Introduction: The Lexical Meaning of Naskh, and What Is Naskh and Mansukh?

نسخ کے لغوی معنی — ناسخ و منسوخ کی بحث کیا ہے؟

The Lexical Meaning of Naskh (Abrogation)

Naskh (abrogation) lexically means to remove and eliminate a thing. It is said: 'naskhat al-shams al-zill wa al-shayb al-shabab' — the sun removes the shade, and old age removes youth. It is also said: 'nasakat al-rihu athar al-dar' — the wind erased the traces of the dwelling. 'Falana abtal al-shay' — so-and-one has rendered a thing null and void, and so-and-one has established another thing in its place.

The Qur'an sharif differs from the rulings and injunctions of previous religions and earlier nations in that the naskh (abrogation) of those customs, practices, and injunctions in the Qur'an does not give rise to any disagreement among commentators. It is among the settled matters that previous customs, practices, and divine injunctions have been abrogated and replaced by the Qur'anic ones. But because some mufassirun have adopted the view that certain verses among the Qur'an's own verses are mutually naskh (abrogating) of one another, a great controversy has arisen regarding the Qur'an's own injunctions. As a consequence of the differences among the commentators, certain Qur'anic verses have acquired a very large number of 'abrogated' verses attributed to them. Ibn al-'Arabi (rahimahullah) estimated this number at five hundred. Hazrat Imam Jalal al-Din Suyuti (rahimahullah) counted the abrogated verses as approximately twenty-one. Hazrat Sheikh Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahim Shah Waliullah (rahimahullah) considered only four or five. In my own view, no Qur'anic verse of any ruling has been abrogated. Shah Sahib has given a detailed account of those five verses in an independent treatise. On this occasion, I intend briefly to set forth the causes of the error, and to examine each of those five verses which Shah Sahib was forced to consider abrogated — so as to fulfill the purpose of a noble household's mission.

What Is the Discussion of Naskh and Mansukh?

In the earlier period, scholars would use the term 'naskh' to refer to a certain kind of change in the sense of a previous verse — to indicate by this that the verse's governing command has been altered. They would declare this verse to be the naskh (abrogator) of that one. In the principles of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh), naskh means: annulling the ruling of the first verse and establishing in its place another ruling. And at that time all the generality of the scholars (jumhur al-'ulama') did not take naskh to mean this technical definition.