(If a woman feareth ill treatment…) [4:128].
Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Harith informed us> 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Ja'far> Abu Yahya> Sahl> 'Abd al-Rahim ibn Sulayman> Hisham> 'Urwah> 'A'ishah who said concerning the words of Allah, exalted is He, (If a woman feareth ill treatment from her husband…): “This was revealed regarding the case of a woman who does not bear children for her husband and, because of this, he wants to divorce her; or it could be about a women who has friends and children whom she does not like to be separated from and so she tells her husband who intends to divorce her: 'Do not divorce me; keep me with you and, in exchange, I forgo all the rights due to me'. And so this verse was revealed”. This was narrated by Bukhari> Muhammad ibn Muqatil> Ibn al-Mubarak, and also by Muslim from Abu Kurayb> Abu Usamah, and both Ibn al-Mubarak and Abu Usamah related it from Hisham.
Abu Bakr al-Hiri informed us> Muhammad ibn Ya'qub>> al-Rabi'> al-Shafi'i> Ibn 'Uyaynah> al-Zuhri> Ibn al-Musayyab who related that the daughter of Muhammad ibn Maslamah was married to Rafi' ibn Khadij but he wanted to divorce her because of something he disliked in her, it was either arrogance or something else. She said to him: “Do not divorce me, and you are free to apportion for me whatever you like”. And so Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse (If a woman feareth ill treatment from her husband…).
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou