Two abrogated verses about breastfeeding and stoning

26-6-2012 | IslamWeb

Question:

Al salam Alikom, I was this reading this article when it mentioned the following hadeeth, Sunan Ibn Majah, Book of Nikah, Hadith # 1934. This hadeeth mentions that there were verses from the quran written down on a piece of paper that Aisha (Radia Allahu anha) had placed under her bed and a goat came in and ate that paper containing the verses and they were lost. My question is, is this hadeeth true?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

This Hadeeth was reported by Ibn Maajah and others and Shaykh Al-Albaani classified it as Hasan [good].

It should be noted here that some callers to misguidance provide this Hadeeth as evidence that the Quran is incomplete. As mentioned in the Hadeeth, the paper contained two verses: the verse about breastfeeding and the verse about stoning. So, these callers to misguidance have an evil purpose in providing this Hadeeth as evidence that the Quran is incomplete; but their purpose has failed, praise be to Allaah.

Indeed, the scholars refuted such misconceptions; for instance Ibn Hazm said: “It is confirmed that the wordings of these two verses were abrogated and the paper on which they were written was eaten by the goat, as stated by ‘Aa’ishah . Indeed, there was no need for it....Then he said: “The evidence for this is that they had learnt them (the two verses) by heart and were it known to them that they were still from the Quran, then the fact that this paper was eaten by the goat would not have prevented them from writing them in the compiled copy of the Quran from their memory; praise be to Allaah.”

However, the two mentioned verses were abrogated: the verse about breastfeeding was abrogated both in terms of its recitation and its ruling, and the verse about stoning, its recitation was abrogated and its ruling remained in effect. It is for this reason that the Companions did not write them in the compiled copy of the Quran. This is what Ibn Hazm meant.

Allaah Knows best.