ভূমিকা

“And when We exchange a verse in the place of another verse, and Allah is well aware of what He sends down, they say: ‘You are only a forger.’ Nay, most of them do not know.” The Occasion of the Revelation Ibn-i-‘Abbas says: The pretext seeking pagans used to claim that Muhammad (S) had made an object of ridicule out of his companions, whenever a verse was revealed and contained some harsh commandments in it and at other time another verse was revealed and a more lenient decree was involved in it, they used to say: Today he decrees one thing while tomorrow he forbids that same order, all of which exhibits the fact that Muhammad (S) claims everything by himself and not from the sphere of Allah.

It was at this time that the verse was revealed and provided them with the appropriate answer. This verse explains the objections which the pagans had with regard to the Divine verses. Firstly, the Holy Qur’an implies that when Allah (s.w.t.) converts a verse into another one (thus abrogating a decree), that is, He replaces one verse with another one, pagans say: You are involved in accusations.

However, most of them do not know the truth, for Allah is knowledgeable about the commandments which He sends. Therefore, He sends orders according to those circumstances which are required.

The verse says: “And when We exchange a verse in the place of another verse, and Allah is well aware of what He sends down, they say: ‘You are only a forger.’ Nay, most of them do not know.” They do not know that the Qur’an is seeking to set up the human society which is pioneering in every respect and with a superior kind of spirituality. Despite all these, it is obvious that this Divine prescription sometimes required some changes and conversions from the side of Allah.