at your hands and out of fear of you. But now that Muhammad has come, we will not give you that.” War nearly broke out between them, until they agreed to make the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, their arbiter. Then the stronger tribe reflected and said: “By Allah, Muhammad will not give you twice as much from them as he gives them from you. They spoke the truth: they gave us this only because we had wronged and subjugated them. So secretly send someone to Muhammad to ascertain his view for you. If he grants you what you want, appoint him as arbiter; but if he does not grant it to you, then beware of appointing him.”

So they secretly sent some hypocrites to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, to discover his view for them. When they came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, Allah informed His Messenger of their entire affair and all that they intended. Allah, the Most High, then revealed: “O Messenger, do not let those who hasten into disbelief grieve you—those who say, ‘We believe’...” up to His words: “And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed—then it is they who are defiantly disobedient.” He then said: “By Allah, it was concerning these two that these verses were revealed, and it was these two whom Allah meant.”

Ahmad transmitted it (1/246), as did al-Tabarani in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir (3/95/1), through the chain of transmission of Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Zinad, from his father, from Ubayd Allah ibn Abd Allah ibn Utbah ibn Masud, from Ibn Abbas, who said: and he mentioned it. In al-Durr al-Manthur (2/281), al-Suyuti also attributed it to Abu Dawud, Ibn Jarir, Ibn al-Mundhir, Abu al-Shaykh, and Ibn Mardawayh, on the authority of Ibn Abbas. Ibn Jarir includes it in his Tafsir (12037; vol. 10, p. 352) through this route, but Ibn Abbas is not mentioned in its chain of transmission. Abu Dawud (3576), however, reports that the three verses were revealed concerning the Jews alone—specifically Qurayzah and al-Nadir only. This is contrary to what is suggested by Ibn Kathir’s statement in his Tafsir (6/160), after citing this lengthy narration of Ahmad: “Abu Dawud also narrated it, similarly, through Ibn Abi al-Zinad, from his father.”