al-Nasikh wal-Mansukh - al-Maqri
- Author died
- 410 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktab al-Islāmī
al-Nasikh wal-Mansukh (The Abrogating and Abrogated) is a treatise on Quranic abrogation by the Baghdadi Quran commentator and reciter Abu al-Qasim Hibat Allah ibn Salama (d. 410 AH / 1019 CE) . It provides a concise, surah-by-surah survey of Quranic passages held to have been superseded or abrogated in Islamic legal and exegetical tradition .
Structure and Contents
The author opened the work with an introductory section of at least thirteen pages addressing key conceptual foundations of abrogation, including its definition, its divisions, and its overarching significance in Islamic jurisprudence . In this preface, Ibn Salama categorizes the chapters of the Quran into distinct groups:
- Surahs containing abrogating verses but no abrogated ones .
- Surahs containing abrogated verses but no abrogating ones .
- Surahs containing both abrogating and abrogated verses .
The introduction also outlines scholarly disputes regarding the occurrence of abrogation in Arabic speech, addresses polemical objections raised by heretics and hypocrites regarding shifts in divine rulings, and traces the chronological sequence of abrogation across legal enactments .
The main body of the book surveys the verses considered abrogated, arranged sequentially according to their order across the surahs of the Quran .
Transmission and Reception
The text was transmitted on Ibn Salama's authority by Abu Muhammad Rizq Allah ibn Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Tamimi . The grammarian and reciter Alam al-Din al-Sakhawi utilized the book in his Jamal al-Qurra', recording that he had received it through an isnad passing through the hafiz Abu Muhammad al-Qasim ibn Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn Hibat Allah back to the author, describing Ibn Salama as a righteous man . The book was also recorded by Qadi Iyad in al-Ghunyah and by al-Dhahabi in Tadhkirat al-Huffaz . Abu al-Barakat al-Sa'idi's work al-Ijaz fi Ma'rifat Ma fil-Qur'an min Mansukh wa-Nasikh largely serves as an abridgment of Ibn Salama's treatise alongside Makki ibn Abi Talib's al-Iydah .
Scholars examining the text have observed that Ibn Salama went to great lengths in asserting abrogation, frequently claiming it for numerous verses that are distant from actual abrogation .
Editions
The work has been published in multiple printings:
- An edition in Cairo printed by Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi .
- A critical edition prepared by Zuhayr al-Shawish and Muhammad Kan'an, published by al-Maktab al-Islami in Beirut (1st edition 1404 AH / 1984 CE; 2nd edition 1406 AH / 1986 CE), comprising 214 pages .
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