an example, since it is obvious that the gentle word is not restricted to that. → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir: then continues to follow the right direction means to the guardianship (wilāyah) of the People of the Household; without it a lifetime of worship does not save a man. Al-Mizan: Although the verse comes among verses addressed to the Israelites, nothing restricts it to them: it applied to them through Moses' guardianship, and because it is general it guides people in the Prophet's time to his guardianship and after him to that of the Imams of his Household. → Read
• () Other narrations apply whoever follows My guidance and whoever turns away from My reminder to the guardianship of the People of the Household. Al-Mizan: These are cases of application (taṭbīq): narrations of the flow (jary), not exegesis as some have mistakenly supposed. → Read

21. Al-Anbiyāʾ

• () Imam al-Bāqir, as reported by Zurārah: the people of the reminder who are to be asked are the Imams. Al-Mizan: This is an application of the verse to a particular instance (jary); the verse's meaning is general, the “reminder” being the Qur'an, all scriptures or all divine teaching, of which the Imams are the foremost possessors. It is not exegesis by the occasion of revelation, since it would make no sense to refer the polytheists to the Prophet's Household, who were their enemies. → Read
• () The Prophet tells ʿAlī that those for whom the good has already gone forth from Us and the great fearful event shall not grieve them were revealed about him and his followers. Al-Mizan: This means either that they are particular applications of the verses (jary), or that the verses were revealed first and foremost about them; other narrations name other believers as applications too, such as one who recites the Qur'an or makes the call to prayer seeking God's reward. → Read
• () Prophetic narrations apply to those who love each other for God's sake, those who set out in the dark of night, and the emigrants. Al-Mizan: Many other people are named in narrations from the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt as applications of these verses. → Read

22. Al-Ḥajj

• () Abū Mālik reports that among people is the one who disputes about Allah without knowledge was revealed about al-Naḍr b. al-Ḥārith. Al-Mizan: This is apparently matching and applying the verse (taṭbīq), as with most reports about occasions of revelation. → Read
• () Al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī, as reported by al-Naḍr b. Mālik: the two adversaries who dispute about their Lord are “we and the Umayyads”; Imam al-Bāqir: those who disbelieve are those who disbelieve in the guardianship of ʿAlī. Al-Mizan: The hadith is an example of applying the verse to a particular instance (jary), and so is the next one. → Read
• () Majmaʿ al-bayān reports from Imam al-Ṣādiq that the advantages the pilgrims witness are those of the hereafter: pardon and forgiveness. Al-Mizan: Naming one kind of advantage does not contradict the more general meaning, as the preceding narration, which says “both” worldly and otherworldly, shows. → Read
• () Some reports say the permission to fight was revealed only about the Muhājirīn; Imam al-Bāqir says was revealed about the Muhājirīn and also applies to Muḥammad's Household, and that those who will enjoin good and forbid evil () are the Imams; and Imams al-Ṣādiq and al-Kāẓim explain the deserted well and the palace raised high () as a silent and a speaking Imam. Al-Mizan: If those reports are authentic, restricting the verse to the Muhājirīn is the narrators' own interpretation; the verse is unconditional and the law of jihad is universal. The same holds for , and the narrations about the Imams are to be read in the same light. → Read

23. Al-Muʾminūn

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq explains vain things as a false accusation against you, which you should turn from, or as singing and instruments of amusement; Imam ʿAlī: any speech without remembrance of God is vain. Al-Mizan: The two narrations of Imam al-Ṣādiq give examples and applications of laghw; the one from ʿAlī generalizes the term by analyzing its meaning. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: one who withholds even a little of the zakāh is meant by My Lord, send me back; haply I may do good in that which I have left. Al-Mizan: What is meant is to match the verse with one who withholds the zakāh, not that it was originally revealed to describe that case only. → Read

