Second answer:

It was when Allah Most High revealed the following verse that He promised that, whenever He abrogated a verse or deferred it, He would bring something better than it or like it:

“Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or like it.”

This verse is a conditional statement containing His promise that He will certainly do so, and He is true to His promise. Thus, whatever He abrogates after this verse, or whatever revelation He intends to send down but postpones, He will bring something better than it or like it. As for what He abrogated or deferred before this verse, He had not yet promised at that time to bring something better than it or like it.

This also addresses the question concerning al-Fātihah. There is no doubt that it was revealed after the surah beginning, “Read in the name of your Lord,” yet it is superior to that surah. This establishes that the revelation of a superior passage may be delayed, and that not everything revealed later was preceded by something equal or superior to it. But if the promise concerns what comes after it, this objection does not arise. This is indicated by His words, “Whatever We abrogate”: this imperfect verb in the jussive refers only to the future. The particles governing the jussive—inna and its counterparts—and those governing the subjunctive restrict the verb to future reference.

A third answer may also be offered:

What was revealed at a particular time was better for them then, even if something else was better for them at another time. Accordingly, the superiority of some passages over others would be of two kinds: enduring superiority, such as that of the Verse of the Throne, the Opening of the Book, and “Say: He is Allah, One”; and contingent superiority, whereby one passage is superior at one time and another is superior at another time. This might be said, for example, of the verse giving a person who is not travelling the choice between fasting and breaking the fast while providing compensation, as compared with the verse making fasting obligatory without that choice. This is just as