Further evidence for this position is that the Companions and Successors from whom knowledge of abrogating and abrogated passages was transmitted mention only the abrogation of the Quran by the Quran. They do not mention its abrogation without another Quranic passage, by the Sunnah instead. The works on abrogating and abrogated passages that draw upon their teachings contain only this.

Likewise, ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, said to a preacher:

“Can you distinguish the abrogating passages from the abrogated passages in the Quran?”

If something other than the Quran could abrogate the Quran, he would have had to mention that as well.

Moreover, those among the speculative theologians and proponents of reasoned opinion who allow the Quran to be abrogated without another Quranic passage rely primarily on the argument that reason contains nothing that renders this impossible. Yet the absence of any rationally discernible impediment does not establish that revealed law allows it. Revelation may impart knowledge through its reports of matters unknown to reason. Likewise, the wisdom of the Lawgiver, as made known through revelation, may disclose what cannot be known through reason alone. Hence, those who considered this rationally possible differed over whether it had actually occurred under revealed law. That being so, the statement in this verse is evidence that such abrogation is precluded by revealed law.

Furthermore, an abrogating text has authority over the abrogated text, determines its status and takes precedence over it. It should therefore be equal or superior to it, as the Quran states. Thus, since the Quran has authority over the Scripture that preceded it—confirming the truth it contains, upholding what it upholds and abrogating what it abrogates—it is superior to it. If the Sunnah could abrogate the Book, it would necessarily be equal or superior to it.