Al-Baqarah 106

4 min read

This axis brings together 4 instances of the use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

Text of the Verse as Cited

Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring forth one better than it or like it …

Reader’s Answer

Question

How does Muhammad Shahrur read God’s saying, “Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring forth one better than it or like it”? Does he take it as evidence for the abrogation of Qur’anic verses by other verses?

No. Shahrur reads the verse as evidence for the possibility of abrogation in the two senses of annulment and modification, but confines it to transitions between legal systems and messages, rather than to the repeal of verses within the single Qur’anic message. He therefore rejects the suspension of any Qur’anic verse or the judgment that it has lost its sphere of application; in his view, every verse has circumstances and a domain in which it operates.

Shahrur states that the abrogation mentioned in al-Baqarah 106 exists “in its two senses: annulment and modification,” but that it is “abrogation between legal systems and messages, not between the verses of a single message.” Shahrur employs the verse to criticize the claim that certain Qur’anic verses were permanently annulled or suspended; he maintains that every verse can operate, and that the issue is to identify the circumstances and domains in which it operates.

Citation and Location

Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism — p. 51.

Limits of the Reading

  • This page documents Shahrur’s reading of the verse; it does not assess the validity of this reading or compare it with other exegetical approaches and schools of abrogation.
  • The claim that the context indicates abrogation between legal systems is Shahrur’s argument as attributed to him in the cited passage, not an independent conclusion established by the page itself.
  • The direct citation does not complete its detailed presentation of the context in the excerpt, so no broader contextual reasoning should be attributed to it beyond what he explicitly states.

Continue From Here

Brief Reading

The verse is used to ground an understanding of abrogation as a transition between legal systems, not within the Qur’anic codex itself.

Axes

  • Methodological
  • Legislative
  • Abrogation: 5

Its Place in the Network of Concepts

It is connected to the recalibration of the concept of abrogation within the movement of divine messages.

The Verse’s Role in the Argument

  • Foundational: 3
  • Critique of tradition: 1

Instances of Use

  • the Book and the Qur’an, p. 384: he makes it the theoretical basis for understanding abrogation as replacement or causing to be forgotten, connected to the development of legislation between messages.
    • Concept: abrogation
    • Function of the verse here: foundational
    • Textual citation: “- {Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring forth one better than it or like it …} (al-Baqarah 106).”
  • Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism, p. 51: he accepts the existence of abrogation but confines it to between legal systems and messages, not within a single message.
    • Concept: abrogation
    • Function of the verse here: foundational
    • Textual citation: “{Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring forth one better than it …} (al-Baqarah 106)”
  • Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 90: he confines abrogation to transitions between legal systems and denies the existence of abrogating and abrogated verses within the Qur’anic codex itself, as became widespread in the tradition.
    • Concept: abrogation
    • Function of the verse here: critique of tradition
    • Textual citation: “There are no abrogating and abrogated verses between the covers of the noble Qur’anic codex… As for the validity of His—exalted be He—saying: {Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten …} (al-Baqarah 106), it is manifest in abrogation between legal systems.”
    • Contrasting traditional reading: abrogation within the Qur’an between verses of the codex
  • Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 109: he redirects abrogation so that it occurs between divine legal systems rather than within the Qur’anic codex itself, and makes the verse evidence for this transition.
    • Concept: abrogation
    • Function of the verse here: foundational
    • Textual citation: “This is what we understand from His—exalted be He—saying: {Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring forth one better than it or like it} (al-Baqarah 106)”
    • Contrasting traditional reading: abrogation within the Qur’an

This page is presented within the atlas’s general methodology of atlas construction.

Graph View

Muhammad Shahrur Atlas