The criteria for copying the verses of the Qur’an and their correction according to Al-Nahhas (d. 338 AH) in his book “The Abrogating and the Abrogated”

Abstract

The study of abrogation (nasikh wa mansukh) in the Holy Quran represents a fundamental pillar in Quranic sciences and interpretation. Understanding the verses and determining their practical meanings depends on knowing which rulings have been abrogated and which remain as originally prescribed. Muslim scholars have devoted great attention to this science since the early days, considering its mastery a fundamental condition for the validity of interpretation and independent reasoning, and even for establishing the true concepts of Sharia and its objectives in society. The importance of this research is compounded when we consider the extent of the problems that have been raised throughout history regarding the identification of the sources and controls of abrogation, as evidenced in the book "Al-Nasikh wa Al-Mansukh" (The Abrogating and the Abrogated) by Abu Ja'far Al-Nahhas, one of the oldest and most reliable books written on this topic.

The approach was not limited to monitoring the abrogated rulings, but the author took a critical and discriminating approach between the sayings of the predecessors and imams, employing the tools of transmission, reason, and induction in order to control the sources of abrogation and highlight the aspects of distinction between what is true abrogation and what is specification, restriction, or explanation. The subject of abrogation has received a generous share of study and documentation among Muslim scholars, both ancient and modern, from the first era until the present time, due to its great importance in Islamic law, because it is what the legal rulings related to the accountable are based on. Therefore, the people of knowledge were preoccupied with abrogation until it crystallized as a science of the sciences of the Qur’an called the science of abrogation or the abrogating and abrogated. Abrogation has gone through many stages until it was recently settled on its fundamental meaning, which will be explained. Some researchers have fallen into some confusion due to their failure to differentiate between interpretive abrogation and fundamental abrogation. I claim that there are a large number of claims of abrogation, and this confusion is revealed by knowing the difference between the two mentioned abrogations through explaining the developmental stages of the concept of abrogation, as the book “The Abrogating and the Abrogated” by Ibn al-Nahhas has He established strict controls for abrogation, requiring explicit, definitive transmission and rejecting ijtihad or conjecture. He distinguished between true abrogation and specialization. He also placed great importance on verifying the chains of transmission of narrations and comparing verses chronologically. Although the schools of thought agreed on the vitality of his standards in preventing jurisprudential laxity, he was criticized for limiting himself to the Sunni heritage and neglecting the heritage of the Ahl al-Bayt.