(The messenger believeth in that which hath been revealed unto him from his Lord…) [2:285].
The Imam Abu Mansur ‘Abd al-Qahir ibn Tahir informed us> Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Ali ibn Ziyad> Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Bushanji> Umayyah ibn Bistam> Yazid ibn Zuray‘> Rawh ibn al-Qasim> al-‘Ala’> his father> Abu Hurayrah who said: “When Allah, exalted is He, revealed to His Messenger, Allah bless him and give him peace, the verse (… and whether ye make known what is in your minds or hide, Allah will bring you to account for it…) [2:284], the prophetic Companions found this hard to cope with. They went to the Messenger, Allah bless him and give him peace, and said: ‘We have been entrusted with works that we can not bear: the prayer, fasting, Jihad, almsgiving; and now Allah has revealed to you this verse which we are not able to bear’. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, said to them: ‘Do you want to say as the people of the two Scriptures said before you? — the narrator said: I think he quoted the verse (We hear and we rebel!) [2:93] — Say, rather, (We hear, and we obey. (Grant us) Thy forgiveness, our Lord. Unto Thee is the journeying)’. When they heard this, they did not answer. Allah revealed after this (The messenger believeth in that which hath been revealed unto him from his Lord…) the whole verse, and Allah abrogated it by His revelation (Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope…) [2:286] to the end of the verse”. This report was narrated by Muslim from Umayyah ibn Bistam.
Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Yahya informed us> his father> Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Thaqafi> ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Umar and Yusuf ibn Musa> Waki‘> Sufyan> Adam ibn Sulayman who said: “I heard Sa‘id ibn Jubayr relating from Ibn ‘Abbas who said: ‘When the verse (… and whether ye make known what is in your minds or hide, Allah will bring you to account for it…) was revealed, objection crept into the hearts of the prophetic Companions as it never did before. The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, said to them: Say, ‘we hear and we obey’. Allah then revealed (Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope), up to His saying (or miss the mark) upon which he said: You did. He repeated this with each sentence of this verse until the end of it’ ”. This was narrated Muslim from Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah from Waki‘.
The commentators of the Qur’an said: “When the verse (and whether ye make known what is in your minds or hide, Allah will bring you to account for it) was revealed, Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf, Mu‘adh ibn Jabal and a group from the Helpers all went to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace. They kneeled down and then said: ‘O Messenger of Allah! By Allah no other revealed verse of the Qur’an is harder on us than this one. One of us speaks to himself with things that he does not like to remain in his heart even in exchange for the world and all that it contains. And now we are taken to task for the things that we speak to our own selves. By Allah, we are doomed’. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, said: ‘This is how it was revealed!’ They said: ‘We are ruined; we have been bound by that which we cannot possibly bear’. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, said: ‘Are you going to say as the Children of Israel said to Moses (We hear and we rebel!); say rather: We hear and we obey’. They said: ‘We hear and we obey’. This was extremely hard on them, and they remained in this situation for a year upon which Allah, exalted is He, sent down relief and repose with His saying (Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope…) which abrogated the verse before it. The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, said: ‘Allah has pardoned my community for the things with which they speak to themselves as long as they do not act upon them or speak about them to others’ ”.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou