ভূমিকা
"And who if more unjust than he who prevents the mosques of Allah of His Name being remembered therein and strives for their ruin? Such (people) might never enter them, save in fear. For them if disgrace in this world, and in the Hereafter a great punishment." Occasion of Revelation It has been narrated from Ibn Abbas, cited in the book 'Asb-ab-un-Nuzul', that this verse was revealed about Fatlus-ur-Rumi, a Roman, and his friends. They fought against the Children of Israel and burnt the Turah.
In that war, Jewish children were made captives, and Jerusalem was ruined and filled with corpses. [^1] The Late Tabarsi, a great commentator, narrates from Ibn Abbas, in his book 'Majma'ul-Bayan' that this strives for the destruction of Jerusalem was continued until when that Holy Land was conquered by Muslims... [^2] A tradition from Imam al-Sadiq (as) says that this verse was revealed about the Quraysh when they prevented the holy Prophet (S) from entering Mecca and the Ka'bah.
^3 Also, a third occasion of revelation is cited for this verse. It says the verse is referring to the sites in Mecca where Muslims used to pray at, which pagans destroyed totally after the emigration of the Prophet (S) from that City. [^4] There is no discrepancy in saying that all three of these occasions of revelation refer to their own individual incidents. Therefore, each of them illustrates one of the dimensions of the subject. The Most Unjust Ones!
When dealing with the occasions of revelation of the above mentioned verse, it is understood that the words are about all three groups: the Jews, the Christians and the pagans, while the words in the previous verses were mostly about the Jews and sometimes about the Christians.
At any rate, the Jews, creating mischief about the Qiblah, tried to return the direction of the prayers of Muslims toward Jerusalem in order to appear to have, by that manner, a kind of superiority in the eyes of the community of Muslims and also weaken the luster and elegance of the Sacred Mosque and the Ka'bah.