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

Asbab al-Nuzul
truthful than all’. He went back, declared his Islam and became a good Muslim”. 27
(Lo! those who disbelieve after their (profession of) belief…) [3:90].
Said al-Hasan, Qatadah and ‘Ata’ al-Khurasan: “This was revealed about the Jews who disbelieved in
Jesus and the Gospel and added to their disbelief by disbelieving in Muhammad and the Qur’an”. 28
And Abu’l-‘Aliyah said: “This was revealed about the Jews and Christians who disbelieved in Muhammad,
Allah bless him and give him peace, after they had believed in his attributes and description, and
then added to their disbelief by remaining disbelievers”. 29
(All food was lawful unto the Children of Israel…) [3:93].
Said Abu Rawq and al-Kalbi: “This was revealed when the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace,
said: ‘We follow the religion of Abraham’. The Jews responded to this by saying: ‘How can this be so when
you eat the meat of camels and drink their milk’. He said: ‘That was lawful for Abraham and so we make
it lawful too’. The Jews said: ‘Everything that we take for unlawful today was unlawful to Noah and Abraham
and so on and so forth until our time’. To refute them, Allah, exalted is He, revealed (All food was
lawful unto the Children of Israel…)”.
(Lo! the first Sanctuary appointed for mankind…) [3:96].
Said Mujahid: “The Muslims and the Jews boasted to each other; the Jews said: ‘Jerusalem is better and
greater than the Ka‘bah because it was the land to which the Prophets had migrated and it is also sacred’;
while the Muslims said: ‘No, the Ka‘bah is better’. And so Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse”. 30
(O ye who believe! If ye obey a party of those who have received the Scripture…) [3:100].
Abu ‘Amr al-Qantari informed me, among other things he gave me authorisation to relate from him>
Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Haddadi> Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Khalid> Ishaq ibn Ibrahim> al-
Mu’ammil ibn Isma‘il> Hammad ibn Yazid> Ayyub> ‘Ikrimah who said: “The two tribes of the Aws and
Khazraj had fought each other in the pre-Islamic period and upon the advent of Islam, Allah, exalted is
He, united their hearts and had peace with each other. One day, a Jew sat in an assembly of mixed people
which belonged to the Aws and Khazraj. He recited some poetry which was composed by one of the
tribes during their war against each other. Something stirred within the people of the other tribe, and
so they said: ‘Our poet has said this and that about such-and-such a battle’. The others replied by saying:
‘And our poet has said this and that about such-and-such a battle’. Suddenly some of them said: ‘Let us
start war all over again!’ Those who belonged to the tribe of Aws cried: ‘O people of Aws!’ and those who
belonged to the tribe of Khazraj cried: ‘O people of Khazraj!’ They all gathered up, took up arms and
aligned themselves ready for to engage in battle. At this point, Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse.
The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, went and stood between the two armies, read this verse
and raised his voice in the process. When they heard his voice, they stopped talking and listened to him.
When he finished his recitation, they all dropped their weapons and embraced one another, crying”. 31
27
Durr, :257-258; Tabari, :340.
28
Durr, :258; Tabari, :343.
29
Tabari, :344.
30
Durr, :266.
31
Durr, :278-279.
54