(Ye did not hide yourselves lest your ears and your eyes…) [41:22]. Master Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi informed us> Isma‘il ibn Nujayd> Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Sa‘id> Umayyah ibn Bistam> Yazid ibn Zuray‘> Rawh> al-Qasim> Mansur> Mujahid> Abu Ma‘mar> Ibn Mas‘ud who said regarding this verse: “Two men from Thaqif were one day sitting with their sons-in-law from Quraysh (or it was two men from the Quraysh who were sitting with their sons-in-law from Thaqif) in a house, when they said to each other: ‘Do you think that Allah hears our intimate talk and conversation?’ Some of them said: ‘He can hear only part of it’. Some said: ‘If He can hear part of it, He can hear all of it!’ This verse was revealed about this (Ye did not hide yourselves lest your ears and your eyes…)”. This was narrated by Bukhari from al-Humaydi and by Muslim from Ibn Abi ‘Amr; and both related it from Sufyan who related it from Mansur. Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Faqih informed us> Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Hiri> Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Muthanna> Abu Khaythamah> Muhammad ibn Hazim> al-A‘mash> ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Yazid> ‘Abd Allah who said: “I was hiding behind the cloth of the Ka‘bah when three men came along; their bellies were fat and their understanding very limited. It was one man from Quraysh and his two sons-in-law, or it was one man from Thaqif and his two sons-in-law from Quraysh. They said something I did not understand. One of them said: ‘Do you reckon Allah can hear what we say now?’ Another said: ‘He will hear us if we raise our voices, but if we lower them, He will not hear us’. One of them said: ‘If He can hear part of it, He can hear all of it’. I mentioned this to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, and this verse was then revealed (Ye did not hide yourselves lest your ears and your eyes and your skins…) up to His words (and ye find yourselves (this day) among the lost) [41:23]”.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou
