the appointed time for acting upon it had even arrived; in truth, that stance amounts to siding with the Jews who denied abrogation altogether. As for those Muslims who are reported to have rejected abrogation—Abu Muslim al-Isfahani (1) being the well-known example—the essence of their view is simply this: if the qualification is built into the very wording of the revelation (connected specification), no rational human being would dispute it. Likewise, scholars who do not permit postponing an explanatory statement beyond the moment the text is first delivered—whether the issue is clarification in general or abrogation in particular—such as Abu al-Husayn al-Basri, insist that whenever a ruling is issued with the intention of abrogating it later, the audience must be alerted to that fact, lest it lead to