101 Reasons Why We Left Islam – Chapter 1: Abrogation– Reason 1
Abrogation (نسخ) is a term used in Islam to refer to Quranic commandments that are cancelled or overwritten by a new commandment via a verse in the Quran. This is mentioned in the Quran as something Allah does from time to time (2:106, 16:101). While the Arabic term actually reads ‘copying’, in effect, Abrogation means ‘overriding’. The justification is that Allah modified aspects of the Quran to allow a smooth transition from the pagan and non-believing practices of the pre-Islamic era into the new Islamic era. Alcohol is a typical example presented in Reason #3, whereby alcohol was restricted and banned gradually. This justification is not always accurate. For example, initially, Muslims who found fasting difficult were allowed to feed a poor person for each day they couldn’t fast (2:184). When many rich people started to abuse this by never fasting and paying off Ramadan, a follow-up verse cancelled the earlier verse, making fasting obligatory for all healthy adults (2:185). The Quran is supposedly the eternal words of Allah (15:9), preserved on stone tablets (85:22), from the start of time (13:39). To suggest that Allah was reacting to change, is dishonest. The Authentic Hadith and further Reason #64, whereby Allah has already decided everything in advance. You reading this book was predetermined 50,000 years before the Big Bang :
Abdallah b. ‘Amr reported God’s messenger as saying, “God recorded the fates of all creatures 50,000 years before creating the heavens and the earth, and His throne was upon the water.” Muslim transmitted it. Mishkat al-Masabih 79 https://sunnah.com/mishkat:79
As you see earlier and you will see next, Allah created a mess on that tablet whereby He had 14.5 billion years to fix but decided not to but instead until that last moment. We shall demonstrate that many of the processes are human-like processes that contradict the idea of an all-knowing god!
Reason #1: Abrogation of Peaceful Verses of the Quran
If you ever wondered why Islamist extremists are called fundamentalists when Islam is supposedly the religion of peace, Reason #1 will solve it for you. See, the numerical sequence in which people read the Quran is not the chronological sequence in the chapters came down in (See Appendix Table 1). The Quran we have is, in fact, arranged by the size of chapters and their relevance. Abrogation means later verses ‘override’ earlier verses in their significance.
The Prophet’s message and the Quran’s style of writing, language, and even tune changed over time. While in Mecca, Muhammad’s verses are calm; they are all like, “Come and join me. Allah is truth. Allah created everything. Follow me, like Jesus and Abraham before. If you do not, you will miss out. You will die and burn in hell, but yeah, that is your choice. We can coexist, and that is fine by Allah.” This manifests itself in Surah Al Kafirun (109)
Say, “O disbelievers, I do not worship what you worship. Nor are you worshippers of what I worship. Nor will I be a worshipper of what you worship. Nor will you be worshippers of what I worship. For you is your religion, and for me is my religion.”
In the first ten years, the Prophet could just convert 150 believers.
When the Prophet migrated to seek refuge in the Madina. Initially, he was frustrated; he failed to convert the prominent Jewish tribes – despite his best efforts. However, he managed to build an extensive army by getting influential backing and appealing to disgruntled youth and slaves. This mix of young men was driven by two things: the promise of war bounty and salvation. This was when the Quran tune started changing to more instructional and decisive: “Muslims have to do this and that; they have to pray, fast, fight, not mix with non-believers. And the Kuffar either have to convert, or we will fight them. In hell, Allah will turn them into kabab and fry them… etc.” By doing so, it is the classical view and not just the fundamenalist view that the Quran abrogated earlier peaceful verses.
Islamic scholars could not but admit there is a stark difference between verses that came down in Mecca and those that came down post-migration to Madina. The differences only become apparent when you stack the Meccan verses in the order they came down and then read the Madina verses. The Meccan verses are more peaceful and poetic and tend to be short and concise verses and chapters. The Madina verses are long, cumbersome, do not rhyme well and, at times, quite aggressive. These became known as Meccan verses and Madina verses. Take Surah al Touba (Chapter 9:1- 125). It is a Madia Chapter and appeared chronologically as 113th out of 114 chapters of the Quran, meaning shortly before the Prophet died! Yet, it has the most aggressive verses, such as (9:5), targeting Polytheists.
