أسباب النزول
Asbāb al-nuzūl
The occasions of revelation: the circumstances in which a verse was revealed.
What it means
Many verses answer a question, a dispute or an event, and knowing the occasion helps to see what is being said. Al-Wahidi (d. 1076) wrote a well-known book collecting them. Scholars add a principle: the lesson is taken from the general wording of a verse, not only from its occasion.
Often misunderstood as
That verses about fighting are timeless orders to attack anyone who disbelieves.
What the sources say
The “sword verse” (9:5) orders fighting those who broke their treaties. The verse just before it exempts the polytheists who kept their treaty (9:4), and the verse just after it says that if any of them asks for protection it must be granted, and he must be escorted to safety (9:6). Read with its context, it is a rule about a war already under way, not a general licence.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 48, listed as ASBĀB AL NUZŪL. The definition is restated here.