(O ye who believe! Remember Allah’s favour unto you, how a people were minded to stretch out their hands against you…) [5:11].
Sa‘id ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ja‘far al-Mu’adhdhin informed us> Abu ‘Ali al-Faqih> Abu Lubabah Muhammad ibn al-Mahdi al-Mihani> ‘Ammar ibn al-Hasan> Salamah ibn al-Fadl> Muhammad ibn Ishaq> ‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd> al-Hasan al-Basri> Jabir ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Ansari who related that a man from Muharib by the name of Ghawrath ibn al-Harith said to his people of Banu Ghatafan and Muharib: “Shall I kill Muhammad for you?” “Yes, but how are you going to do it?” they asked him. He said: “I will assassinate him!” This man then proceeded to the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, and found him sitting with his sword in his lap. He said: “O Muhammad, let me see this sword of yours”. He handed the sword over to him. The man took the sword out of its scabbard, moved it about but whenever he was on the point of striking the Prophet with it, Allah, glorious and majestic is He, restrained him. The man then said: “O Muhammad, are you not scared of me?” “No!” answered the Prophet. The man said: “You are not scared of me even though the sword is in my hand?” The Prophet said: “Allah will protect me from you”. The man put the sword back in its scabbard and gave it back to the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, upon which Allah, exalted is He, revealed (Remember Allah’s favour unto you, how a people were minded to stretch out their hands against you…).
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Tha‘labi informed us> ‘Abd Allah ibn Hamid> Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan> Muhammad ibn Yahya> ‘Abd al-Razzaq> Ma‘mar> al-Zuhri> Abu Salamah> Jabir who reported that the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, stopped by at a certain location and so people spread about to seek shade under the trees. The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, hang his weapon on a tree and sat down to rest. A Bedouin came along, got hold of the sword belonging to the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, turned to him and said: “Who will save you from me now?” The Prophet said: “Allah!” The Bedouin repeated the same question two or three times, and the answer of the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, was always the same: “Allah!” The Bedouin then put the sword back in its scabbard. The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, called his Companions and informed them of what happened while the Bedouin, who went unpunished, was still sitting next to him.
Mujahid, al-Kalbi and ‘Ikrimah said: “One of the Companions of the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, killed two men from Banu Salim at a period when the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, had a truce with Banu Salim. The next-of-kin of the two men went to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, to ask for blood money. The prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, took Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, ‘Ali, Talhah and ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf and went to Ka‘b al-Ashraf, to seek help from Banu’l-Nadir to pay the blood money. They said: ‘Indeed Abu’l-Qasim, it is high time for you to come and ask us to help you. Sit down so that we feed you and fulfil your request’. When the Prophet and his Companions sat down, they gathered close by and said to each other: ‘Muhammad will never be as close to you as he is now; who can climb up to the top of the house, throw a rock on him and rid us of him?’ ‘Umar ibn Jihash ibn Ka‘b said: ‘I will do it!’ He got hold of a huge millstone intending to throw it on the Prophet, but Allah, exalted is He, prevented him from doing so. When Gabriel informed the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, of what happened, the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, left that house, and Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse”.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou