المنسوخ
al-Mansūkh
A verse whose ruling has been replaced by a later verse, which is called al-nāsikh.
What it means
Al-mansūkh is the verse whose ruling has been abrogated, and al-nāsikh is the later verse that replaces it. The root meaning is to remove or to replace. The doctrine rests on the verse, “Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or like it” (2:106). Scholars have written about which verses fall into this group. Early writers applied the term widely, and later scholars such as al-Suyuti reduced the list to a small number of verses. The study is part of the Quranic sciences and of legal method, because a jurist must know which of two verses on a subject came later.
Often misunderstood as
It is sometimes read as meaning that parts of the Quran are void; the doctrine concerns changes of ruling over time, and the text itself stays.
What the sources say
Some scholars hold that abrogation takes place in the Quran, while a few have held that no verse is abrogated and that the verses concerned deal with different circumstances. The majority view affirms it.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 48, listed as AL MANSŪKH. The definition is restated here.