The Problem of Abrogation in the Quran
By:
Shahid Bin Waheed شاهد
بن وحيد
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحمدلله رب العالمين والصلوة والسلام على اشرف الانبياء
وسيدالمرسلين نبينا محمد صل ا لله عليه وعلى آله واصحابه وازواجه اجمعين - امابعد
Thanks to be Allaah, Sustainer of the Universe, and blessing and salutation to be the most distinguish of the Messengers and foremost among the Prophets, our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allaah be on him and on his wives, children and Companions.
Recently website
“answering-islam.org” had published (10-03-04) an article
by some one named “Farooq Ibrahim” who has supposedly converted to Christianity
from Islaam. Prior to this article Mr. Farooq Ibrahim has authored My Testimony of
Faith, which has also been
published @ the same website. This treatise, in fact, is the direct refutation
to Mr. Farooq Ibrahim’s fallacious and prejudiced assertions that have been
overwhelmingly clouded by his highly lack of knowledge on the subject matter. The
truth of the matter is that Mr. Farooq Ibrahim has no knowledge at all of the
subject matter, as we intend to demonstrate.
Mr.
Farooq Ibrahim wrote:
Over the years, a number of Muslims and some non-Muslims have asked me why I had problems defending my Islamic faith. While a Muslim in the late 1980’s, and seeking the truth within Islam, I was faced with a number of issues in defending my faith. One such issue was "abrogation". The purpose of writing this response has been to provide an answer to my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters regarding the challenges I faced at that point in my faith. During this time I was not seeking to put down or reject Islam, on the contrary, my goal was to invite others to Islam. In trying to grapple with this topic, I was armed primarily with the Quran, Hadith and other supporting works by Muslims and some non-Muslim authors. Please note that the purpose of this response is not to publish an academic work with a thorough and critical evaluation on the entire topic of abrogation, but mostly a reflection on a personal journey as I was contending with my Islamic faith.
Refutation!
Mr. Farooq Ibrahim has previously
published his
testimony of faith at the website “answering-islam.org” and had already
announced that he is a Christian, therefore, what motives he may have beside
deceiving; for addressing Muslims as his brothers and sisters, which they are
not. Mr. Farooq Ibrahim has claimed that his goal was to allegedly to invite
others to Islaam and he was armed with Quran and Hadith [quote: I was armed primarily with the Quran, Hadith and other
supporting works by Muslims and some non-Muslim authors.] This
statement reminds me my late father, who used to teach [while emphasizing on reading, learning,
understanding and asking questions to further our knowledge] us by saying that I quote: “Son, if a mule is carrying books on his back, it does not
make that mule a scholar.” Therefore, being armed by book[s] and merely
possessing and/or carrying the books does not make anyone a scholar and Mr.
Farooq Ibrahim is not an exception. To further
prove my point, let me quote what Mr. Farooq Ibrahim has admitted and/or stated
in the first paragraph of his previous article,
which without a doubt proves that Mr. Farooq Ibrahim is plain ignorant of
Islaam, Qur’aan and Hadeeth etcetera.
“I grew up in India and later migrated to Pakistan with my family. I was raised in a typical Muslim family, where we would go to the mosque on Fridays and on special occasions; fast for the month of Ramadan; and celebrate the typical festive holidays of Islam. When I was a teenager, I completed the recitation of the Quran; and that in essence was a confirmation of the duty of a Muslim youth. Later, in my teen years, I was not satisfied with just reciting the Quran in Arabic; a language I could only read, but not comprehend. So my father got me a Study Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali and also a copy of the Sahih Bukhari Hadith collection. I studied it for a short while during my late teen years.”
Te above is the very first paragraph of Mr.
Farooq Ibrahim’s article titled My Testimony of
Faith; now let me point out
many questionable and unusual things in the above quote and/or confession of
Mr. Farooq Ibrahim.
1. In a typical Muslim country and in a typical Muslim culture and/or environment, it is almost impossible and highly questionable if some has completed the recitation of the Qur’aan while he was a teenager. Because this is the very first and basic part of Muslims’ childhood, which the children finish from ages ranging five years old to maximum 10 while learning to read, recite and write Qur’aan, in fact, many of the children finish memorizing the Glorious Qur’aan during while they are 5 to 10 years old. Being a teenagers is pretty embarrassing thing in the society Mr. Farooq Ibrahim is talking about. In fact, you are subject of ridicule by other/younger kids.
2. Readers must note that Mr. Farooq Ibrahim has admitted that he is/was unable to comprehend the Qur’aan, thus, how can he invite others to Islaam, while he (himself) is ignorant? Do we really have to be that much of an imbecile to allow Mr. Farooq Ibrahim, to pull a fast one on us?
3. Bold text in his quote only tells us that his (Farooq Ibrahim’s) father gave him study Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali and a copy of Sahih Bukhari’s Hadeeth collection. Well, every learned and knowledgeable person knows that translations in other language are for lay person and does not explain anything except rendering translation of the meaning. Nobody becomes learned and/or educated by merely receiving books from some one and no one can learn anything with self-study. Had that not been true, we would have not have all these schools, colleges, universities etc. and there was no need to teachers. If all the fathers had done the same like Mr. Farooq Ibrahim’s father, we would have to redefine the words learned and ignorant. Sadly Mr. Farooq Ibrahim’s parents did not educate him with the basic teachings, understanding and knowledge of Islaam, let alone in depth studies. Abdullah Yusuf Ali is/was not a scholar of Islaam, and he has perverted the translation and/or his alleged commentary of Qur’aan. I can cite many of his error, but Abdullah Yusuf Ali is not the subject of our discussion. In conclusion, we know through the admission/confession of Mr. Farooq Ibrahim (himself) that he is/was armed with nothing i.e. no knowledge and no substance.
4. Regarding the claim of alleged “Dawah” by Mr. Farooq Ibrahim, I must point out that he was not even close to meeting and/or fulfilling the Islaamic conditions and/or stipulations for Dawah. In fact, most truly Muslims are not even qualified for Dawah. Unfortunately people like Mr. Farooq Ibrahim and some other ignorant Muslims have grossly abused this term and practice i.e. Dawah for being completely unqualified. The question that screams for an answer is: ‘How can you teach something to others, which you are ignorant of, yourself?’
Readers can see that Mr. Farooq Ibrahim does not even possess the basic knowledge and understanding of Islaam, Glorious Qur’aan and Ahadeeth, but he has shown the audacity to speak on the subject of abrogation using Christian missionaries’ fancies and hearsay. Let me skip the irrelevant parts of Mr. Farooq Ibrahim’s article and directly get to his main theme by quoting him below:
“The concept
of "abrogation" is that Allah chose to reveal ayahs in the Quran that
supercede earlier revelation in the same Quran. The central ayah that deals
with abrogation is Surah 2:106:
None of Our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be
forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar: Knowest thou not that
Allah Hath power over all things?
I struggled with the
question of how an eternal revelation of Allah could have such time-bound
revelation in it. It seemed at odds with the nature of Allah – the all-knowing,
all-wise, creator and sustainer of the universe; the eternal, self-existent
one. As a Muslim this was one of the bigger challenges I faced with regard to
the Quran. Although the Quran is said to be an eternal and universal scripture,
I found it to be time-bound.
Not all Muslim
scholars agree on what abrogation covers. Briefly here was my discovery.
The ironies of the above quote in particular and the
entire article in general by Mr. Farooq Ibrahim is that, he has not shown any
knowledge and/or scholarship of the subject matter i.e. “abrogation” he has
chosen to write about. And how can he demonstrate learnedness, when the proof presented earlier
using his (Farooq Ibrahim’s) own admission, he does not possess the basic
knowledge of Islaam and Qur’aan especially that a typical FIVE years old kid
does possess in the society Mr. Farooq Ibrahim is claiming to be from. Mr.
Farooq Ibrahim’s entire article is based on parroting the absurd rhetoric of
anti-Islaam forces, which he has used bluntly.
Let me explain the concept of Naskh in Islaam!
The English word “abrogation” literally signifies
annulment, nullification or cancellation. However, in Islaamic terminology that is used in Glorious
Qur’aan, it means expiration of the period of the validity of a practical
injunction”. Following are the root letters and
words derived from them, with their use in Glorious Qur’aan at four occasions (Chapters and verses are mentioned in blue next to Ayaat).
ن س خ
نَنْسَخ : نُزِل ونُبْطل .
2:106نَنْسَخْ: مَا
نَنْسَخْ مِنْ آيَةٍ أَوْ نُنْسِهَا نَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ
مِنْهَا أَوْ مِثْلِهَا
22:52فَيَنْسَخُ: فَيَنْسَخُ اللَّهُ مَا يُلْقِي الشَّيْطَانُ ثُمَّ
يُحْكِمُ اللَّهُ آيَاتِهِ.
45:29نَسْتَنْسِخُ: إِنَّا
كُنَّا نَسْتَنْسِخُ مَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ.
نسختها : أصلها المكتوب ، والمراد اللوح المحفوظ
.
7:15نُسْخَتِهَا: وَفِي
نُسْخَتِهَا هُدًى وَرَحْمَةٌ لِلَّذِينَ هُمْ لِرَبِّهِمْ
يَرْهَبُونَ.
Readers
must know that in Arabic, commonly a noun or a verb has three radical
letters. But some nouns and verbs have four or five radical letters.
However, many additional letters are added to them in usage.
A radical letter is that which remains intact through all the
changes and derivations of the word. An additional letter is that which is
subjected to changes in different forms and derivations, as is the case
above.
The
words, which have three radical letters, are called ath-thulathi (trilateral).
Therefore, the occurrence of Naskh نسخ (abrogation) is related only to
injunctions that are not eternal and are equal with regard to the possibility
of their existence or non-existence.
Abrogation can never be taken to mean that Allaah commanded or
prohibited something and then thought better of it and decided to cancel His
former command. This is impossible because it involves attributing ignorance to
Allaah (Allaah forbid). Also it is not possible for Allaah to command or
prohibit something and then without any change in time, subject or conditions
to abrogate His injunction since that would lead to attributing imperfection to
Allaah. Allaah is FREE of any imperfection whatsoever.
What the Naskh
نسخ/Mansookh
منسوق
signified is that Allaah knows that a certain injunction will remain valid for
people up to certain time and then cease to be applicable. When that
specific time is reached, a new command is sent which seems to either abrogate
or change the former injunction but which, in fact, does nothing but mark the
expiration of its validity. Since the former command did not have a specific
period of validity attached to it, we take the new injunction as a cancellation
of the former.
Example:
An
employer might command one of his employees to do certain task with the
intention of asking him to do some other task after one year, without, however,
disclosing his intention to the employee. After the completion of the year,
when employer ask the employee to do the other job, the employee might think
that employer have changed or amended his orders, even though it is not the
case, in fact, employer has not made any changes or amended his plans. Like
all other changing phenomena around us, these apparent changes or amendments in
the divine injunction are part of Divine Wisdom, whether we know its
significance or not.
Therefore,
the literal meaning of Naskh نسخ is replacement
of one thing by another thing. Technical meaning from Islaamic point of view is
“Lifting the Law of Shariah by reasons of Shariah.”
That is why Allaah (SWT) says in Glorious Qur’aan 16:101:
وَإِذَا بَدَّلْنَا آيَةً مَكَانَ آيَةٍ
وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا يُنَزِّلُ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا أَنْتَ مُفْتَرٍ بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ
لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
And when We change a Verse (of the
Qur’ân,) in place of another - and Allâh knows best what He sends down - they
(the disbelievers) say: "You (O Muhammad صلى الله
عليه و سلم) are but a Muftari! (Forger, liar)." Nay, but most of them know
not.
بِنَسْخِهَا وَإِنْزَال غَيْرهَا لِمَصْلَحَةِ الْعِبَاد
"وَاَللَّه
أَعْلَم بِمَا يُنَزِّل قَالُوا"
أَيْ الْكُفَّار لِلنَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّه عَلَيْهِ
وَسَلَّمَ
"إنَّمَا
أَنْتَ مُفْتَرٍ"
كَذَّاب تَقُولهُ
مِنْ عِنْدك
"بَلْ
أَكْثَرهمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ"
حَقِيقَة الْقُرْآن وَفَائِدَة النَّسْخ
And
if We happen to exchange a revelation, which has already, served its purpose
for another revelation which is appropriate for the new circumstance, and Allah
knows exactly what to reveal and when, they - the infidels - accuse you (O
Muhammad) of forgery. Indeed most of them do not know the facts nor do they
reflect.
For details read my article on this subject: Abrogation in the Glorious Qur’aan and Abrogation in the Bible
By the way, yesterday, I have
invited Mr. Farooq Ibrahim for an open public debate on this subject matter by
sending multiple emails with “cc” to many individuals including others who have
also been challenged for an open public debate in front of video camera.
Needless, to say that all of those who have been challenged many times in the
past (with the exception of Mr. Farooq Ibrahim) every one has decided to remain
mute and has chosen to remain on the RUN, especially, Nadir Ahmed of website
“ExaminetheTruth.com.” Readers can see the challenge @ Challenge for
Open Public Debate in Front of Video Camera.
Conclusion!
Is it not most
extraordinary spectacle that Mr. Farooq Ibrahim should write on the subject of
“abrogation” without proper knowledge and education, and ask for any
confidence in his statements, who sets out as he does with copy and paste
portions of Islaamic/Qur’aanic teachings by merely using English translation, calling
upon the people to believe that it is true and fair representation, when the leading part and/or controlling
feature of the whole Qur’aanic teachings about Naskh نسخ is carefully suppressed by Mr. Farooq Ibrahim. The alleged conversion of Mr. Farooq Ibrahim to
Christianity is not an issue here, but nevertheless, entertains the idea that
Mr. Farooq Ibrahim’s decision to convert to Christianity was purely
based on ignorance with confused mind rather making an informed choice by
comparison with proper knowledge and understanding of both religions
i.e. Islaam and Christianity and/or Bible and Glorious Qur’aan. As the issue of
abrogation is actually problematic in the Bible for having adulterated
scriptures (OT & NT), for facts click on Abrogation in
the Bible.
Thursday, October 07, 2004