What are the abrogating and the abrogated verses?
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The questioner : O Shaykh Muhammad, what are the abrogating and the abrogated verses, O Shaykh?
The Shaykh : It is not possible to encompass them all.
The questioner : Yes, Shaykh.
The Shaykh : And it requires a scholarly session.
The questioner : Yes, Shaykh.
The Shaykh : But here is an issue: some scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) are lenient regarding the issue of abrogation. It may be that the matter is not abrogation but rather specification, yet they call it abrogation. And although this is called abrogation in the terminology of the early scholars—that is, they name specification as abrogation—some people are lenient regarding abrogation in its technical sense. You will find them counting many verses as abrogated and many hadiths as abrogated, even though reconciliation is possible.
The abrogated rulings do not exceed ten rulings, or perhaps a few more. As for what some scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) do, where whenever they are unable to reconcile between two texts they say it is abrogated, that is negligence regarding abrogation. And negligence regarding abrogation is not a trivial matter, because its consequence is the invalidation of one of the texts, and invalidating a text is a difficult matter that is not possible. The obligatory course is to reconcile as much as possible. If reconciliation becomes impossible, we look to the chronology, and knowledge of history is necessary. The earlier one is abrogated, and the later one is the abrogator. Yes.
The questioner : May Allah reward you.
The Shaykh : It is not possible to encompass them all.
The questioner : Yes, Shaykh.
The Shaykh : And it requires a scholarly session.
The questioner : Yes, Shaykh.
The Shaykh : But here is an issue: some scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) are lenient regarding the issue of abrogation. It may be that the matter is not abrogation but rather specification, yet they call it abrogation. And although this is called abrogation in the terminology of the early scholars—that is, they name specification as abrogation—some people are lenient regarding abrogation in its technical sense. You will find them counting many verses as abrogated and many hadiths as abrogated, even though reconciliation is possible.
The abrogated rulings do not exceed ten rulings, or perhaps a few more. As for what some scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) do, where whenever they are unable to reconcile between two texts they say it is abrogated, that is negligence regarding abrogation. And negligence regarding abrogation is not a trivial matter, because its consequence is the invalidation of one of the texts, and invalidating a text is a difficult matter that is not possible. The obligatory course is to reconcile as much as possible. If reconciliation becomes impossible, we look to the chronology, and knowledge of history is necessary. The earlier one is abrogated, and the later one is the abrogator. Yes.
The questioner : May Allah reward you.