Critical Study of John Burton’s Misconceptions about the Naskh in the Holy Qur’ān

Abstract

The Holy Qur’ān is the True Word of Almighty Allah which He has revealed to His last Prophet Muhammad. The Orientalists, who are basically Jews and Christians, deny this fact and create doubts about the Qur’ān. They claim that the Qur’ān was fabricated by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself with the assistance of previous scriptures. An orientalist, John Burton has written a book regarding the Holy Qur’ān named “The Collection of the Qur’ān” in which he has presented strange theories about the Qur’ān. In this article, John Burton’s objections about Naskh (Abrogation) have analytically been studied; Naskh has been defined and justified in the light of the Qur’ān, previous Divine Books and rational arguments. Three kinds of Naskh; Naskh-ul-Hukm Wa-al-Tilawa, Naskh-al-Hukm Dūn-al-Tilawa and Naskh-al-Tilawa Dūn-al-Hukm have been explained with examples. Burton’s view regarding Naskh like “Whether the Sunnah can abrogate the Qur’ān or not?”, has been encountered and the relationship of the Qur’ān and the Sunnah has been established. The narrations that John Burton has quoted regarding Naskh like the verse of stoning, the narration of Hazrat Abu Mūsa Al-Asha’ri and the narration of Hazrat Ayesha, have been analyzed and the misconceptions of John Burton regarding “Naskh” have been clarified