Abrogation in the Quran

مَا نَنسَخْ مِنْ ءَايَةٍ أَوْ نُنسِهَا

“Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten,”

نَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ مِّنْهَآ أَوْ مِثْلِهَآ

“We bring one better than it or like it.” (Quran 2:106)

Some verses are still printed in the Quran, yet classical scholars said they no longer count.

This is naskh: abrogation. What it is, its types, and what it cancelled.

In Arabic, naskh means copying, or removing.

In law, a later ruling cancels an earlier one.

Scholars cite the verse you just heard, and others.

Scholars name three types.

Most common: the words stay, the ruling goes.

Or the words go, the ruling stays: Umar said a stoning verse was once recited.

Or both go: Aisha said “ten sucklings” was revealed, then replaced.

Can a saying of Islam's Prophet cancel a verse?

Scholars split: some say a hadith cancelled the bequest verse; others, only the Quran can.

And praying toward Jerusalem, a practice, was replaced in the Quran by Mecca.

So what actually changed? Start with wine.

First: in wine is great sin, and some benefit.

Then: do not come to prayer drunk.

Finally: avoid it.

Five of the nine works we checked say the drunk-prayer verse was cancelled.

A widow's term: a year; then four months and ten days.

Twenty believers could beat 200; then God “lightened” it: 100 against 200.

Half the night in prayer; then, “recite what is easy.”

How many verses? Ibn Salama listed about 230.

Ibn al-Jawzi examined 247 cases, and accepted about 22.

Al-Suyuti: 20.

Shah Wali Allah: just five.

Then the Sword Verse: “When the sacred months have passed, kill the polytheists wherever you find them.”

Ibn Kathir quotes an early authority: it cancelled every treaty with the polytheists.

Ibn al-Arabi: it abrogated 124 verses.

Among the verses claimed: “No compulsion in religion,” in some opinions.

“To you your religion, and to me mine.”

“Pardon and overlook.”

“You are only a reminder; you are not a controller over them.”

For these scholars, those peaceful verses are like a used plane ticket, stamped void.

Still printed. Still recited. But no value. It can't be used again.

Not everyone agreed.

Al-Suyuti called many of them postponed, not cancelled: rules for a time of weakness.

Many modern scholars reject these claims.

If the Quran is God's eternal word, can part of it expire?

And who decides which verses still count? Sources at thequran.com.