(Lo! We reveal unto thee the Scripture with the truth, that thou mayst judge between mankind by that which Allah showeth thee) [4:105] up to His words (… Whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah hath wandered far astray) [4:116]. All these verses were revealed regarding one incident. One man from the Helpers by the name of Tu‘mah ibn Ubayriq, from Banu Zafar ibn al-Harith, stole an armour from his neighbour who was called Qatadah ibn al-Nu‘man. The armour was in a sack of ground wheat. When he took the armour, the ground wheat was strewn about from a hole in the sack. Traces of ground wheat were left in his house. Tu‘mah then took the armour and hid it with a Jew by the name of Zayd ibn al-Samin. When people looked for the armour in the house of Tu‘mah, they could not find it. He swore to them by Allah that he did not take the armour or have any knowledge about it. The owners of the armour said: “No indeed, by Allah he entered our house and took it. We followed him until he entered his house and, therein, we saw traces of wheat”. When he swore by Allah that he did not steal it, they left him and followed the trail of ground wheat which led them to the house of the Jewish man. When they took him, he said that it was Tu‘mah ibn Ubayriq who had left the armour with him, and some Jewish people testified that this was the case. Banu Zafar, the clan of Tu‘mah, said: “Let us go to the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace”. They spoke to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, and requested him to argue in favour of their man, saying: “If you do not do so, our man will be doomed and exposed and the Jew will come out of this as an innocent man”. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, was on the verge of doing as he was requested — for his heart was with them — and punish the Jew when Allah, exalted is He, revealed (Lo! We reveal unto thee the Scripture with the truth) up to the end of the verse. This is the view of a number of Qur’anic commentators.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou
