Ibn Taymiyyah also identified "something that Satan has managed to insinuate into Revelation through Prophetic error" is naskh-ed by a divine verse, (which he calls al-naw' al-ikharmin al-naskh).
[Note 10] Many recount an incident where a Kufan preacher is banned from expounding the Quran on account of his ignorance of the principles of naskh by an early 'ilmic authority figure (usually Rashidun Caliph 'Alī, but sometimes also Ibn 'Abbās, cousin of Muhammad and hadith narrator).
(Not only do they provide validity for the theory from "the mouths of men believed to have known the Prophet's mind best",[92] but the reports specifically call for judicial or religious offices in the community to be occupied by those trained in "this indispensable knowledge".
[97] Naskh meaning evolved as early applications of the concept were abandoned (like other technical terms within Islamic exegesis — such as asbāb al-nuzūl, the historical context in which Quranic verses were revealed).
In early works of tafsīr (before about 150 AH), Naskh was used to refer to a ruling that narrowed rather than replaced an earlier one (nasakha min [al-āya] — "an exception is provided to [the verse]").
[100] Ibrahim al-Nakha'i (d. 96/714) is reported to have said that verse Q.5:106 was abrogated[Note 13] Naskh as "a technical term meaning 'abrogation'" was used "early on in exegesis, for example, in Muqātil's [d. 149-150] Khams mi'a āya and his tafsīr.
[103] At least by the eleventh century the classical concept of naskh of the Quran and Sunnah was widely accepted enough for one scholar — Ibn Hilal al-Nahwi — to assert that "whoever says" that there is no abrogation in Islam "is not a believer, but rather a kafir, denying that with which Muhammad came.
[13] According to Karel Steenbrink, "most" of the modernist or reformist scholars of that era (Muhammad Abduh, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, and Rashid Rida),[13] considered the theory of abrogation of the Quran invalid.
By this time the Islamic empire spanned three continents and fiqh had been established in the different regions but usulis found rulings in certain verses of the Quran and parts of the Sunnah had been ignored in their formulation.
[111] But according to scholars such as David S. Powers and John Burton, while the doctrine of abrogation may have cleared up contradictions, it "poses a difficult theological problem" because it seems to suggest God was changing His mind,[114] or has realized something He was unaware of when revealing the original verse.
:[123] The "classical"[31] and oft cited example of how naskh was used in stages to guide a major change in the behavior of the faithful was the banning of alcohol, implemented in three verses.
[166] Burton argues that protecting established fiqh rulings from the contradiction of Quranic verses such as Q.2:240 (and not addressing conflicts between different lines of revelation) was what motivated the usulis who developed the theory of naskh.
[citation needed] Burton suggests that the idea that naskh can be explained as takhfīf (lightening) is of limited usefulness because it is applied to both naskh that make things easier for Muslims in the temporal world — like no longer requiring lengthy nocturnal prayers or lowering the number of enemies each Muslim warrior is expected to vanquish; and abrogation that makes things more difficult — for example, the extension of the ritual fast from a few days (Quran 2:184) to the entire month of Ramadan (Quran 2:185).
According to Mohammad Hashim Kamali,[173] its application to Ijma` and Qiyas — secondary sources of Sunni Islamic law unlike the Qur'an and the Sunnah not divinely revealed — "has been generally overruled", as abrogation "is not relevant" to Ijma (the consensus or agreement of Muslim scholars on a religious issue),[174] and the theory of naskh "has no place" in Qiyas (the process of deductive analogy in Islamic scripture in order to apply a known injunction (nass) to a new circumstance and create a new injunction).
(According to at least one non-Muslim scholar — Andrew Rippin — naskh texts in Islam have not demonstrated that verses rendered invalid by shariah law were revealed earlier, but simply assumed they must have been.
Further, to leave the wording, following the abrogation of the ruling was to provide for men a constant reminder of the compassion and mercy shown by their gracious Lord [ar-Rahman] Who had lightened the burden of some his previous requirements.
I confirm that the penalty of Rajam be inflicted on him who commits illegal sexual intercourse, ...[206]Roslan Abdul-Rahim argues "the cases of rajm [stoning], and rada [kinship from breastfeeding] do not support this form of abrogation: The trouble with this understanding however is, Q.2:106, the report of Ubayy questioning the Prophet, and the exchange between 'Abd Allah ibn Zubayr with 'Uthman ibn 'Affan, all suggest that naskh is not synonymous with forgetfulness, disappearance of revelations or the exclusion of revelatory texts from the Qur'an.
)[207][208] This form of naskh also poses the question of why a verse important enough to be the basis of immutable hukm (ruling) dealing with life and death would disappear from the written Quran (mus'haf),[22] and what scripture allows it.
[204] Hasan also argues against the report that some surahs (muawwadhatdn) were not included in the mus'haf saying that "certain companions" heard Muhammad reciting a qunut or du'a prayer and thought it was part of the Qur'an.
[193][241][242] A wide variety of Islamic scholars — Syed Ahmad Khan,[243][27] — also states that naskh applies "between religions", i.e. that the Qur'an has cancelled "the laws enunciated in the earlier Divine Scriptures like the Old and the New Testaments".
[158] Similarly, Ibn Al-Qayyim and Abu Amina Elias argue that what early Muslims called abrogating is now considered interpretation: The general meaning of the righteous predecessors when using the words 'abrogating' and 'abrogated' is sometimes the complete removal of the previous ruling – and this is the technical term of the latter generations – or sometimes the removal of the general, absolute, and outward meaning, whether by specification, restriction, interpreting an absolute as limited, or by explanation and clarification.
[105] In addition some non-mainstream sects of Islam — such as the Mu'tazili, Zaidiyah, and Quranists, and more recently the Ahmadiyya — have rejected naskh on the rationalist grounds that the word of God can not contain contradictions.
[255] Mohammed al-Ghazali quotes "jurist and historian", al-Khidri, as "categorically rejected" naskh of Quranic verses, saying abrogation "does not occur except to make specific, or limit, or explain that which is otherwise general and unconditional."
Eleventh century scholar Ibn Hilal al-Nahwi (mentioned above) declared that "whoever says" that there is no abrogation in Islam "is not a believer, but rather a kafir," and "must renounce his position or be killed".
More recently, Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz (Wahhabi scholar and Grand Mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the time), responded to an article which included some ideas against the concept of abrogation, by stating that the author was guilty of "an act of clear disbelief, a repudiation of Islam, and denial of Allah the Glorious and His Prophet on whom be peace ...
As mentioned above, the idea that Islamic revelation abrogates earlier Jewish and Christian religious laws handed down by monotheist messengers before Muhammad, is widely accepted among Muslims.
Taha argues that the Medinan surah, though revealed later in the mission of Muhammad, are not corrections of Meccan revelations but contain specialized commands/doctrine, "compromises" for the political climate, which while appropriate for their time are not eternal and are not necessarily appropriate for the 20th or 21st century.
[105] Ahmad Hasan argues that since the Quran is valid for eternity, the solution to any contradictions found within it is not to abrogate earlier verses, but to recognize that Qur'anic revelations varied to keep "pace with the changing conditions and environment" and must be studied and applied to their "historical context".
These treatises invariably begin with an introduction designed to impress the importance and high Islamic credibility of the science, often by an appeal to 'ilmic authority figures of the past (as in the story of 'Alī and the Kufan preacher).
As is made clear in these stories, "none may occupy judicial or religious office in the community who is not equipped with this indispensable knowledge and who is incapable of distinguishing nāsikh [abrogator] from mansūkh [abrogatee].