Baizawi¹ in his comments on Surah ix. (At Taubah), ver. 29, explains the words, "who profess not the Religion of the Truth," by saying, "which abrogates the rest of the religions, and annuls them," and he speaks of "their original religion, which is abrogated as to faith and conduct". Again, in the book entitled عيرن اخبار آلرّضا, chapter 36, occurs the following passage: "Every ² prophet who was in the days of Moses and after him was upon the highroad of Moses and his religious law and obedient to his book, until the time of Jesus. And every prophet who was in the days of Jesus and after Him was upon the highroad of Jesus and His religious law, and obedient to His book, until the time of our prophet Muhammad. And the religious law of Muhammad shall not be abrogated until the day of the Resurrection." Here it is distinctly implied that Jesus' law abrogated that of Moses, and that Muhammad's law abrogated that of Jesus. And Akhund Mulla Muhammad Taqqi yi Kashani, in his Persian work entitled هداية الطالبين در أُصول آلدّين, finished in A.H. 1285,³ says (p. 66): "For the People of Islam knowledge has been acquired that now Muhammad is Prophet, and his religion abrogates the religion of the previous prophets." This view is accepted by almost all the ignorant and by many of the learned in Muslim lands.

Yet it should be noted that there is not a single word in the Qur'an, nor is there a passage known to us in any of the Traditions (احاديث) current among either Sunnis or

Shi‘ites, which supports this opinion. Indeed, the whole tenor of the Qur'an is entirely opposed to it. The verb nasakha (نَسَخَ), with the sense of "to abrogate", occurs only twice in the Qur'an (in Surahs ii. 100 and xxii. 51), and in neither of these instances is it used in reference to any part of the Old Testament or of the New. On the contrary, it is used of the abrogation of certain verses of the Qur'an itself, of which Muslim 'Ulama say that 225 have been abrogated. Surah ii. (Al Baqarah), ver. 100, runs thus: "Whatever We abrogate of a verse or cause it to be forgotten, We bring a better than it, or its like: dost thou not know that God is Mighty over everything?" It is true that Baizawi¹ tells us that several different readings of the verse occur, e.g. "Whatsoever We cause thee to forget of a verse, or We abrogate it", &c.: but in none is the sense changed at all. The reference is to the abrogation of certain Qur'anic verses, and to them only. A good illustration of the meaning is given in Baizawi's² commentary on Surah xxii. (Al Hajj), ver. 51, where he tells us the story of how God abrogated in Surah liii. (An Najm), vers. 19, 20, the words, "These³ are the exalted Swans, and verily their intercession is to be hoped for," which Satan had beguiled Muhammad into uttering in regard to Al Lat, Manat, and Al Uzza', three Arabian goddesses. The same tale is told by Yahya' and Jalalu'ddin in their commentaries on Surah xxii. (Al Hajj), ver. 51, and by Ibn Ishaq in Ibn Hisham's Siratu'r Rasul (vol. i, pp. 127 sqq.). Tabari and the Mawahibu'l Luduniyyah also narrate the tale. There can therefore be no doubt as to what is referred to by the words فَيَنْسَخُ اللهُ in this latter verse.

Although the fancy that the descent of the Zabur abrogated the Torah, and that the Injil in like manner abrogated the Zabur, is entirely devoid of foundation