24. Al-Nūr

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq, from his father, explains the parable of light as God's guidance in the believer's heart: the niche is his inside, the glass his heart, the blessed tree the believer himself. Al-Mizan: The narration agrees with the commentary; for some parts of the verse, such as its oil almost gives light and light upon light, the Imam mentions only some of their applications. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: the parable of light is one God made for the Prophet and the Imams, His proofs and signs by which people find their way. Al-Mizan: The narration gives some instances of the verse, its best applications being the Prophet and the pure ones of his Household; the verse is more general and includes other prophets, their successors and the saints, though not all believers. → Read
• () Narrations from Imams al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq match the niche, the lamp, the glass and the tree with the Prophet's heart, ʿAlī, Fāṭimah, al-Ḥasan, al-Ḥusayn, Abraham and the Imams one after another. Al-Mizan: These are examples of matching and applying the verse (taṭbīq), not interpreting its meaning (tafsīr), as their differences in how they match it show. → Read
• () The Prophet: the olive tree, neither eastern nor western is the heart of Abraham, who was neither a Jew nor a Christian. Al-Mizan: The narration mentions one application and example of the verse; Shia narrations from the Imams say the same. → Read
• () The Prophet, and Imam al-Bāqir: the houses which Allah has permitted to be raised are the houses of the prophets, and the house of ʿAlī and Fāṭimah is among them, one of their best. Al-Mizan: These narrations give some applications and examples of the verse. → Read

25. Al-Furqān

• () More than one narration says that “the way” in Would that I had taken a way with the Messenger! is ʿAlī. Al-Mizan: These narrations refer to a hidden layer of the Qur'an; they could also be an application of the verse, but they are not its interpretation. → Read
• () Ibn Sīrīn says He it is Who has created man from the water was revealed about the Prophet and ʿAlī, related by blood and by marriage; Ibn ʿAbbās says the disbeliever is a partisan against his Lord is Abū Jahl. Al-Mizan: Both are more probably cases of jary wa taṭbīq: stating a particular application in conformity with the universal sense of the verse. → Read
• () Ibn Masʿūd reports that the Prophet named the greatest sins, and that God then confirmed this by revealing And they who do not call upon another god with Allah…. Al-Mizan: Perhaps what is meant is that the account matches and conforms to the verse, not that it was the cause of the verse's revelation. → Read

26. Al-Shuʿarāʾ

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: the necks that would remain humbled are those of the Umayyads, and the sign is the cry from the sky in the name of the Master of the Command. Al-Mizan: Given the context of the verse, this is clearly not its interpretation but an application of it (jary). → Read
• () Tafsīr al-Qummī says that a tongue of truthfulness among posterity is the Commander of the Faithful. Al-Mizan: This could be either the interpretation of the verse or an application of it. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq, asked about And as for the poets, those who go astray follow them, says: “These are the storytellers.” Al-Mizan: The storytellers are one example and application of the general meaning he gave in his exposition of the verse. → Read

27. Al-Naml

• () Tafsīr al-Qummī (also narrated in Jawāmiʿ al-jāmiʿ from the Infallibles) says that His servants whom He has chosen are Muḥammad's family. Al-Mizan: The context shows that the verse refers to the prophets mentioned before it; if the narration is authentic, it matches the verse to an application beyond its context, by extension (al-jary wa al-inṭibāq). → Read
• () Ibn ʿAbbās says that His servants whom He has chosen are Muḥammad's Companions. Al-Mizan: Like the previous narration, if it is authentic it would again be a case of extending the verse to other applications. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: He Who answers the distressed one when he calls upon Him was revealed about the Qāʾim from Muḥammad's family, who is the distressed one. Al-Mizan: This narration too is an example of application; the verse itself is more general than the meaning it suggests. → Read
• () Tafsīr al-Qummī says that the “good” in Whoever brings good… is Imam ʿAlī's wilāyah, and the “evil” is enmity toward him. Al-Mizan: This gives one of the applications of the verse (called jary), not an explanation of its meaning; there are many other narrations along these lines. → Read

