Al-W¥^idÏ's Asb¥b al-Nuz‰l - The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies ...

Chapter 2: Surah al-Baqarah
Qatadah and al-Suddi said: “This refers to Bukhtunassar and his army who conquered the Jews and
destroyed Jerusalem. They were helped in this by the Roman Christians”. 25
And Ibn ‘Abbas said, according to the narration of ‘Ata’: “This verse was revealed about the idolaters of
Mecca who prevented the Muslims from mentioning Allah in the Sacred Mosque”. 26
(Unto Allah belong the East and the West…) [2:115].
There is a scholarly disagreement regarding the occasion of revelation of this Qur’anic verse. Abu Mansur
al-Mansuri informed us> al-Hafiz ‘Ali ibn ‘Umar> Abu Muhammad Isma‘il ibn ‘Ali> al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali
ibn Shabib al-‘Umari> Ahmad ibn ‘Ubayd Allah ibn al-Hasan al-‘Anbari who said: “I found written in
my father’s epistle: ‘Abd al-Malik al-‘Arzami narrated to us> ‘Ata’ ibn Rabah> Jabir ibn ‘Abd al-Malik who
said: ‘The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, sent a military expedition in which
I was present. It was dark and so we could not determine the precise direction of the qiblah. Some of us
said: we know the exact direction; it is toward the North. They prayed and drew lines. Some others said:
the qiblah is toward the South. They prayed and drew lines. When it was morning and the sun had risen
up, they discovered that their lines were pointed to a different direction to that of the qiblah. When we
returned from our journey we asked the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, about this but he
did not give us an answer. Allah, exalted is He, then revealed this verse (Unto Allah belong the East and
the West…)’ ”. 27
Abu Mansur informed us> ‘Ali> Yahya ibn Sa‘id>Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Ahmasi> Waki‘> Ash‘ath
al-Samman> ‘Asim ibn ‘Ubayd Allah> ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amir ibn Rabi‘ah> his father who said: “We were
praying with the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, while on a journey. And because it was a
dark night we could not determine the precise direction of the qiblah. Each man prayed toward whichever
direction he thought was right. In the following morning, we mentioned what had happened to
the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, and then the verse (Unto Allah belong the East and the
West…) was revealed”. 28
Ibn ‘Umar is of the opinion that the above verse is about voluntary offering of supererogatory prayers.
Abu’l-Qasim ibn Sa‘dan informed us> Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Hafiz> Muhammad ibn Ya‘qub>
Abu’l-Bukhturi ‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Shakir> Abu Usamah> ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Sulayman>
Sa‘id ibn Jubayr> Ibn ‘Umar who said: “The verses (Unto Allah belong the East and the West…) was
revealed so that one prays toward whatever direction one’s mount directs one upon offering supererogatory
prayer”. 29
Said Ibn ‘Abbas, according to the narration of ‘Ata’: “When the Negus died, Gabriel came to the Prophet,
Allah bless him and give him peace, and said: ‘The Negus has died, so perform the prayer of the dead
over him’. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, summoned his Companions,
aligned them in rows, went to the front and said: ‘Allah has commanded me to perform the prayer of the
dead over the Negus who has died, so do pray over him’. And the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him
and give him peace, and his Companions prayed over him. The Companions of the Messenger of Allah,
Allah bless him and give him peace, said in between themselves: ‘How could we possibly pray over a man
who prayed toward other than our own qiblah’, this is because the Negus prayed toward Jerusalem which
was the qiblah until he died but which was subsequently changed toward the Ka‘bah. Allah, exalted is He,
25
Ayoub, p. 145. But Abu Bakr al-Razi, among other Qur’anic commentators, noticed that Bukhtunassar lived long before the birth
of Christ and so he could not have been helped by the Christians in his sacking of Jerusalem.
26
Ibn ‘Abbas refers here to the incident of Hudaybiyyah. Cf. Ayoub, p. 145.
27
Durr, :266-267.
28
Ayoub, pp. 146-147.
29
Ayoub, p. 148; Durr, :266.
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