101 Reasons Why We Left Islam – Chapter 1: Abrogation– Reason 2
According to the Hadith, some Qur’anic verses were written on a piece of paper and were lost because a sheep ate it.
It was narrated that ‘Aishah said:
“The Verse of stoning and of breastfeeding an adult ten times was revealed*, and the paper was with me under my pillow. When the Messenger of Allah died, we were preoccupied with his death, and a tame sheep came in and ate it.”
*: These verses were abrogated in recitation but not ruling. Other hadiths establish the number for fosterage to be 5.
https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:1944 (Hasan)
It was narrated that ‘Aishah said:
“One of the things that Allah revealed in the Qur’an and then abrogated was that nothing makes marriage prohibited except ten breastfeedings or five well-known (breastfeedings).”
https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:1942 (Sahih)
Issue 2.1: This story destroys the claim that the Quran has been perfectly preserved. Didn’t Allah say he would protect the Qur’an from manipulation in the Quran (15:9)?
“It is certainly We Who have revealed the Reminder (Quran), and it is certainly We Who will preserve it.”
If Allah cannot even stop a sheep from eating something that ends up being lost from the Quran, how can He stop humans? And if the stoning of adulterers is made up, as some claim, I have another story that proves it is true, for it is hard to make up such stories as disturbing as anything you can read. People go to Muhammad to admit they committed adultery and ask forgiveness; Muhammad orders their stoning so they can go to Allah and ask forgiveness to Him. This includes a pregnant woman who had to wait for her to give birth, suckle the child till it weaned off its mother…then they stoned her to death.
https://sunnah.com/mishkat:3562
Issue 2.2: This story makes no sense because there is a catch. Wasn’t the preservation of the Quran done by memorisation and oral recitations so that nothing gets lost? An important verse, such as the punishment for adultery and suckling of adults, would be one that hardly any person would forget.
Issue 2.3: Because this verse is missing, we do not have a single verse that addresses adultery in contrast with rape. Rape is a very different situation involving a man forcefully having sex with a female who does not want to engage in sex. There is not a single ruling in the Quran or Hadith that singles out the issue of non-consensual sex- otherwise known as rape. Instead, these two are bundled together as one thing: Adultery! Thus, the victim is treated as guilty as the criminal.
Issue 2.4: Breastfeeding for adults is the most ridiculous idea ever that even people at the time found it utterly stupid. The ruling suggested that if a woman wanted to be able to take off her hijab in front of a non-close-relative male person, she could breastfeed him ten times (or five times), and by doing so, this person became her ‘adopted child’. It does not matter if she is 18 and he is 60 years old! Thereafter, this person can see her without a hijab. If you are reading this for the first time, I can see your jaw dropped. Pull your jaw up!
Other issues to discuss later: Stoning for adultery is barbaric at many levels. It is evident that there are far more appropriate ways to manage adultery that many societies have introduced. You do not need to resort to stoning. What is more, it is open to misuse and human error, which we talk about in Reason 89: Application of Shariah Law.
Apologist Responses:
Issue 2.1: The “Reminder” as the verse 15:9 clearly states shows that the ruling is perfectly preserved even if the verse is missing. In fact, we still have the punishment of stoning in Shariah compliant laws. Why Allah decided to allow a sheep to eat the verse, it is His wisdom, and we don’t judge as Allah knows best. Finally, asking for forgiveness is not an exemption of punishment. Someone who kills another person deserves to the full punishment even if they asked for forgiveness. In Islam, we are merciful. We did not stone the mother with her unborn baby which would have been utterly cruel. This shows mercy is built into Islam.
>>Our response: The issue is the ‘perfect preservation’ and the abrogation of the verse while keeping the ruling is nonsense. This was not applied to any of the other abrogation. When abrogation happens, the ruling is cancelled. The claim that Allah has His reasons is just an excuse because you do not have any other explanation. We think stoning is completely wrong, be that before or after giving birth. From the mother and child, some may argue this is crueller. The mother will know that her time is coming everyday she holds that child closely. That child will grow up without a mother and will forever be haunted by what happened to his mother. This is no mercy, this is hauntingly cruel, especially when you take into consideration that she may have been groomed or raped.
Issue 2.2: This issue of why people forgot the verse is speculative and subjective in its nature. Does not conclusively mean the Quran is not preserved.
>>Our response: This is nonsensical response. But this is addressed further in Reason #50: The Quran Perfect Preservation (Debunked).
Issue 2.3: The issue of rape is judged by the Wali (Judge) and where there is clear evidence that woman was raped, she is not punished.
>>Our response: This may well be the case. This comes under ‘Islam is not perfect” whereby we find solutions and fix these moral challenges ourselves. This does not address the fact that not once did the Quran or Hadith distinguish between adultery and rape. It left it for us to make that distinction. Because this distinction was never made, for thousands of years women were being stoned to death even though they were raped.
Issue 2.4: Islam is about practical solutions. While many societies found a way for men and women to share spaces, in Islam we needed to ensure they do not get engage in out of marriage sex or sex thoughts. When a man breastfeeds from a woman, he is in effect becoming her “son by breastfeeding” as traditionally was the case in Arabia. There is no obligation to do this. It is optional. Now we live in an age where we do not need to do this anymore, which may reflect Allah’s wisdom in abrogating this verse but not the ruling.
>>Our response: This added information but did not address the ridiculousness of the ruling. A man breastfeeding five or ten times from another woman’s breast does not make him less turned on or less sexually attracted to her but quite the opposite! The fact that most Muslims do not accept it or even do it, shows that it was a joke from the start.
Final thoughts: The issue of missing verses that the sheep ate remains a reason to challenge the reliability of the Quran as a complete authentic source from an all-known and all-mighty god. Stoning of adulterers is bundled with rape as one of the same. There is a clear contradiction here whereby the idea that Allah would allow an animal to eat some verses when the Quran was supposed to be preserved by memorisation and not writing. We find the story to be very suspicious. That this incident happened while the Prophet was dying. That the only two verses to be eaten are the two controversial ones that Aisha strongly disliked, and whereby several of the Sahabah detest – such as the idea of breastfeeding for adults. This issue, yet again, points to a human process in the making of the Quran that we have many more evidence coming up.