28. Al-Qaṣaṣ

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: We desired to bestow a favor upon those who were oppressed in the land, and to make them the Imams refers to the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt, and “this verse applies to us till the Day of Resurrection”. Al-Mizan: The traditions that identify this verse as alluding to the Imams are numerous, and this tradition shows that all of them are examples of applying the verse to them (al-jary wa al-taṭbīq). → Read
• () Imam al-Riḍā (and, in Baṣāʾir al-Darajāt, Imam al-Ṣādiq): he who follows his low desires without any guidance from Allah is one who takes his desires as his religion without guidance from the Imams of guidance. Al-Mizan: This report must be understood either as applying the verse's meaning to the Imams (al-jary) or as reflecting the verse's inner meaning. → Read
• () Tafsīr al-Qummī says that your Lord creates and chooses what He pleases. To choose is not theirs means that God chooses the Imam, and choosing him is not the people's prerogative. Al-Mizan: This is an application (al-jary) of the verse's meaning to a valid instance of it, based on the necessity of God's appointing an infallible leader as He appoints the prophet. → Read
• () Tafsīr al-Qummī says that We will draw forth from among every nation a witness means drawing forth an Imam from this nation. Al-Mizan: This too is an application (al-jary) of the verse's meaning to a valid instance of it. → Read

29. Al-ʿAnkabūt

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq: those who have been given knowledge are the Imams. Al-Mizan: This is an example of jary, matching the verse with a clear application of it; the next narration, in which Imam al-Bāqir says they are “you”, shows this. → Read

30. Al-Rūm

• () Tafsīr al-Qummī and Imam al-Ṣādiq explain Corruption has appeared in land and sea as the death of animals on land and in the sea when rain is withheld because of much sinning. Al-Mizan: This interpretation is a case of applying the verse to an external referent (al-jary). → Read

31. Luqmān

• () Imam Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar: in His blessings, the apparent and the hidden, the apparent blessing is the manifest Imam and the hidden blessing the hidden Imam. Al-Mizan: This interpretation is a case of applying the verse to an external referent (al-jary). → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir: the apparent blessing is the Prophet and the knowledge of God and His unity that he brought; the hidden blessing is wilāyah of the Prophet's Household. Al-Mizan: This is of the same kind as the previous narration: an application of the verse to an external referent. → Read
• () Ibn ʿAbbās reports from the Prophet that the apparent blessing is Islam, one's creation and sustenance, and the hidden blessing is God's concealing one's wicked deeds. Al-Mizan: Like the previous two traditions, this too is a case of applying the verse to an external referent. → Read

33. Al-Aḥzāb

• () Ibn ʿAbbās says the verse was revealed when Zaynab bint Jaḥsh refused to marry Zayd ibn Ḥārithah; Ibn Zayd says it was revealed about Um Kulthūm bint ʿUqbah, whom the Prophet married to Zayd. Al-Mizan: These two narrations read more as applications of the verse. → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir: We offered the trust… is the wilāyah of the Commander of the Faithful. Al-Mizan: This means the divine wilāyah, making God one's guardian in all matters, whose door ʿAlī was the first of the nation to open; it does not merely mean loving ʿAlī or believing in his imamate, and narrations that present that view are examples of the application of the verse. → Read

34. Sabaʾ

• () Imam al-Bāqir, in a narration from Abū al-Jārūd, says until when fear is removed from their hearts concerns the inhabitants of the heavens, who had heard no revelation since Jesus and fainted at the sound of the Qur'an being revealed to Muḥammad, until Gabriel removed the terror from their hearts. Al-Mizan: A similar account is related from the Prophet in Sunni narrations; in any case, the narration is an instance of the application of the verse and not its sole root interpretation. → Read

