recommended deeds as well as obligatory ones; the wrongdoer is someone who consumes usury or withholds zakat; and the one who takes a middle course pays the obligatory zakat and does not consume usury. There are other statements of this kind. Each statement mentions a particular kind encompassed by the verse, to show the listener that the verse includes it and, through it, draw attention to similar cases. Explaining by example can be easier than giving an abstract definition.

A sound mind recognizes the general kind, just as it does when someone points to a loaf and says, “This is bread.” Their statement, “This verse was revealed concerning such-and-such,” often belongs to this category, especially when a particular person is mentioned. Examples include the occasions of revelation mentioned in Quranic commentary: their statements that the verse concerning zihār was revealed concerning the wife of Aws ibn al-Sāmit; that the verse concerning mutual imprecation was revealed concerning ‘Uwaymir al-‘Ajlānī or Hilāl ibn Umayyah; and that the verse concerning kalālah was revealed concerning Jābir ibn ‘Abd Allāh.

They also say that His words:

“And judge between them by what Allah has revealed”

were revealed concerning Banū Qurayzah and Banū al-Nadīr; that His words:

“Whoever turns his back to them on that day”

were revealed concerning the Battle of Badr; and that His words:

“When death approaches any of you, let there be witnesses among you”

were revealed concerning the case of Tamīm al-Dārī and ‘Adī ibn Badā’. There is also Abū Ayyūb’s statement that His words:

“Do not cast yourselves into destruction with your own hands”

“were revealed concerning us, the Ansār”—and the rest of the hadith. There are many similar examples in which they mention that a passage was revealed concerning a group of polytheists in Mecca, a group from the People of the Book—Jews or Christians—or a group of believers.