الناسخ
al-Nāsikh
Topic
The verses of the Quran whose content revokes a ruling or meaning in another verse, which is then called al-mansūkh.
What it means
Al-Nāsikh is the abrogating verse: a verse of the Quran whose content has removed a ruling given in another verse. The verse that is superseded is called al-mansūkh. The scholars of the Quran treat it as a matter of the order in which God revealed His commands to a growing community. The principle rests on the Quran’s own statement that whatever verse God abrogates or causes to be forgotten, He replaces with one better or like it (2:106; see also 16:101). Scholars have differed on how many verses are affected, and many have narrowed the number a great deal.
Often misunderstood as
That abrogation shows the Quran contradicting itself, when it describes a staged revelation to a community.
What the sources say
Knowing which verse is earlier and which later is a condition for those who derive rulings from the Quran. It depends on the circumstances of revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl) and on reports from the Companions of the Prophet.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 48, listed as AL NĀSIKH. The definition is restated here.