VIII.—The Abrogation of Passages in the Qurʾān.
Some passages of the Qurʾān are contradictory, and are often made the subject of attack; but it is part of the theological belief of the Muslim doctors that certain passages of the Qurʾān are mansūk͟h (منسوخ), or abrogated by verses revealed afterwards, entitled nāsik͟h (ناسخ). This was the doctrine taught by Muḥammad in the Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah (ii.) 105: “Whatever verses we (i.e. God) cancel or cause thee to forget, we bring a better or its like.” This convenient doctrine fell in with that law of expediency which appears to be the salient feature in Muḥammad’s prophetical career.
In the Tafsīr-i-ʿAzīzī, it is written, that abrogated (mansūk͟h) verses of the Qurʾān are of three kinds: (1) Where the verse has been removed from the Qurʾān and another given in its place; (2) Where the injunction is abrogated and the letters of the verse remain; (3) Where both the verse and its injunction are removed from the text. This is also the view of Jalālu ʾd-Dīn, who says that the number of abrogated verses has been variously estimated from five to five hundred.
The Greek verb καταλύω, in [St. Matthew v. 17], has been translated in some of the versions of the New Testament by mansūk͟h; but it conveys a wrong impression to the Muḥammadan mind as to the Christian view regarding this question. According to most Greek lexicons, the Greek word means to throw down, or to destroy (as of a building), which is the meaning given to the word in our authorised English translation. Christ did not come to destroy, or to pull down, the Law and the Prophets; but we all admit that certain precepts of the Old Testament were abrogated by those of the New Testament. Indeed, we further admit that the old covenant was abrogated by the new covenant of grace. “He taketh away the first that he may establish the second,” [Heb. x. 9].
In the Arabic translation of the New Testament, printed at Beyrut A.D. 1869, καταλύω is translated by naqẓ, “to demolish”; in Mr. Loewenthal’s Pushto translation, A.D. 1863, by bāt̤ilawal, “to destroy,” or “render void”; and in Henry Martyn’s Persian Testament, A.D. 1837, it is also translated by the Arabic ibt̤āl, i.e. “making void.” In both the Arabic-Urdū and Roman-Urdū it is unfortunately rendered mansūk͟h, a word which has a technical meaning in Muḥammadan theology contrary to that implied in the word used by our Lord in [Matthew v. 17].
Jalālu ʾd-Dīn in his Itqān, gives the following list of twenty verses which are acknowledged by all commentators to be abrogated. The verses are given as numbered in the Itqān.
| No. | Mansūk͟h, or abrogated verses. | Nāsik͟h, or abrogating verses. | The Subject abrogated. |
| 1 | Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 119]. | Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 145]. | The Qiblah. |
| 2 | Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 178]. | Sūratu ʾl-Māʾidah [(v.), 49]. Sūratu Banī Isrāʾīl, [(xvii.), 35]. | Qiṣāṣ, or Retaliation. |
| 3 | Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 183]. | Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 187]. | The Fast of Ramaẓān. |
| 4 | Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 184]. | Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 185]. | Fidyah, or Expiation. |
| 5 | Sūratu Āli ʿImrān [(iii.), 102]. | Sūratu ʾt-Tag͟hābun [(lxiv.), 16]. | The fear of God. |
| 6 | Sūratu ʾn-Nisāʾ [(iv.), 88]. | Sūratu ʾn-Nisāʾ [(iv.), 89]. Sūratu ʾt-Taubah [(ix.), 5]. | Jihād, or war with infidels. |
| 7 | Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 216]. | Sūratu ʾt-Taubah [(ix.), 36]. | Jihād in the Sacred months. |
| 8 | Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 240]. | Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 234]. | Provision for widows. |
| 9 | Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah [(ii.), 191]. | Sūratu ʾt-Taubah [(ix.), 5]. | Slaying enemies in the Sacred Mosque. |
| 10 | Sūratu ʾn-Nisāʾ [(iv.), 14]. | Sūratu ʾn-Nūr [(xxiv.), 2]. | Imprisonment of the adulteress. |
| 11 | Sūratu ʾl-Māʾidah [(v.), 105]. | Sūratu ʾt̤-T̤alāq [(lxv.), 2]. | Witnesses. |
| 12 | Sūratu ʾl-Anfāl [(vii.), 66]. | Sūratu ʾl-Anfāl [(vii.), 67]. | Jihād, or war with infidels. |
| 13 | Sūratu ʾn-Nūr [(xxiv.), 3]. | Sūratu ʾn-Nūr [(xxiv.), 32]. | The marriage of adulterers. |
| 14 | Sūratu ʾl-Aḥzāb [(xxxiii.), 52]. | Sūratu ʾl-Aḥzāb [(xxxiii.), 49]. | The Prophet’s wives. |
| 15 | Sūratu ʾl-Mujādilah [(lviii.), 13], first part of verse. | Sūratu ʾl-Mujādilah [(lviii.), 13], latter part of verse. | Giving alms before assembling a council. |
| 16 | Sūratu ʾl-Mumtaḥinah [(lx.), 11]. | Sūratu ʾt-Taubah [(ix.), 1]. | Giving money to infidels for women taken in marriage. |
| 17 | Sūratu ʾt-Taubah [(ix.), 39]. | Sūratu ʾt-Taubah [(ix.), 92]. | Jihād, or war with infidels. |
| 18 | Sūratu ʾl-Muzzammil [(lxxiii.), 2]. | Sūratu ʾl-Muzzammil [(lxxiii.), 20]. | The night prayer. |
| 19 | Sūratu ʾn-Nūr [(xxiv.), 57]. | Sūratu ʾn-Nūr [(xxiv.), 58]. | Permission to young children to enter a house. |
| 20 | Sūratu ʾn-Nisāʾ [(iv.), 7]. | Sūratu ʾn-Nisāʾ [(iv.), 11]. | Division of property. |
IX.—The Reputed Excellence of the Qurʾān, and its Miraculous Character.
Copies of the Qurʾān are held in the greatest esteem and reverence amongst Muḥammadans. They dare not to touch it without being first washed and purified, and they read it with the greatest care and respect, never holding it below their girdles. They swear by it, consult it on all occasions, carry it with them to war, write sentences of it on their banners, suspend it from their necks as a charm, and always place it on the highest shelf or in some place of honour in their houses. Muḥammadans, as we have already remarked, believe the Qurʾān to be uncreated and eternal, subsisting in the very essence of God. There have, however, been great differences of opinion on this subject. It was a point controverted with so much heat that it occasioned many calamities under the Abbaside K͟halīfahs. Al-Maʾmūn (A.H. 218) made a public edict declaring the Qurʾān to be created, which was confirmed by his successors al-Muʿtaṣim and al-Wās̤iq, who whipped and imprisoned and put to death those of the contrary opinion. But at length al-Mutawakkil, who succeeded al-Wās̤iq, put an end to these persecutions by revoking the former edicts, releasing those that were imprisoned on that account, and leaving every man at liberty as to his belief on this point. (Abū ʾl-Faraj, p. 262.) The Qurʾān is, however, generally held to be a standing miracle, indeed, the one miracle which bears witness to the truth of Muḥammad’s mission, an assumption which is based upon the Prophet’s own statements in the Qurʾān ([Sūrah x. 39], xi. 16, lii. 34), where he calls upon the people who charge him with having invented it to procure a single chapter like it. But the Muʿtazilites have asserted that there is nothing miraculous in its style and composition (vide Sharḥu ʾl-Muwāqif). The excellences of the Qurʾān, as explained by the Prophet himself, claim a very important place in the traditions (see Faẓāʾilu ʾl-Qurʾān, in the Traditions of al-Buk͟hārī and Muslim), from which the following are a few extracts:—