The Graded Omission of the Mutaqaddimūn–Mutaʾakhkhirūn Distinction in Modern Critiques of Qurʾānic Naskh: A Methodological Reassessment

Öz

The doctrine of naskh (abrogation) in the Qurʾān has undergone substantial reassessment in modern scholarship, with critiques ranging from selective deflation to outright rejection. This article examines a methodological feature shared across three representative critiques: the omission of an internal distinction long maintained within the classical Sunnī tradition, namely that the term naskh operated with a broader semantic range among the early generations (mutaqaddimūn) than among the later systematizing uṣūliyyūn (mutaʾakhkhirūn). The distinction is documented across juristically diverse witnesses of the classical record, from al-Shāṭibī to Ibn ʿAqīla al-Makkī, and has been re-articulated in contemporary Arabic scholarship. Read in sequence, the critiques of Muṣṭafā Zayd, Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd, and Israr Ahmad Khan display a graded structure of methodological omission across three modes: non-engagement, in which the distinction is absent from the operative apparatus; the structural parallel, in which the operations performed run parallel to the broad early-Islamic operation but are framed as innovation against the tradition; and registration without operationalization, in which the distinction is cited by name yet not allowed to function as the operative reference. Each successive mode is more self-conscious yet reaches a more deflationary conclusion. The analysis is historical-semantic in character: it evaluates the critiques against the tradition’s own documented usage and does not undertake a case-by-case adjudication of the doctrine. The graded pattern is offered as a provisional analytical instrument that subsequent scholarship may test against further cases.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Tafsīr
• Naskh (abrogation)
• ʿulūm al-Qurʾān
• uṣūl al-fiqh
• mutaqaddimūn–mutaʾakhkhirūn distinction
• naskh al-tilāwa
• Muṣṭafā Zayd
• Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd
• Israr Ahmad Khan

Destekleyen Kurum

Ibn Haldun University

Etik Beyan

(a) The research has been conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of academic inquiry, including but not limited to honest representation of sources, accurate citation practices, and the avoidance of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, and any other form of research misconduct; (b) All sources—primary, secondary, classical, and contemporary—have been properly cited and attributed; (c) The article does not require ethical committee approval as it does not involve human or animal subjects, surveys, interviews, or any data collection from living persons; (d) The manuscript is original and represents the author's own intellectual work; (e) The manuscript has not been published elsewhere, in whole or in part, and is not currently under consideration by any other journal.

Teşekkür

DOKTOR ÖĞRETİM ÜYESİ İHSAN KAHVECİ

Kur’ânî Nesh’in Modern Eleştirilerinde Mütekaddimûn–Müteahhirûn Ayrımının Dereceli İhmali: Metodolojik Bir Yeniden Değerlendirme

Öz

Kaynakça

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