Baidhawi in his Tafseer1 and Zamakhshari in Kashaf,2 say: The verse:
ٱلَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَٰلَهُم بِٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ سِرًّۭا وَعَلَانِيَةًۭ فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ (٢٧٤)
“(As for) those who spend their property by night and by day,
secretly and openly, they shall have their reward from their
Lord and they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve.”3
…was revealed for Abu Bakr when he gave forty thousand dinars in alms
(Sadaqah); ten thousand at night, ten thousand during the day, ten thousand
secretly and ten thousand openly.
I cannot trace to which companion or companion of companions does the
incomplete chains of narrators of report reaches, and in Ahle Sunnat books, I
have not seen it attributed to any of the past people, except to Saeed bin
Musayyab, who is well known for his deviation regarding Ameerul Momineen
(a.s.).
Hands of fabrication before what the Hafiz scholars have narrated – that the
verse was revealed for Ameerul Momineen Ali (a.s.) – fabricated and granted
forty thousand dinars to Abu Bakr, to make the weak persons of Ummah
understand that the verse was revealed about one who spent huge amount of
wealth and not one, who spent only four dinars, negligent of the fact that it is
established among Ahle Sunnat that at the time of moving from Medina, Abu
Bakr had four, five or six thousand dirhams, and this, was his whole capital, and
on the other hand, scholars of traditions and exegesis have consensus that the
captioned verse was revealed in Medina and at the beginning of Hijrah!4
Ibne Kathir has written in his Tafseer: A group of seniors, scholars and
commentators have said as such and it is not opposed to this, on the basis of this,
from where did Abu Bakr have forty thousand dinars at the time of revelation of
verse that he should give Sadaqah? He had only a few dirhams, although if that
report is also correct.
Following this chainless report, Suyuti has written:5 I have not found any
report, which says that this verse was revealed for Abu Bakr.
Another falsehood6 is the report from Saeed bin Musayyab, which is
chainless from two aspects [narrators between this liar till Saeed bin Musayyab,
and also reporters between Saeed till the actual reporter]; and he narrates that:
“These verses were revealed about Uthman bin Affan and Abdur Rahman bin Auf, who financed the expedition in the difficult times of the Battle of
Tabuk.”7
Love made the Ahle Sunnat blind and they have distorted the words from
their places, and although Shaitan made their acts fairseeming to them, it
remained concealed for these negligent persons that these two verses are present
in Surah Baqarah and on the basis of statement of exegesists, this was the first
Surah to be revealed in Medina.8
Thus, it was many years before Battle of Tabuk and its army – a difficult
mobilization, which occurred in the month of Rajab in the ninth year of Hijri –
and the revelation of none of the verses for Uthman is correct.
(٥١) وَلَقَدْ وَصَّلْنَا لَهُمُ ٱلْقَوْلَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَذَكَّرُونَ۞
“And certainly We have made the word to reach them so that they may be mindful.”9
وَإِذَا سَمِعُوا۟ ٱللَّغْوَ أَعْرَضُوا۟ عَنْهُ وَقَالُوا۟ لَنَآ أَعْمَـٰلُنَا وَلَكُمْ أَعْمَـٰلُكُمْ سَلَـٰمٌ عَلَيْكُمْ لَا نَبْتَغِى ٱلْجَـٰهِلِينَ (٥٥)
“And when they hear idle talk they turn aside from it and say:
We shall have our deeds and you shall have your deeds; peace
be on you, we do not desire the ignorant.”10