(Recite unto them the tale of him to whom We gave Our revelations, but he sloughed them off…) [7:175]. Ibn Mas'ud said: “This verse was revealed about Bal'am ibn Abrah, one of the Children of Israel”, while Ibn 'Abbas and other commentators of the Qur'an said this relates to Bal'am ibn Ba'ura. Said al-Walibi: “He was a man from the city of al-Jabbarin and his name was Bal'am. This man knew Allah's greatest name. When Moses, peace be upon him, went to this city, his cousins and people went to see Bal'am and said to him: 'Moses is a tough man and he has a huge army. He will definitely destroy us if he ever conquers us. Pray to Allah that he drives Moses and those with him away from us'. The man said: 'I will lose both this world and the next if I were to pray to Allah to drive away Moses and those with him'. But they kept insisting until he prayed against Moses and those with him. As a result, [Allah] stripped him of what he had. Hence Allah's saying (but he sloughed them off…)”. Said 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As and Zayd ibn Aslam: “This verse was revealed about Umayyah ibn Abi al-Salt al-Thaqafi who had studied the Scriptures and knew that Allah was about to send a messenger at around that time, hoping to be himself that messenger. When Allah, exalted is He, sent Muhammad, Allah bless him and give him peace, he envied him resentfully and disbelieved in him”. Ibn 'Abbas said, according to the report of 'Ikrimah: “This verse is about a man who was given three prayers which were answered. This man had a wife called al-Basus who loved him, and from her he had children. One day she said to him: 'Let one of those answered prayers of yours be for me'. He said: 'One is for you, what do you wish for?' She said: 'Ask Allah to make me the most beautiful woman among the Children of Israel'. [He did and] when she knew that there was no one like her, she shunned him and wanted something else. The man prayed to Allah to make her a barking dog. And so, two prayers were wasted. Then, her children came to him and said: 'We cannot stand this, our mother has become a barking dog and people are insulting us because of her. Pray that Allah restores her to her initial state'. The man prayed and she became as she was before. But all three answered prayers were now wasted. This is al-Basus whose ill-omen became a proverb. People say: He/she is more ill-omened than al-Basus”.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou
