Divine Wisdom Behind Abrogation

What is the divine wisdom behind abrogation?

Abrogation is a divine Providence which God disposes via His absolute will, as far as orders and prohibitions are concerned. He establishes whatever He will and effaces whatever He will from the laws He has established. Nevertheless, His commands and prohibitions are always connected to divine wisdom.

Many remarkable things happen around us and human needs are diversified according to the time, place, and individuals. A doctor, for instance, may prescribe a certain medicine to their patients according to the patient’s needs. In the first stages of the illness the dosage is high, and then as the patient regains health the amount of medicine would be reduced. Similarly, a mother breastfeeds her baby at first and gradually introduces the baby to bland and easy to digest solids. She gradually adds new and more solids into the baby’s diet as the baby develops and grows. This is a gradual process that is in keeping with the development of the child. God, with His eternally All-Encompassing Knowledge, knows that the abrogated injunction is a temporary one, but not a permanent one. He also knows that such temporality is limited to the announcement of the abrogating injunction. God’s eternal Knowledge covers the new injunctions that have substituted the previous ones ( nasikh) and the abrogated ones ( mansukh) altogether. This shows that naskh, in fact, is the announcement of the latter injunction in God’s Knowledge whereas it is an abrogation in human comprehension. Our limited knowledge and comprehension recognize the announcement of the latter rule as an abrogation, since the time of expiry of the former rule has not been announced. There is no way that Omnipotent God cannot know that some of His commands will be substituted. He had the knowledge of both those that will be abrogated and the new ones that will take their place before He created the world. Also, by His Supreme Divinity and wisdom, the Transcendent Being, Who wills good for humankind and Who has knowledge of all things and events beforehand, knows that the abrogated injunction is limited only due to a good reason and a divine wisdom that expires at a certain time.

 

Akgul, Muhittin (2009). The Quran in 99 Questions (Abdullah Erdemli Trans.). New Jersey: Tughra Books. (Originally published in Turkish as Kur’an İklimine Seyahat)