The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 200
PT. 1 CH. 2 107. "Whatever Sign AL-BAQARAH abrogate or cause to be مَا نَنْسَخُ مِنْ آيَةٍ أَوْ نُنُسِهَا نَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ We مِنْهَا أَوْ مِثْلِهَا أَلَمْ تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ اللهَ عَلَى forgotten, We bring one better than that or the like thereof. Dost thou not know that Allah has the power to do all that He wills?113 كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ "16:102. God says that He, being the Lord and Master of the entire Universe, could not forever bind Himself to one people but chose for His bounty whomsoever He pleased from among His creation. But now when He has chosen the Muslims, He is not confining His favours to one people only. The mission of the Holy Prophet being for all mankind, the call to come and receive God's favours is universal and hence no people need now show envy or grudge. With the advent of Islam the era of i. e. "exceeding (viz. universal) bounty" had dawned. 113. Important Words: (We abrogate) is derived from which has two meanings: (1) he abrogated or annulled, irrespective of the fact whether he brought another in its place or not; (2) he prepared a true copy of a book (Aqrab). It is from the latter sense that the word or "copy" is derived. From the former sense we derive the words i. e. the thing which comes to abrogate another, and i. e. the thing which is abrogated. (We cause to be forgotten) is derived from meaning, he forgot, 200 or he failed to preserve in his mind. is the causative form of meaning, he made a person forget a thing (Aqrab). (like) has three distinct uses: (1) either it is used to denote the like of a thing; (2) or it is used to denote a thing itself; (3) or sometimes it is redundant, giving no special meaning (Aqrab & Miṣbāḥ). Commentary: Some commentators have attempted to infer from this verse that some of the verses of the Quran have been abrogated by others. But this conclusion is grievously erroneous and unwarranted. There is nothing in this verse to indicate that the word a (Sign) occurring here refers to the Quranic verses. Both in the preceding and the following verses, a reference is made to the People of the Book and their jealousies for the new revelation, which clearly shows that the word a spoken of in this verse as being abrogated, refers to the previous revelation. It is pointed out in this verse that the previous Scriptures contained two kinds of commandments. Firstly, those which, owing to the changed conditions of