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Baizawi1 in his comments on Surah ix. (At Taubah), ver. 29, explains the
words, "who profess not the Religion of the Truth," by saying, "which
abrogates the rest of the religions, and annuls them," and he speaks of "their
original religion, which is abrogated as to faith and conduct". Again, in the book
entitled
عيرن
اخبار آلرّضا, chapter 36, occurs the following passage: "Every 2 prophet
who was in the days of Moses and after him was upon the highroad of Moses and his
religious law and obedient to his book, until the time of Jesus. And every prophet who was
in the days of Jesus and after Him was upon the highroad of Jesus and His religious law,
and obedient to His book, until the time of our prophet Muhammad. And the religious law of
Muhammad shall not be abrogated until the day of the Resurrection." Here it is
distinctly implied that Jesus' law abrogated that of Moses, and that Muhammad's law
abrogated that of Jesus. And Akhund Mulla Muhammad Taqqi yi Kashani, in his Persian work
entitled
هداية
الطالبين در أُصول آلدّين, finished in A.H. 1285,3 says (p. 66): "For the People of
Islam knowledge has been acquired that now Muhammad is Prophet, and his religion abrogates
the religion of the previous prophets." This view is accepted by almost all the
ignorant and by many of the learned in Muslim lands.
Yet it should be noted that there is not a single word in the Qur'an, nor is there a
passage known to us in any of the Traditions
(احاديث) current among either Sunnis or
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Shi‘ites, which supports this opinion. Indeed, the whole tenor of the Qur'an is entirely
opposed to it. The verb nasakha
(نَسَخَ), with the sense of "to abrogate",
occurs only twice in the Qur'an (in Surahs ii. 100 and xxii. 51), and in neither of these
instances is it used in reference to any part of the Old Testament or of the New. On the
contrary, it is used of the abrogation of certain verses of the Qur'an itself, of which
Muslim 'Ulama say that 225 have been abrogated. Surah ii. (Al Baqarah), ver. 100,
runs thus: "Whatever We abrogate of a verse or cause it to be forgotten, We bring a
better than it, or its like: dost thou not know that God is Mighty over everything?"
It is true that Baizawi1 tells us that several different readings of the verse
occur, e.g. "Whatsoever We cause thee to forget of a verse, or We abrogate
it", &c.: but in none is the sense changed at all. The reference is to the
abrogation of certain Qur'anic verses, and to them only. A good illustration of the
meaning is given in Baizawi's2 commentary on Surah xxii. (Al Hajj), ver. 51,
where he tells us the story of how God abrogated in Surah liii. (An Najm), vers. 19, 20,
the words, "These3 are the exalted Swans, and verily their intercession is
to be hoped for," which Satan had beguiled Muhammad into uttering in regard to Al
Lat, Manat, and Al Uzza', three Arabian goddesses. The same tale is told by Yahya' and
Jalalu'ddin in their commentaries on Surah xxii. (Al Hajj), ver. 51, and by Ibn Ishaq in
Ibn Hisham's Siratu'r Rasul (vol. i, pp. 127 sqq.). Tabari and the Mawahibu'l Luduniyyah
also narrate the tale. There can therefore be no doubt as to what is referred to by the
words
فَيَنْسَخُ
اللهُ in this latter verse.
Although the fancy that the descent of the Zabur abrogated the Torah, and that the
Injil in like manner abrogated the Zabur, is entirely devoid of foundation
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