35. Fāṭir

• () Narrations relate He adds to His creation as He wills to a beautiful voice that adds to the beauty of the Qur'an (the Prophet, via Imam al-Riḍā), to destiny and divine decree as two creations of God (Imam al-Ṣādiq), and to a handsome face, a beautiful voice and beautiful hair (the Prophet, via Abū Hurayrah). Al-Mizan: The last three narrations are specific examples to which this verse can be applied. → Read

37. Al-Ṣāffāt

• () Tafsīr al-Qummī says Gather those who were unjust refers to those who were unjust regarding the right of the family of Muḥammad, and that their associates means those similar to them. Al-Mizan: The first part of this narration is an example of an application of the verse. → Read

39. Al-Zumar

• () Ibn ʿAbbās reports that and those who take guardians besides Him was revealed about three tribes, the ʿĀmir, the Kināna and the Banū Salama, who worshipped idols and claimed that the angels were God's daughters. Al-Mizan: The verse is general and encompasses all idolaters, and says nothing about the angels being God's daughters; the report is an example of applying a general verse to a specific situation (taṭbīq). → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir, on Are those who know equal to those who do not know?: “We are those who know, our enemies are those who do not know, and our followers (shīʿa) are those who possess intellect.” Al-Mizan: This interpretation is narrated via numerous chains from Imam al-Bāqir and Imam al-Ṣādiq, but it is an example of extending the meaning of the verse (jarī), not an explanation of it (tafsīr). → Read
• () Ibn ʿAbbās reports that Is he who is devout in the watches of the night… was revealed about ʿAmmār b. Yāsir; other reports say Ibn Masʿūd, ʿAmmār and Sālim, the freedman of Abū Ḥudhayfa, or, from Ibn ʿUmar, ʿUthmān. Al-Mizan: All of these narrations are examples of applying a general verse to specific instances (taṭbīq) rather than genuine occasions of revelation (nuzūl), as the sūrah was revealed in a single go. → Read
• () Imam al-Ṣādiq, in a narration from Abū Baṣīr, on those who stay clear of the worship of the Rebel and turn penitently to Allah: “You are they, for whoever obeys a tyrant has worshipped them.” Al-Mizan: This is an extension of the verse's meaning to a new issue (jarī). → Read
• () Zayd b. Aslam reports that the two verses were revealed about three men who said “There is no god but God” in the Age of Ignorance: Zayd b. ʿAmr b. Nufayl, Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī and Salmān al-Fārsī; other reports name Saʿīd b. Zayd, Abū Dharr and Salmān, or a man of the Helpers who freed seven slaves. Al-Mizan: All of these appear to be cases of applying narratives to the verses, rather than genuine occasions of revelation. → Read
• () Ibn ʿAbbās reports that Allah has sent down the best of discourses was revealed after people said to the Prophet, “If only you spoke to us!” Al-Mizan: This narration is an application of the general meaning of the verse to a specific instance (taṭbīq). → Read
• () Al-Ḥasakānī narrates from ʿAlī, on a man belonging entirely to one man: “I am that man who belongs entirely to God's Messenger”; al-ʿAyyāshī narrates it from Imam al-Bāqir. Al-Mizan: This represents an extension of the verse's meaning (jarī), “but the example given is universal”. → Read
• () Majmaʿ al-bayān says, narrating from the Imams of the Prophet's Household, that in He who brings the truth and he who confirms it the one who brought it is Muḥammad and the one who confirms it is ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib; it is also narrated from Abū Hurayra. Al-Mizan: This appears to be an extension of the verse's meaning (jarī), based on the verse's coda: It is they who are the Godwary. → Read
• () Some narrate that the one who confirmed it was Abū Bakr; another report says the one who brought it was Gabriel and the one who confirmed it was Muḥammad. Al-Mizan: Both are also cases of applying the general meaning of the verse to a specific instance, though in the second the context precludes such a reading, since the passage praises the Prophet and does not concern the believers and Gabriel. → Read
• () Numerous traditions from the Imams of the Prophet's Household apply these verses to their followers (shīʿa), and janb Allāh () to themselves. Al-Mizan: All of these are extensions of the verses' meaning (jarī) rather than an explanation of them (tafsīr), and for this reason he omits them. → Read

