We now come to verse 106, another problem verse for Islamic scholars and apologists. Here again, the variety in translations and the explanatory notes inserted into the translated text is indicative of its controversial nature.
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Improvements and Corrections
2:106 “Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or like it. Do you not know that Allah has power over all things?”
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First let’s deal with the translations that try to address the problem:
Yusuf Ali begins with “None of Our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten”.
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Pickthal begins with “Nothing of our revelation (even a single verse) do we abrogate or cause to be forgotten”.
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And then they continue with the actual Quranic text about substitution with similar or better. These translations do not even put the first clause in parenthesis.
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Arberry tells it as it is, and so do the Hebrew translations. All translators agree that certain verses are substituted with others, equal or better.
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The other issue here is: who is speaking? The first clause seems to be by Allah (through one of the conduits used to deliver the Quranic miracles to Muhammad’s heart), but the second clause speaks about Allah in the third person. Having highlighted the problem, I will leave it to you to consider.
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So anyway, what’s the big deal? We are replacing what is old and no longer valid with new and current. This should be a good thing.
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This is the big deal: How is it that eternal revelations that transcend time require modification over time?
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If Allah is eternal, all knowing, omnipotent, infallible, and the Quran is the eternal universal scripture, how is it that things need to be changed, replaced and improved? Why couldn’t Allah get it right the first time round?
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It must be noted that our verse is clearly not about abrogating earlier scriptures. It deals with Allah’s Ayahs, verses, signs, miracles handed down to Muhammad. The doctrine of abrogation seems to be at odds with all that Islam is claiming regarding the nature of the Quran and of Allah.
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The Mother of the Book
Here are two other places where abrogation is dealt with in the Quran:
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13:39 “Allah blots out or confirms what He pleases: with Him is the Mother of the Book.” and 16:101 “And when We exchange a verse for another verse, and Allah knows best what He reveals, they say: ‘You are but a forger’. Nay, most of them do not know.”
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This last verse indicates that Muhammad had to contend with critics of the practice of abrogation, who accused him of forgery.
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The “Mother of the Book” is apparently the original collection of revelations kept by Allah in Heaven, from which Allah has been selecting revelations to be sent down to all his messengers, including Muhammad.
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This raises a few interesting questions:
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If the Mother of the Book is the definitive collection of all divine revelations, does it contain different versions of the same verse? Does it contain the abrogated verses? Why?
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Are these different versions sent down at Allah’s pleasure at different times and to different prophets? To what end?
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It is entirely understandable that Muhammad had to modify his message to accommodate shifting alliances and changes in circumstances. That would be a rational explanation to the abrogation phenomenon. It would, however, undermine Islam’s claim to the divinity and finality of the Quranic message.
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Muslim scholars who subscribe to the concept of abrogation list 225 verses which were abrogated. In our surah, 2:185 abrogates 2:184, in dealing with the requirements to fast during the month of Ramadhan. I will discuss it in more detail when we reach these verses.
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Another major abrogation in the Quran is the change of the direction of prayer (Qiblah) from Jerusalem to Mecca, which will be covered in a separate chapter, and yet another famous one is the cancellation of the “Satanic Verses”, discussed before in the chapter about the devil and his hosts.
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Abrogation Example
I will present here one of the most often quoted example of abrogated verses.
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8:65 “O Prophet! Urge the believers to war. If there are twenty patient ones of you, they shall overcome two hundred, and if there are a hundred of you they shall overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, because they are a people who do not understand.”
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8:66 “For the present Allah has made light your burden, and He knows that there is weakness in you. So if there are a hundred patient ones of you they shall overcome two hundred, and if there are a thousand they shall overcome two thousand by Allah’s permission, and Allah is with the patient.”
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“Patient” may not be the best translation of the Arabic word “Sabireen”. This is why Yusuf Ali says “patient and persevering”, Pickthal says “steadfast”, and the Hebrew translation uses an adjective the import of which is “hopeful in expectation”. One of the imports of the root S.B.R. is “hope”. At any rate, this is a tricky one.
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In verse 8:65 Allah assures the militants that they are 10 times better fighters than the enemy. In 8:66 the assessment is revised downward to a ratio of 2 to 1 only. The background to this is the battle of Badr.
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Ibn Ishaq, as he lays out the context for surah 8, dealing with this raid on the Meccan caravan and subsequent battle with the Meccans, and how the plunder is to be divided (the name of the 8th surah is “The Plunder”), tells us that (Sira:484):
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“… it came down as a shock to the Muslims, who took it hard that twenty should have to fight two hundred, and a hundred one thousand. So Allah relieved them and cancelled the verse with another …” that is, 8:66.
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The practical meaning of this abrogation was that if their number is equal to or greater than half that of the enemy’s, they must stay on and fight, but if the ratio worsens, a retreat would be permissible.
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It seems that Muhammad initially over-estimated his men’s fighting skills and courage, or underestimated the enemy’s. As he was gaining experience in battle, he fine-tuned his estimates. Of course, all instructions and revisions thereto were communicated to the men as revelations from ever-obliging Allah to Muhammad.
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I must add here that not all of Muhammad’s militants were Muslims. Many were still pagans. They were referred to as the “Ansar”, or helpers. They were mostly residents of the region of Medina, and their motivation for taking part in the Muhammad’s raids was a share of the plunder, of course. At Badr, the helpers outnumbered the Muslims.
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In fact, according to Muslim scholars, the Ansar played a decisive role in early Islamic military conquests, as they were feared by the Arab tribes. Some commentators claim that without their help, Arabia could not be Islamised and conquered.
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Much Discrepancy and Incoherence
And while on the subject of conflicting verses and inconsistencies, let’s have a look at 4:82, which is another instance where the Quran backs itself into a corner:
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“What, do they not ponder the Quran? If it had been from other than Allah, surely they would have found in it much inconsistency.”
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The Arabic word for “inconsistency” (or as others translate, “discrepancy”, “incongruity”, “opposites”), is “Ikhtilafan”. This term found its way into Shari’a as “Ikhtilaf”, meaning scholarly religious disagreement, which is deemed entirely legitimate in Islam.
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4:82, however, refers to differences within the Quran. Differences not between scholars, but between different revelations coming from the same source: Allah. And that should not only be discouraged, but must not happen. And what do you know? It happens a lot.
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The challenge to find inconsistencies within the Quran to prove that it is not from Allah is not a difficult one. That was the test, and from what I can see, the Quran clearly fails the test. Does that mean that the Quran is “from other than Allah?”
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Some apologists for Islam claim that the very fact that the Quran presents the reader with this potentially self-defeating challenge is a proof of its divinity. If it was not from Allah, would such a challenge be made, they ask. My response to this claim is: What?
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This challenge was really unnecessary, as was the challenge of “Produce a surah like this one”.
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Most scholars agree that the Quran was composed by mortals. The question of what or who inspired its authors is open to speculation. Its scriptural qualities should be tested in other ways.
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Back to our surah. 2:107-109 expand on the statement at the end of 2:106 about Allah being all powerful:
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“Do you not know that Allah’s is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and that besides Allah you have no guardian or helper?”
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This theme is appears frequently in the Bible. See for example in the Book of Psalms 124:8 “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”
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2:108 Muhammad hated being annoyed by the incessant questioning by “Jewish Rabbis” of Medina:
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“Or do you desire to question your Messenger as Musa was questioned in former time? Whoso exchanges belief for unbelief has surely strayed from the right way.”
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That last bit is to make sure you don’t forget what the right way is, although I could not see a logical link between the two parts of this verse (unless of course “belief” means unquestioning submission).
