al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh - Ibn Hazm
- Author died
- 456 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah
al-Nāsikh wa al-Mansūkh (The Abrogator and the Abrogated) is a treatise on the science of Quranic abrogation attributed to the Andalusian scholar Ibn Hazm (384–456 AH / 994–1064 CE), named in the text's opening as Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Hazm . The work classifies and analyzes the verses of the Quran to distinguish abrogating rulings from those that were superseded .
Purpose and Theoretical Framework
The author introduces the work by defining knowledge of abrogation as an essential component of legal reasoning (ijtihād), emphasizing that the foundation of ijtihād is textual transmission (naql), of which abrogation is a primary branch . To demonstrate the necessity of this discipline, he cites traditions from early authorities, including Ali ibn Abi Talib warning a magistrate who was ignorant of abrogation that he had ruined himself and misled others, as well as statements from Hudhayfah and Ibn Abbas .
The theoretical introduction defines naskh linguistically as either nullification and removal (izālah) or transcription and transfer (naql) . In legal terms, it is defined as the indication of the expiration of a devotional obligation whose initial phrasing implied permanence, or the lifting of a ruling after its establishment . The author outlines several conditions for abrogation:
- The abrogating ruling must be established through a revealed address (khiṭāb) .
- The abrogated matter must be a legal ruling (ḥukm sharʿī), rather than rational default statuses (al-barāʾah al-aṣliyyah) .
- The initial ruling must not have been explicitly limited to a specific time .
- The abrogating text must chronologically succeed the abrogated one .
The text specifies that abrogation applies exclusively to commands and prohibitions, whereas pure informative reports (al-akhbār al-maḥḍah) are not subject to abrogation .
Structure and Content
The treatise divides abrogation in the Quran into three standard categories:
- Abrogation of both the recitation and the legal ruling (naskh al-khaṭṭ wa al-ḥukm) .
- Abrogation of the recitation while the legal ruling remains in effect (naskh al-khaṭṭ dūna al-ḥukm) .
- Abrogation of the legal ruling while the recitation remains preserved (naskh al-ḥukm dūna al-khaṭṭ) .
The book categorizes the chapters of the Quran based on abrogation status:
- Forty-three surahs contain neither an abrogating nor an abrogated verse, such as Surat al-Fatihah, Yusuf, Ya-Sin, al-Hujurat, al-Rahman, al-Hadid, al-Saff, al-Jumu'ah, al-Tahrim, and al-Mulk .
- Twenty-five surahs contain both abrogating and abrogated verses, comprising al-Baqarah, Al 'Imran, al-Nisa', al-Ma'idah, al-Anfal, al-Tawbah, Ibrahim, Maryam, al-Anbiya', al-Hajj, al-Nur, al-Furqan, al-Shu'ara', al-Ahzab, al-Mu'min, al-Shura, al-Dhariyat, al-Tur, al-Waqi'ah, al-Mujadilah, al-Muzzammil, al-Muddaththir, al-Takwir, and al-'Asr .
The author proceeds through the surahs in textual order, enumerating specific cases. In Surat al-Baqarah, for example, he lists twenty-six instances, pairing each abrogated passage with its abrogating counterpart, such as identifying the sword verse ( فَاقْتُلُوا الْمُشْرِكِينَ حَيْثُ وَجَدْتُمُوهُمْ ) as the abrogator of the command to speak gently to people ( وَقُولُوا لِلنَّاسِ حُسْنًا ) .
Reception and Editions
Modern scholar Muhammad Abd al-Azim al-Zarqani classified the author among the expansive compilers of abrogation—alongside Abu Ja'far al-Nahhas and Ibn Salama—arguing that they overly inflated the number of abrogated verses by mistakenly including instances where early authorities intended semantic qualification or specification rather than strict technical abrogation .
The treatise was printed in Cairo on the margins of Tafsir al-Jalalayn at the Azhariyya Press in 1303 AH (with bibliographic references also recording printings in 1297 AH and 1308 AH) . It was later edited by Abd al-Ghaffar Sulayman al-Bandari and published in Beirut in 1406 AH / 1986 CE .
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