41. Fuṣṣilat

• () Majmaʿ al-Bayān, narrating from ʿAlī, says those who led us astray are Iblīs and his cohorts and the first tribes of Adam's descendants who invented sinning. Al-Mizan: This may be a case of applying the verse's meaning to a specific instance, for it is general in its wording. → Read
• () ʿIkrima reports that Is someone who is cast in the Fire better off, or someone who arrives safely on the Day of Resurrection? was revealed about ʿAmmār b. Yāsir and Abū Jahl; another report, from Ibn ʿAbbās, names Abū Jahl and Abū Bakr. Al-Mizan: This narration represents the application of a general verse to a specific case. → Read

42. Al-Shūrā

• () Al-Ḥākim and al-Bayhaqī transmit from ʿAlī that And if God should expand the provision for His servants they would certainly revolt in the earth was revealed about the People of the Step (aṣḥāb al-ṣuffah), who had desired this world. Al-Mizan: That would make the verse Medinan, but the narration looks more like an application (taṭbīq) of the verse than the occasion of its revelation (sabab al-nuzūl). → Read

43. Al-Zukhruf

• () Majmaʿ al-Bayān reports from Qatādah, Mujāhid and Ibn ʿAbbās different names for the great man from either of the two cities, such as al-Walīd b. al-Mughīrah of Mecca and ʿUrwa b. Masʿūd al-Thaqafī of Ṭāʾif. Al-Mizan: All of these opinions are commentators applying the verse to various candidates; the apparent meaning is that the unbelievers spoke in generalities, though they had one of these grandees in mind. → Read

46. Al-Aḥqāf

• () Narrations apply his gestation and weaning take thirty months to al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī, who was born after six months of pregnancy. Al-Mizan: This is an application (jarī). → Read

50. Qāf

• () Imam al-Bāqir, asked about Were We exhausted by the first creation? Rather they are in doubt about a new creation, says its interpretation (taʾwīl) is that when God annihilates this world He will create another world and a new creation. Al-Mizan: Perhaps when the Imam says that this is the interpretation of the verse, he means that it is something that applies to it. → Read

51. Al-Dhāriyāt

• () Narrations on and in your selves. Will you not then perceive? speak of God's signs in being seeing and hearing, pleased and angry (Tafsīr al-Qummī), of Imam al-Ṣādiq knowing his Lord through the undoing of decisions and the thwarting of ambition, and of “the route of urine and feces” (ʿAlī). Al-Mizan: These narrations set out to expound some instances of the different ways of knowing God through one's self. → Read
• () Majmaʿ al-Bayān narrates from Imam al-Ṣādiq that So flee toward God means to make the Ḥajj pilgrimage; it is also narrated from Imam al-Bāqir. Al-Mizan: Perhaps it is meant as an application of the verse to a particular situation (taṭbīq). → Read

54. Al-Qamar

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq says that the Qadariyya are the Magians of this nation and that The day when they are dragged into the Fire on their faces… Indeed We have created everything in a measure was revealed about them. Al-Mizan: His saying it was revealed about them means that its meaning applies to them (jarī), not that they were the cause of its revelation (sabab al-nuzūl) or its original concern, since the verse is general in meaning based on its context. → Read

56. Al-Wāqiʿah

• () Narrations name the Foremost Ones as the believer from Pharaoh's people, Ḥabīb al-Najjār and ʿAlī (Ibn ʿAbbās; Imam al-Bāqir adds the slain son of Adam), as ʿAlī and his supporters (the Prophet, through Gabriel), and as the Imams (Imam al-Bāqir: “We are the foremost ones”). Al-Mizan: The proper understanding of all of these narrations is that they are providing exemplars of the Foremost Ones. → Read
• () Tafsīr al-Qummī says the People of the Right Hand are ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, his companions and his followers (shīʿa). Al-Mizan: It rests on narrations that the “right hand” in () is the rightful Imam, so al-yamīn is ʿAlī and its people are his followers; this is an example of extending the meaning of the verse beyond its original referent (jarī). → Read

