in the two Sahīh collections. Were it a solitary report, it would not be permissible to regard a mere report whose authenticity is not known as abrogating the Quran. In short, it has not been established that anything in the Quran was abrogated by the Sunnah without a Quranic text. Among the examples they have cited is Allah’s saying:

“Confine them to their homes until death takes them or Allah makes a way for them.”

It is authentically reported in Sahīh Muslim that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Take this from me! Take this from me! Allah has now made a way for them: for a virgin with a virgin, one hundred lashes and banishment for a year; for a previously married person with another previously married person, one hundred lashes and stoning.”

This argument is weak for two reasons.

First, this is not the kind of abrogation under dispute. Allah established the ruling until a particular endpoint, and the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, clarified that endpoint. Here, however, the endpoint was unknown, so this came to be called abrogation, unlike an endpoint made clear in the wording of the address itself, as in His saying:

“Then complete the fast until nightfall.”

This is undoubtedly not called abrogation.

Second, flogging a person who commits unlawful sexual intercourse is established by the explicit text of the Quran. Likewise, a Quranic passage concerning stoning had been revealed and recited; its wording was then abrogated while its ruling remained, namely,