(O ye who believe! When believing women come unto you as fugitives, examine them. Allah is Best Aware of their faith…) [60:10].
Ibn ‘Abbas said: “On the year of Hudaybiyyah, the idolaters of Mecca signed a peace treaty with the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace. This treaty stipulated that whoever of the people of Mecca runs away to him from them should be returned to them, and whoever of his Companions runs away to the people of Mecca will not be returned. They wrote the treaty and sealed it. Just after signing the treaty, Subay‘ah bint al-Harith al-Aslamiyyah went to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, while he was still at al-Hudaybiyyah. Her husband, who was an unbeliever came and said: ‘O Muhammad, return my wife to me, for you had agreed to return to us whoever runs away to you. The ink of the treaty has not dried yet’. Allah, exalted is He, then revealed this verse”.
Al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Farisi informed us> Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Fadl> Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Hafiz> Muhammad ibn Yahya> Hasan ibn al-Rabi‘ ibn al-Khashshab> Ibn Idris> Muhammad ibn Ishaq> al-Zuhri who said: “I entered in on ‘Urwah ibn al-Zubayr while he was writing a letter to Ibn Hunaydah, the aid of al-Walid ibn ‘Abd al-Malik, in reply to his question about the words of Allah, exalted is He, (O ye who believe! When believing women come unto you as fugitives, examine them). He wrote to him: ‘The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, signed a peace treaty with the Quraysh on the day of al-Hudaybiyyah. The treaty stipulated that he should return to them whoever goes to him without the permission of his custodian. When women emigrated [from Mecca to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace,] Allah, exalted is He, refused to turn them back to the idolaters after it has been ascertained that they had migrated for Islam. This examination consisted of giving back their dowers to the idolaters if they are kept back [with the Muslims], provided that the idolaters give back the dowers of the wives of Muslims who stayed back in Mecca’. He said: ‘That is the judgement of Allah with which He judges between them. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, therefore, kept back women and sent back to the Quraysh the men who had run away from them’ ”.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou