Various traditions are related from the Imams on the importance of recognizing abrogation and avoidance of expressing opinion about the Qur'an, jurisprudence, judgment, etc. without knowledge about the abrogating and abrogated verses. Therefore, any Islamic scholar, either an interpreter or a jurisprudent or someone holding a judging position, or even an Islamic theologian, can not dispense with knowledge of the science of abrogation. That is why the history of discussions about the abrogating and abrogated verses is as old as the history of Islam, and the early independent books in this regard have been written in early 2nd/9th century. (See: ‘Atā‘iqī Ḥillī, the introduction by the researcher, pp. 10-13, 1402/1981; Mawlā’īniyā, pp. 38-65, 1378 Sh/1999 CE.)
The issue of abrogation, definition, fundamentals, conditions, possibility, and incidence, and the number of abrogated verses are among the subjects which the Muslim scholars are divided over and disagreed about.
In this article, we intend, after a brief review of the Muslim scholars' definitions and viewpoints about abrogation (naskh), to state and examine the views and reasons of the opponents and proponents of abrogation in the most well-known verse (i.e., al-āyat al-najwā or the verse of whisper – Q. 58: 12) which is claimed to have been abrogated. Also, it is tried within this limited time to study Ayatollah Khu’ī's viewpoint in relation to the abrogation of al-āyat al-najwā.
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