Zentrum für arabisches und islamisches Recht

Abrogation in the Koran

Abrogation created polemics during the time of Muhammad. His adversaries used to accuse him of modifying the orders being given to the believers. It was then that Koranic verses were revealed according to which it was God who had provided for the changes through abrogation:

When we change a sign in place of another sign, and God knows best what he descends, they say: «You are but a forger». ~ Rather most of them do not know (70/16:101).

Whatever sign we abrogate or cause to be forgotten, we bring one better than it or similar to it. ~ Do you not know that God is powerful on everything? (87/2:106).

Muslim jurists have identified different categories of abrogation:

- A verse may abrogate another one, but both retain their place in the Koran. One speaks then of the abrogation of the norm and the maintaining of the recitation. Thus 87/2:115 related to the direction of the prayer has been abrogated by 87/2:144 that fixes the direction of the prayer toward the Kaaba.

- Some normative verses may have been revealed to Muhammad but later replaced by other normative verses with a different content. But neither the former nor the latter have been maintained in the Koran. For instance, according to the testimony of Ayshah, the wife of Muhammad, revelation may have contained a verse establishing the prohibition of marriage between foster relatives should there have been more than ten suckles, a number reduced to five by another verse. The two verses have disappeared from the Koran, but the latter is always in force.

- A revealed verse found in the Koran can be abrogated by a verse which disappeared from the Koran. For instance, verse 102/24:2 foresees one hundred lashes in case of fornication. This verse is still found in the Koran, but it has been abrogated by another verse reported by the Caliph 'Umar (d. 644) which does not appear in the Koran and which prescribes lapidation for this offense.¹

- Some verses have been revealed to Muhammad, but God made him forget them. Such verses, sometimes transcribed by his scribes, were erased by miracle, and those who learnt them by heart also forgot them by miracle. The Koran echoes this phenomenon (8/87:6-7 and 87/2:106).

- Some verses were revealed by Satan, but abrogated by God. This is indicated in 103/22:52. The famous satanic verses (title of the book of Salman Rushdie) echoed by the verses 23/53:19-23 are part of this category.

- Some verses of the Koran were abrogated by Muhammad's Sunnah (tradition). For example, the Koran says: «It is prescribed for you, when death is present to any of you, if he leaves any goods, a bequest for parents and relatives according to usage. It is a duty for the fearers» (87/2:180). This verse has been abrogated by the words of Muhammad: «No legacy for the heir».

- Some of Muhammad's narrations were abrogated by Koranic verses. Thus, the amnesty pact signed between Muhammad and Makka (before its conquest) contained a clause according to which Muhammad was to hand back to the Makkans every man who would convert to Islam in order to join him. The accord was however abrogated by verse 91/60:10.

- Multiple abrogations: The most famous case is the one of the prohibition of the consumption of wine, regulated progressively by verses 87/2:219, 92/4:43 and 112/5:90-91. The three Koranic verses abrogating one another without prescribing any penalty, were abrogated by a hadith of Muhammad according to which he flogged a wine drinker.

Today, abrogation still provokes many controversies. The question is so delicate that it cost the life of the Sudanese thinker Mahmud Muhammad Taha, hanged in 1985 by Numeiri. Taha supported the idea that the first part of the Koran revealed in Makka, before the hegira, constituted the real Islam, and that the second part revealed after the hegira was of a conjunctural character. Therefore, according to Taha, the first part abrogated the second part. In 1975, President Ziad Berri of Somalia used to say in his public discourse that half of the Koran was abrogated or contradictory, and that, by consequence, it was no longer applicable. He attracted condemnation from the Azhar on February 6, 1975.² The contemporary Muslim authors who sustain the phenomenon of the abrogation within the Koran indicate that this phenomenon applies also to the Old Testament³ and the New Testament.⁴

Muslim authors do not agree about the number of the abrogated Koranic verses. Thus, Ibn Al-Jawzi (d. 1200) presents 247 abrogated verses, whereas Al-Suyuti (d. 1505) mentions only the following 22 verses: 3/73:1-3*; 87/2:180; 87/2:183; 87/2:184; 87/2:217; 87/2:240; 87/2:284; 88/8:65*; 89/3:102*; 90/33:52; 91/60:11; 92/4:8; 92/4:15*; 92/4:16*; 92/4:33*; 102/24:2; 102/24:58; 105/58:12*; 112/5:2; 112/5:42; 112/5:106; 113/9:41. Reviewing these verses, a Koranic encyclopaedia published by the Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf in 2003⁵ considers as abrogated only the verses marked by (*). Mustafa Zayd compiled a list of abrogated verses according to the different classic authors and arrived at 293 verses, but out of which he retained only the following six verses: 3/73:1-3; 88/8:65; 92/4:15; 92/4:16; 92/4:43; 105/58:12.¹

The wide gulf between the positions of Muslim authors must incite the reader to prudence before pronouncing himself on what has and what has not been abrogated in the Koran. We have indicated in our book the abrogated verses and those which abrogate them according to the contradictory sources, without taking position. The reader who wishes to have an overall view on the question can consult the following modern books:

- Al-Abyari, Ibrahim: Al-Mawsu'ah al-qur'aniyyah, Mu'assasat sijil al-'arab, Cairo, 1984, vol. 2, p. 537-568.

- Al-Mawsu'ah al-qur'aniyyah al-mutakhassisah, Wizarat al-awqaf, Cairo, 2003, p. 632-650.

- Al-Hafni, 'Abd-al-Mun'im: Mawsu'at Al-Qur’an al-'adhim, Maktabat Madbuli, Cairo, 2004, vol. 2, p. 1475-1535.

- Zayd, Mustafa, Al-Naskh fil-Qur'an, dirasah tashri'iyyah tarikhiyyah naqdiyyah, 2 vols., Dar al-wafa, Al-Mansurah, 3^rd edition, 1987.²

Abrogation raises a sensitive problem notably in relation with what the classic sources call the verse of the sword which is, according to the dominant opinion, the following verse:

Once the forbidden months are over, kill the associators wherever you find them, take them, besiege them, and lie in wait for them [in] every ambush. But if they repent, perform the prayer, and give the tithe, then let them go their way. ~ God is forgiver, very-merciful (113/9:5).³

Some classic authors consider that this verse abrogates 124,⁴ or even 140⁵ tolerant verses of the Koran. One can probably explain the attitude of these authors, sometimes adopted by fundamentalists, by the tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims. Modern authors contest the conclusions of their predecessors and prefer to insist on the tolerant character of the Koran. We have indicated such verses in the notes without taking position.

The verses that we have indicated as abrogated in our book are those which are still found in the Koran. Classic authors indicate that the Koran contained a certain number of verses that have disappeared. According to them, the angel Gabriel reviewed the Koran annually with Muhammad, the last review having taken place before the latter’s death. At every review, the angel suppressed some verses. Al-Suyuti (d. 1505) pointed out that chapter 90/33 initially contained 200 verses, or was even longer than chap. 87/2 (286 verses) and yet only 73 verses were retained from this chapter in the Koran. He also gave other examples of chapters or verses which have disappeared from the Koran.⁶