Musnad Ahmad Hadith 2206

Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, revealed [the verses]: “And whosoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, such are the Kafiroon (i.e. disbelievers - of a lesser degree as they do not act on Allah's Laws)" (al-Ma'idah 5:44], "such are the Zalimoon (polytheists and wrongdoers - of a lesser degreey" [al-Ma'idah 5:45] (then) such (people) are the Fasiqoon [the rebellious i.e. disobedient (of a lesser degree)] to Allah" [al-Ma'idah 5:47]. Ibn ‘Abbas (رضي الله عنه) said: Allah revealed them concerning two groups of the Jews. One of them had defeated the other during the Jahiliyyah, until they reached a deal according to which the diyah of any person among the defeated group who was killed by the group that had the upper hand would be fifty wasqs, and the diyah of any person among the group that had the upper hand who was killed by the defeated group would be one hundred wasqs. They adhered to that until the Prophet (ﷺ) came to Madinah; then both groups were subdued by the coming of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and at that time he had not yet prevailed and he had a covenant with both groups. Then the defeated group killed a member of the group that had the upper hand, and the group that had the upper hand sent word to the defeated group saying: Send us one hundred wasqs. The defeated group said: Was there ever any deal between two tribes who follow the same religion and share the same lineage and live in the same city, according to which the diyah of some was half the diyah of others? We only accepted that deal because you forced it on us and we were afraid of you. But now Muhammad has come and we will not accept this deal any more, War almost broke out between them, then they agreed to appoint the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) to judge between them. Then the group that had the upper hand realized: By Allah, Muhammad is not going to give you a deal whereby he gives you double what he gives them. And they were right, they only accepted this deal because we forced it on them, Sent word to Muhammad to find out what he thinks: if he gives you what you want, then appoint him to judge, and if he does not give you that, then withdraw and do not appoint him to judge. They sent one of the hypocrites to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) to find out for them what the opinion of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was. When he came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), Allah informed His Messenger of what they were trying to accomplish, and Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, revealed the words: "O Messenger (Muhammad (ﷺ)). Let not those who hurry to fall into disbelief grieve you, of such who say: “We believe up to...(then) such (people) are the Fasiqoon [the rebellious i.e. disobedient [of a lesser degree)] to Allah" [al-Ma’idah 5:41-47]. Then he said: It was revealed concerning them [the two groups] and Allah referred to them [in these verses].