To label this category “abrogation (naskh)” is permissible and undisputed. What is disputed is the assertion of those who say, “No abrogation exists except this form.” The other group define abrogation as the removal of a ruling after it has been legislated; on that basis they allow abrogation to occur before the time for implementation arrives and before a person is actually able to act on it—just as Allah revoked Abraham’s command to carry out the sacrifice before he was able to do so, and just as He reduced the prescribed prayers from fifty to five before their appointed times had come. This is the view held by the majority of jurists and by many theologians such as al-Qadi Abu Bakr; it is also the position of Ibn ʿAqil, al-Ghazali, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, and others (1).

The first opinion, by contrast, is that of the Muʿtazilah, and a number of jurists and theologians have agreed with them, including Abu al-Hasan al-Jazari, al-Qadi Abu Yaʿla and other scholars of the Hanbali school, as well as Abu Ishaq al-Isfarayini, and Abu