87. In order to understand the significance of this verse, we should keep in view the circumstances through which the Prophet (peace be upon him) had been passing at Makkah during the preceding decade or so. The disbelievers of Makkah were exerting their utmost to turn the Prophet (peace be upon him) away, somehow or other, from his message of Tauhid, which he was presenting, and to force him to make a compromise with shirk and the customs of ignorance. In order to achieve this end, they tempted him in several ways. They practiced deception upon him, and tempted him with greed, held out threats, and raised a storm of false propaganda against him, and persecuted him and applied economic pressure and social boycott against him. In short, they did all that could be done to defeat his resolve.