Nasikh al-Quran al-Aziz wa Mansukhuh li-Ibn al-Barizi
- Author died
- 738 AH
- Editions
- Muʾassasat al-Risālah
Nasikh al-Quran al-Aziz wa-Mansukhuh (The Abrogating and Abrogated [Verses] of the Mighty Quran) is a concise treatise on Quranic abrogation written by Sharaf al-Din Hibat Allah ibn Abd al-Rahim ibn Ibrahim al-Juhani al-Hamawi, known as Ibn al-Barizi (d. 738 AH / 1338 CE) .
Purpose and Structure
Ibn al-Barizi framed the treatise as an abridgment (mūjaz) gathering all the abrogated and abrogating verses across the Quran, describing knowledge of abrogation as an essential prerequisite for anyone undertaking Quranic exegesis in order to distinguish the lawful from the unlawful .
The book begins with an introductory theoretical section addressing:
- The definition of abrogation (naskh) and its categories .
- The earliest instance of abrogation in Islamic revelation .
- An enumeration of the surahs containing abrogation versus those that contain no abrogated or abrogating verses .
- General categories of abrogated passages, including verses abrogated by the "Sword Verse" (āyat al-sayf), those abrogated by the "Verse of Fighting" ( قَاتِلُوا الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَلَا بِالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ ; Surat al-Tawbah 9:29), and verses whose general legal purport was restricted or abrogated by textual exceptions (al-istithnāʾ) .
Following the introduction, the author conducts a detailed surah-by-surah survey following the standard order of the Quranic text . For each abrogated passage, he pairs the text with its corresponding abrogator, explicitly identifying the surah containing the abrogating verse whenever it appears in a different chapter . Within the text, Ibn al-Barizi utilized shorthand symbolic sigla, placing the Arabic letter mīm (م) to denote an abrogated verse (mansūkh) and nūn (ن) to denote an abrogating verse (nāsikh) .
The work concludes with an epilogue delineating how early scholars understood the scope of naskh broadly in contrast to the narrower technical definition maintained by later scholars, as well as an overview of the classification of Makkan and Madinan chapters .
Reception and Critique
Modern commentators have noted that Ibn al-Barizi tended toward an expansive view of abrogation, counting 114 distinct Quranic verses as having been abrogated by the single "Sword Verse" alone .
Manuscripts and Publication
Manuscript copies of the treatise have survived in multiple collections, including a ninth-century AH copy preserved at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (MS 5881), transcribed in a clear Naskh hand with section headings rubricated in red ink and extensive marginal commentary, as well as a copy cataloged under the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts from Baku (MS 8469/6844-b) .
The text was edited by Hatim Salih al-Damin and published by Mu'assasat al-Risalah in Beirut across multiple editions (including 1405 AH / 1985 CE and 1418 AH / 1997–1998 CE) . It was also issued as part of a multi-treatise collection edited by al-Damin titled Arbaʿat Kutub fī al-Nāsikh wa-al-Mansūkh (Four Books on Abrogation) and within the publisher's wider abrogation monograph series .
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