Quran 9:29 targets Christians and Jews (people of the Scripture)
Verse 9:29 is significant. It lays down that the fight has to continue until everyone believes in Allah. It specifically states that everyone has to believe in the ‘religion of truth’, and while the Quran gives exemption for Christians and Jews, they are required to pay a tax called ‘Jizah’ (Penalty). At the same time, they are humbled (the actual word used means ‘in humiliation’) when making such payments.
Why is this even a problem? We have four issues here.
Issue 1.1. We know abrogation is part and parcel of the Quran. The sequence of verses shows that as Islam progressed, the Quranic commandments became more violent. This links to Reason 84 on Islam and coexistence with other faiths. In that part, we discuss the Jizyah and its heinous impact on people forced to live under it. How can Islam be considered a religion of Peace when clearly it is not?
Issue 1.2. The second issue is that the Quran’s writing style would change merely because the Prophet moved locations. This points to a human process rather than a god-like process. Allah is fixed. Allah does not change his mind, not if the text was written 14.5 billion years ago on stone tablets. Some will disagree because they read the Quran, which sounds all the same. Firstly, they are reading the translations of the Quran, which do not convey the tune very well. Secondly, the Quran is not in chronological order. They need to read all the Meccan verses together and then the Madina ones to see the difference. We did not invent this issue. These differences are well documented in Islamic sources. We can spend a whole book talking about this.
Issue 1.3. The Abrogation of peaceful verses is the justification that every fundamentalist and terrorist from Al Qaida, ISIS, Bokoharam, Al-Shabab…etc., to reject the peaceful parts of the Quran and focus on the latter parts that call for Jihad and war against non-believers, including the subjection of Christians and Jews. It is, in effect, a call for world domination.
Issue 1.4. The Prophet, while in Mecca, was initially mentored by his association with Waraqah Ibn Nawfar, a priest in Christianity and Judaism. Waraqah was the paternal cousin of Khadijah, the Prophet’s first wife. Islamic scholars would wish to have him erased from Islamic books if they could because his existence is problematic. Waraqah is the missing link that debunks all the arguments of ‘how would the Prophet know about the previous messages and yet the message of the Quran is consistent with these messages’ – which, believe it or not, used to be the main argument for the validity of Islam. Because when in Mecca, the Prophet would have directly or indirectly relayed the peaceful messages that Waraqah had reported to him. By the time the Prophet moved to Mecca, Waraqah died, and there was a change in authors, style, and writing. Allah is one. Allah does not change because the Prophet moved, or his mentor died.
Apologist Responses:
Issue 1.1. The violent verses of chapter 9 are for a specific period of time when Islam was in a fight with other tribes. For example, if we add the tafsir to 9:5 relates only to those ‘who violated their treaties’
For verse 9:29, it is only when people live under Islamic rule and because they are under Islamic protection then they have to pay taxation for it. What about verses 60:8, 5:32, and 2:256:
- “Allah does not forbid you from those who do not fight you because of religion and do not expel you from your homes – from being righteous toward them and acting justly toward them. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly.” (60:8)
- “… whoever takes a life—unless as a punishment for murder or mischief in the land—it will be as if they killed all of humanity; and whoever saves a life, it will be as if they saved all of humanity…” (5:32)
- “Let there be no compulsion in religion…” (2:256)
These are clearly peaceful verses.
>> Our response: Correcting a verse by adding context from the Tafsir is another example of how the Quran could not have been from a god but instead created by a man of his time having no idea about the implication of missing the context of the verse whereby fundamentalists would read it as they see it. This is especially the case when the Quran and Hadith warned us about the Munafiqun (Hypocrites) who will try to add stuff to the Quran to manipulate it. We addressed the other issues of Reason 84 later.
As for the verses mentioned above, if you cross-reference them with Table 1, you will find they all came before Chapter 9. The Islamists’ argument of them being abrogated is valid. But it gets worse. People who cite verses fail to provide the context or background information. For example, (60:8) is abrogated, and this is clearly stated in the Tafsir (explanation) of the verses by Al Qurtubi, Al Tabari, and Ibn Kathir. Quran.com deceptively does not present the English translations of these, so you will need to click translate yourself to see what they say. You can read here what they say:
https://quran.com/60:8/tafsirs/ar-tafseer-al-qurtubi
https://quran.com/60:8/tafsirs/ar-tafsir-al-tabari
https://quran.com/60:8/tafsirs/ar-tafsir-ibn-kathir
If you are not bothered by checking them, let us save you time. They all confirmed it was for a specific event of a peace deal, and it was later abrogated.
Deceptively, Dawah organisations post extracts from the Quran without context, and this is the case for (5:32) and (2:256). If you read them, you realise these have a specific context.
Quran (5:32) “That is why We ordained for the Children of Israel that whoever takes a life—unless as a punishment for murder or mischief in the land—it will be as if they killed all of humanity; and whoever saves a life, it will be as if they saved all of humanity. Our messengers already came to them with clear proofs, and many of them still transgressed afterwards through the land.” if you read the next verse, it gets worse!
Quran (2:256) “Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood. So, whoever renounces false gods and believes in Allah has certainly grasped the firmest, unfailing handhold. And Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.”
The Tafsir here, even in English, makes it clear this is just for the case of people who want to convert to Islam and not the other way around. Ibn Kathir refers to a specific story of a Jewish boy who converted to Islam, but his parent collected him and supposedly forced him to leave Islam.
https://quran.com/2:256/tafsirs/en-tafisr-ibn-kathir and confirmed by all the other Tafsirs. Even the most apologetic Muslims will admit that leaving Islam is not an option that can be extracted from this verse.
Issue 1.2. The style is not that significant. Later verses needed more detail to outline taxation, inheritance, and everyday Islamic Shariah laws. The suggestion that they are by two authors is a subjective analysis that cannot be objectively asserted.
>> Our response: Naturally, Islamic scholars must downplay the differences in writing and style, but it is not us or non-believers who spotted that there is a significant difference in style. It is the Islamic scholars themselves who point this out repeatedly.
Issue 1.3. The Quran’s chronological order does not necessarily mean earlier verses have been overwritten. Scholars disagree on what is abrogated and what is not. Fundamentalists choose to assume that earlier verses have been abrogated, but that is not the case.
>> Our response: This adds to the claim that the Quran is man-made, leaving space for fundamentalist misinterpretation. When man-made laws are created, they require several revisions and explanations to clarify the ruling and its exceptions. The Quran left this open to misinterpretation at a scale that makes it clear this could not have been written by an all-knowing god!
Issue 1.4. Waraqah Ibn Nawfal is respected as an old man. He prophesied that Muhammad would become a prophet before Muhammad even knew he was going to be a Prophet! Some sources suggest he died shortly after Muhammad declared his Prophethood. So, he cannot be the source of his Quranic inspirations.
>> Our response: The Islamic literature does not clearly state when Waraqah died. His proximity and knowledge of the Abrahamic faith cannot be ignored as a possible source of the Prophet’s teachings. This will later become clearer when we present Reason 53, whereby the Quran gets an essential Biblical character, the mother of Essa (Jesus), completely wrong! If Waraqah was not so relevant to the Prophet’s message, explain why the Hadiths say after Waraqah had died, the Prophet did not get revelations stopped for a while; some say for up to a year. https://sunnah.com/bukhari:4953 To suggest that Waraqah was not relevant to the revelation is dishonest, as you can see from the Hadith.
Final Thoughts:
Abrogation of peaceful verses by later, more aggressive verses remains a problem that causes people to question the truth that Islam is a religion of peace, something that is propagated from childhood as well as to new converts. You will be surprised that the absolute majority do not know about abrogation in Islam. They believe that every verse carries the same weight and validity. And even those who know a bit about abrogation are not aware that, in effect, the peaceful verses of the Quran have been abrogated. From this, you can see how individuals and groups, be they long-life Muslims or new converts, when they dig a little and learn the truth, are left with three choices: Leave Islam, bury their heads in the sand and ignore this fact, or become radical Islamists. But you learned something very important today. If an Islamist talks to you about Quranic verses that sound all peaceful and loving, ask them if these verses came chronologically before or after Chapter 9. Given that Chapter 9 was the one before the last to appear (113th out of 114 in total), you can bet they are referring to one that appeared before and thus has been abrogated. This video by Harris Sultan talks further on this issue: https://youtu.be/nyppVdcVL28?si=3-GfIZSUpHukbssH