58. Al-Mujādilah

• () Majmaʿ al-bayān reports that () was revealed when the hypocrites scoffed at the Muslims' hope of conquering Byzantium and Persia; other reports say () was revealed about Abū ʿUbayda ibn al-Jarrāḥ, who killed his father at Badr, or about Abū Bakr, who struck a man who insulted the Prophet, and that the Prophet recited it to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Thābit ibn Qays ibn al-Shammās when he set off to visit his maternal uncle. Al-Mizan: The report is clearly an application of the verse's meaning (taṭbīq al-āya) to the event it narrates, and such reports are abundant; moreover, the verses have no apparent connection with these reports. → Read

59. Al-Ḥashr

• () Ibn ʿAbbās and other narratives report that they give preference over themselves was revealed when the Helpers chose to share their homes and wealth with the Emigrants and take nothing of the spoils of Banū al-Naḍīr. Al-Mizan: These narratives seem to be instances of applying the verse to the event. → Read
• () Imam al-Bāqir, on Knower of the sensible and the Unseen: the Unseen (ghayb) is what has not occurred and the sensible (shahādah) is what has already occurred. Al-Mizan: This is an explanation through some instances. → Read

60. Al-Mumtaḥanah

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq says what is good in they shall not disobey you in what is good is what God made incumbent on women, such as prayer and alms, and what He ordered of goodness; other reports explain it as not striking their cheeks and the like, or not making a wanton display of finery. Al-Mizan: This report shows that the reports explaining al-maʿrūf by such things express some of its instances and examples. → Read

61. Al-Ṣaff

• () Reports say that the light in They desire to put out the light of Allah with their mouths and the guidance and the religion of truth in He it is Who sent His Messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth mean Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī. Al-Mizan: Such reports are examples of the application (al-jary wa al-taṭbīq) of the verses' meaning to valid instances of it, or of their inner meaning (al-baṭn), not commentary and elucidation of the verses (tafsīr). → Read

63. Al-Munāfiqūn

• () Imam al-Ṣādiq explains and been of the doers of good deeds () as “I go for pilgrimage.” Al-Mizan: The part of the report that mentions the pilgrimage is apparently one example or instance of what it means to be “of the good doers.” → Read

67. Al-Mulk

• () Reports apply Is he who goes prone upon his face better guided or he who walks upright upon a straight path? to whoever strays from the path of belief in the wilāyah of Imam ʿAlī and to whoever follows and supports him, respectively. Al-Mizan: Such reports are examples of the application of the verse to instances of it (al-jary wa al-taṭbīq), and God knows best. → Read
• () Transmitted reports apply these verses to the wilāyah of Imam ʿAlī and to his opponents. Al-Mizan: These reports apply the verses' meaning to specific possible instances of it (al-jary); they are not an explanation of the verses (tafsīr). → Read

68. Al-Qalam

• () Narrations explain the preceding verses in terms of wilāyah (allegiance to God or the Prophet and his family). Al-Mizan: They are applications of the verses, not general exegesis, and for that reason he does not cite them. → Read

72. Al-Jinn

• () Narrations from the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt match the guidance and the path in these verses with the wilāyah of Imam ʿAlī. Al-Mizan: These are cases of extending the verse to other contexts (jary), not an interpretation of its apparent and primary meaning (tafsīr). → Read

