How did their chests become straitened in regards to the...

How did their chests become straitened in regards to the life of this world and how did their souls face pressure? How did they realize that other than Allah (awj), there is no other source of refuge? What is the meaning of the ability or opportunity given by Allah (awj) to humans (Tawfiq) in relation to these people? The answers to each of these questions can easily be achieved by referring to the history of revelation of this verse.

At this stage, it would not be out of place to remind ourselves of the following point which is that any narration which details the history of revelation of a particular verse of the Qur`an can not automatically be accepted. Rather, in regards to the trustworthiness of a tradition which contains the history of revelation (of a verse), there must be some measurements in place through which the correct and incorrect narrations can be weighed.

This is especially true when it comes to the history of revelation of the verses of the Qur`an which relate the stories of the previous prophets and the past generations of people as in this area of review, precaution must not be neglected as many of the narrations which discuss the history of revelation (of these types of instances) have been related from unknown and unfamiliar sources and as we know, we can never (blindly) accept historical narrations from such sources.

Unfortunately, many of the commentaries of the Qur`an do not take this point into consideration and therefore, some commentators have gone forth to relate any narration which accounts the history of revelation – even from people who are not trustworthy or reliable! [^1]: Suratul Baqarah (2), Verse 185 [^2]: Suratul Nisa (4), Verse 174 [^3]: Suratul Tawbah (9), Verse 118 Previous…