(And make denial thereof your livelihood?) [56:82]. Sa'id ibn Muhammad al-Mu'adhdhin informed us> Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Hamdun> Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Hafiz> Hamdan al-Sulami> al-Nadr ibn Muhammad> 'Ikrimah ibn 'Ammar> Abu Zumayl> Ibn 'Abbas who said: “People were once blessed with rain at the time of the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, and so the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, said: 'Some people have woken up this morning as grateful people while others have woken up as disbelievers. The former said: This is a blessing sent by Allah, exalted is He, while the latter said: the prediction based on such-and-such a star has been fulfilled'. The following verse was then revealed (Nay, I swear by the places of the stars) [56:75] up to His words (And make denial thereof your livelihood?)”. This is narrated by Muslim from 'Abbas ibn 'Abd al-'Azim from al-Nadr ibn Muhammad. It was also reported that once the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, travelled and after traversing a distance camped at a certain place. People were very thirsty but they had no water to drink. They mentioned this to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, and he said: “What if I made a prayer and you were given rain, would you say that we were given rain thanks to such-and-such a star?” They said: “O Messenger of Allah, this is not the time of stars”. The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, prayed two units of prayer and made supplications to Allah, glorified and blessed is He. The wind erupted and clouds appeared. Rain then poured down so much so that streams of water run down the valleys. People filled their water containers. But then the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, passed by a man who was using a goblet to ladle water. The man was saying: “We were given rain thanks to such-and-such a star”, and failed to say: “This is the sustenance of Allah, glorified is He”. Allah, glory be to Him, revealed (And make denial thereof your livelihood?). Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn 'Umar al-Zahid informed us> Abu 'Amr Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Jizi> al-Hasan ibn Sufyan> Harmalah ibn Yahya and 'Amr ibn Sawwad al-Sarkhi> 'Abd Allah ibn Wahb> Yunus ibn Yazid> Ibn Shihab> 'Ubayd Allah ibn 'Ubayd Allah ibn 'Utbah> Abu Hurayrah who reported that the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, said: “Have you not heard what your Lord has said? He said: 'I have not blessed My slaves with any bounty except that some of them were ungrateful. They say: The stars did this and we were given it thanks to the stars!' ” This was narrated by Muslim from Harmalah and 'Amr ibn Sawwad.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou
