soled by the assurance that
though they had not done so hitherto, yet God would not let their {61}
faith be fruitless, "for unto man is God merciful, gracious." (v. 138.) The
doctrine of abrogation is brought in for a more personal matter in the
following case: "It is not permitted to thee to take other wives hereafter,
nor to change thy present wives for other women, though their beauty charm
thee, except slaves, whom thy right hand shall possess." (Sura xxxiii. 52.)
This is said by Beidawi, and other eminent Muslim divines, to have been
abrogated by a verse which though placed before it in the arrangement of
verses, was really delivered after it. The verse is: "O Prophet, we allow
thee thy wives whom thou hast dowered, and the slaves which thy right hand
possesseth out of the booty which God hath granted thee; and the daughters
of thy uncle, and the daughters of thy aunts, both on thy father's side,
and on thy mother's side, who have fled with thee (to Madina), and any
other believing woman, who hath given herself up to the Prophet; if the
Prophet desireth to wed her, it is a peculiar privilege for thee, above the
rest of the Faithful." (Sura xxxiii. 49.)

The Moghul Emperor Akbar, wishing to discredit the 'Ulama, in one of the
meetings so frequently held for discussion during his long reign,
propounded the question as to how many free born women a man might marry.
The lawyers answered that four was the number fixed by the Prophet. "Of
other women who seem good in your eyes marry two and two, and three and
three, and four and four." (Sura iv. 3.) The Emperor said that he had not
restricted himself to that number, and that Shaikh 'Abd-un-Nabi had told
him that a certain Mujtahid had had nine wives. The Mujtahid in question,
Ibn Abi Lailah reckoned the number allowed thus 2+3+4=9. Other learned men
counted in this way 2+2, 3+3, 4+4=18. The Emperor wished the meeting to
decide the point.

Again, the second verse of Sura lxxiii reads: "Stand up all night, except a
small portion of it, for prayer." According to a Tradition handed down by
'Ayesha the last verse {62} of this Sura was revealed a year later. It
makes the matter much easier. "God measureth the night and the day; he
knoweth that ye cannot count its hours aright, and therefore turneth to you
mercifully. Recite _then so much of the Quran as may be easy to you_." (v.
20.)

The following is an illustration of a verse abrogated, though there is no
verse to prove it