76. Al-Insān

• () Qatādah reports that and do not obey any sinner or disbeliever among them was revealed about Abū Jahl. Al-Mizan: This is apparently an application (taṭbīq) of the verse. → Read
• () Narrations from the Ahl al-Bayt match their wilāyah with your Lord's command () and with His mercy in He admits whomever He wills into His mercy (). Al-Mizan: These are either extending the verses to another context (jary) or a hidden layer of meaning, not an interpretation of their apparent and primary meaning (tafsīr). → Read

77. Al-Mursalāt

• () Imam al-Kāẓim compares Did We not destroy the ancients? with those who refused to obey the messengers concerning their successors, and Then made the latter ones follow them with those who wronged Muḥammad's household. Al-Mizan: This should be viewed as extending the verse to other contexts (jary), not an interpretation of its apparent and primary meaning (tafsīr); the narration also suffers from internal inconsistency. → Read
• () Tafsīr al-Qummī explains And when they are told, “Bow down,” they do not bow down as: when they are told, “Subscribe to the Imam,” they do not subscribe to him. Al-Mizan: This would be extending the verse to other contexts (jary), not its interpretation (tafsīr). → Read

78. Al-Nabaʾ

• () Imam al-Kāẓim says of On the day when the Spirit and the angels stand in an array that the Ahl al-Bayt are those who will be permitted to speak and will intercede for their followers. Al-Mizan: The hadith offers some examples and applications of the verse; there will also be other intercessors permitted to speak that day, such as the angels, the prophets and the believers, and witnesses from the nations. → Read

79. Al-Nāziʿāt

• () Imam ʿAlī explains By those who pull out fully and the oaths that follow as different groups of angels who take the souls of the disbelievers and the believers and direct the servants' affairs. Al-Mizan: Assuming the narration is authentic, it presents some instances and applications of the verses. → Read

86. Al-Ṭāriq

• () The Prophet says that the prayer, zakāt, the fast of Ramadan and the ritual bath after sexual impurity are the secrets meant in on the day when the secrets are examined. Al-Mizan: The narration apparently states some applications of the verse, as the next narration confirms. → Read

89. Al-Fajr

• () Three narrations from the Prophet explain the Even and the Odd as all humankind and God, as the even and odd prayers, and as the Day of Sacrifice and the Day of ʿArafah. Al-Mizan: They can be reconciled by saying that the Even and the Odd are meant in an unqualified sense, and the narrations give some examples and applications of them. → Read

92. Al-Layl

• () A narration from Imam al-Ṣādiq says the wariest is the Messenger of God and those who follow him, and the one who gives his wealth, seeking purification is the Commander of the Faithful. Al-Mizan: Its chain is weak; in any case it does not interpret the verse (tafsīr) but only matches it with some application of it (jary wa taṭbīq), as matching the noun with the Prophet and its description with Imam ʿAlī shows; as an exegesis it would throw the structure of the sūrah into disarray. → Read

94. Al-Sharḥ

• () Other suggested meanings take the verses as exerting oneself in recommended acts after the obligatory ones, or as supplicating after the ritual prayer. Al-Mizan: These are specific applications of the verses' general purport. → Read

102. Al-Takāthur

• () Some Sunni narrations say that the great bounty is dates and cool water, and others list other things. Al-Mizan: These must be viewed as offering some examples and applications of the term. → Read

103. Al-ʿAṣr

• () In a hadith from Imam al-Ṣādiq on Except those who believe…, the Imam matches “belief” with belief in the wilāyah of Imam ʿAlī, and “enjoining to truth” with enjoining one's descendants about it. Al-Mizan: He notes that the Imam matches these words of the verse with the wilāyah of Imam ʿAlī. → Read

104. Al-Humazah

• () Rūḥ al-maʿānī lists several men about whom the sūrah is said to have been revealed, among them Ubayy b. Khalaf, al-Akhnas b. Sharīq, Umayyah b. Khalaf, al-Walīd b. al-Mughīrah and al-ʿĀṣ b. Wāʾil. Al-Mizan: It could be that the narrators are matching the verse with specific people, as in many narrations about the occasions of revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl). → Read