(O ye who believe! Draw not near unto prayer when ye are drunken…) [4:43].
This was revealed about some people who were Companions of the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace. They were in the habit of drinking wine and then going to pray while still drunk. Because of this they did not know how many units of prayer they performed or what they said in their prayers.
Abu Bakr al-Asfahani informed us> Abu’l-Shaykh al-Hafiz> Abu Yahya> Sahl Ibn ‘Uthman> Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Afriqi> ‘Ata’> Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman who said: “One day, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf prepared food and invited some Companions of the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace. They ate and drank and when the time for the Maghrib prayer was due they stood up to pray. One of them stepped forward to lead the prayer. He recited (Say: O disbelievers…) [Surah 109] but did not recite correctly, and so Allah, exalted is He, revealed (O ye who believe! Draw not near unto prayer when ye are drunken, till ye know that which ye utter…)”.
(…and if ye find not water, then go to high clean soil…) [4:43].
Abu ‘Abd Allah ibn Abi Ishaq informed us> Abu ‘Amr ibn Matar> Ibrahim ibn ‘Ali al-Dhuhli> Yahya ibn Yahya> Malik ibn Anas> ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Qasim> his father> ‘A’ishah who said: “We travelled with the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, in one of his travels and when we reached al-Bayda’ or Dhat al-Jaysh I dropped my necklace and so the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give peace, set camp to look for it and people camped with him too, except that that area did not have water and they did not carry water with them either. So people went to Abu Bakr and said: ‘Did you see what ‘A’ishah has done? She made the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, camp along with people when they have no water with them and this area does not have any water?’ And so Abu Bakr came. He found the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, sleeping with his head on my thigh. He said: ‘You have held back the Messenger of Allah and people with him when this area has no water and people have no water with them either’. Abu Bakr kept rebuking me, saying whatever Allah willed him to say all while poking me with his hand in my waist. The only thing that prevented me from moving was the head of the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, on my thigh. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, slept until dawn and when he woke up, he had no water. Allah, exalted is He, then revealed the verse on dry ablution (Tayammum). Usayd ibn Huday, who was one of the leaders, said then: ‘This is not your first blessing, O household of Abu Bakr’. When the camel which I was riding was made to rise, we found my necklace beneath it”. This was narrated by al-Bukhari from Isma‘il ibn Abi Uways and also by Muslim from Yahya ibn Yahya, and both Ibn Abi Uways and Ibn Yahya related it from Malik.
Abu Muhammad al-Farisi informed us> Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Fadl> Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Hafiz> Muhammad ibn Yahya> Ya‘qub ibn Ibrahim ibn Sa‘d> his father> Abu Salih> Ibn Shihab> ‘Ubayd Allah ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Utbah> Ibn ‘Abbas> ‘Ammar ibn Yasir who said: “The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, camped once in Dhat al-Jaysh. He had with him then ‘A’ishah his wife who dropped a necklace made of gems from Dhafar and so he held back people to look for it and they remained there until dawn. Because people did not have water with them, Abu Bakr got very angry with her. Then Allah, exalted is He, revealed to his Messenger, Allah bless him and give him peace, the story of purifying oneself with clean soil. The Muslims got up, struck the soil with their hands and then lifted them up without retaining any soil on them and wiped their faces and hands up to the shoulders as well as the palms of their hands up to the armpits”. Said al-Zuhri: “We heard that Abu Bakr then said to ‘A’ishah: ‘By Allah, I know that you are blessed’ ”.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou