The story of the surah At-Taubah

It was narrated from Abu Bakr that the prophet (a.s.) sent him to the people of mecca with verses of surah At-Taubah : no polytheist should perform Hajj after this year and no one should  circumambulate the Kaaba nakedly and no one would enter the Paradise except Muslims . Whoever has a covenant with the prophet for a specific time, his covenant would be valid until the stated time. And Allah and his messenger are free from the polytheists (9:3). While Abu Bakr was on his way, the prophet said to Ali: “Go and catch up with him, send Abu Bakr back to me and you convey it.” So he did that. And when Abu Bakr came to the prophet (a.s.) he wept and said: “O messenger of Allah, has something happened concerning me?”
The Prophet (a.s.) said to him, “Nothing has happened concerning you except good, but I have been ordered (by Allah) that no one should convey it except me or a man from me.”[1]

1.  Musnad, Ahmed Hanbal, vol 1, p 3, h 4.Sunan, al-Tirmdhi, vol 13, p 164-165.Tafsir, al-Tabari, vol 10, p 46

Mubahilah

The pleasant territory of Najran comprising seventy-two villages is situated on the border of the Hijaz and Yemen. In the early days of Islam this was the only region in the Hijaz which was inhabited by the Christians, who had, for some reasons, forsaken idol-worship and embraced Christianity.1

Simultaneous with the letters which the Prophet of Islam wrote to the heads of different countries of the world he also wrote a letter to Abu Harith, the Bishop of Najran, and, through that letter, invited the people of that area to embrace Islam.

The representatives of the Prophet arrived in Najran and delivered his letter to the Bishop. He read the letter very carefully and then, in order to take a decision, called a meeting of the religious and the secular personalities for consultation.

The consultative council decided that a body of men should go to Madina as representatives of Najran so that they might contact Muhammad from near and should scrutinize the proofs of his prophethood. Sixty most distinguished and wise men of Najran were selected for the purpose.

The members of the deputation went to to Madina. After the discussions between the representatives of Najran and the Prophet the representatives said:" Your words do not satisfy us. The best way to resolve the issue is that we should engage in imprecation with each other at an appointed time and may curse the liar and pray to Allah that He may destroy the liar".2

At this moment the Archangel Jibreel came and brought the verse pertaining to imprecation and conveyed to the Prophet the Divine command that he should engage in imprecation with those, who contended and disputed with him and both the parties should pray to Allah that He might deprive the liar of His blessings. The Holy Qur'an says,

If anyone disputes with you after the knowledge has come to you, say, 'Let each of us bring our children, our women, our people and ourselves to one place and pray to Allah to curse upon the liars among us'. (Surah Ale Imran, 3:62)

Both the parties agreed to settle the issue through imprecation and it was decided that all of them would be ready for it on the following day.