LessonsAbrogation in the Qur’an: Terminology, Disputed Cases and PrinciplesQuiz

“Women are not lawful to you after this” (al-Aḥzāb 33:52, excerpt) has been compared with “We have made lawful to you your wives ...” (33:50).

The two passages raise questions about the scope of the restrictions and permissions and, crucially, the historical sequence in which related rulings were revealed. The order in which verses are recited in the muṣḥaf need not reproduce their chronological order.

A technical argument about which verse superseded another therefore needs evidence of legal and chronological sequence. Placement in the written Qur’an cannot, by itself, decide which ruling is later.

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Al-Aḥzāb 33:52: recitation order and legal sequence

Abrogation in the Qur’an: Terminology, Disputed Cases and Principles

“Women are not lawful to you after this” (al-Aḥzāb 33:52, excerpt) has been compared with “We have made lawful to you your wives ...” (33:50).

The two passages raise questions about the scope of the restrictions and permissions and, crucially, the historical sequence in which related rulings were revealed. The order in which verses are recited in the muṣḥaf need not reproduce their chronological order.

A technical argument about which verse superseded another therefore needs evidence of legal and chronological sequence. Placement in the written Qur’an cannot, by itself, decide which ruling is later.