It is narrated that they criticized the abrogation, saying: Do you not see Muhammad commanding his companions with a command, then forbidding them from it and commanding them with something contrary, and saying something today and retracting it tomorrow? So it was revealed. And it was recited (ما نَنْسَخْ مِنْ آيَةٍ وما ننسخ: with the 'n' pronounced, from أنسخ. Or ننسأها. And it was recited (نُنْسِها) and ننسها with emphasis. And تنسها and تنسها, addressing the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him. And Abdullah recited: ما ننسك من آية أو ننسخها and Huzayfah recited: ما ننسخ من آية أو ننسكها. The abrogation of the verse means its removal by replacing it with another in its place and its forgetting.

The command to abrogate it is that he commands Gabriel, peace be upon him, to make it abrogated by informing of its abrogation.

And نَسَأُها means delaying it and removing it, not to a substitute. And إنساؤها means that it is forgotten in the hearts. The meaning is that every verse that is removed is according to what the interest necessitates, whether by removing its wording and ruling together, or by removing one of them to a substitute or not, we bring a verse better than it for the servants, meaning a verse that is more effective for reward or similar in that. Certainly, He is All-Powerful over everything, so He is capable of good, and what is better than it, and of similar goodness. To Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, so He owns your affairs and manages them according to what is good for you. He knows best what He commands you with, whether it is abrogating or abrogated. He made it clear to them that He is the owner of their affairs and manages them according to their interests, whether in abrogating verses or otherwise, and He confirmed this to them with His saying: (أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ). He intended to advise them to trust Him in what is better for them than what He commands them with and reveals to them, and not to propose to their Messenger what their forefathers of the Jews proposed to Moses, peace be upon him, of things whose outcome was detrimental to them, such as their saying: Make for us a god, show us Allah openly, and others. And whoever exchanges disbelief for faith, and whoever abandons trust in the revealed verses, doubts them, and proposes others has certainly gone astray from the right path. It is narrated that Finhas bin Azurayah and Zayd bin Qays and a group of Jews said to Huzayfah bin al-Yaman and Ammar bin Yasir after the Battle of Uhud: Did they not see what has befallen you? If you were upon the truth, you would not have been defeated. So return to our religion, for it is better for you and more virtuous, and we are more rightly guided than you. Ammar said: How can we break the covenant with you? They said: It is severe. He said: I have indeed pledged not to disbelieve in Muhammad as long as I live. The Jews said: As for this one, he has converted. Huzayfah said: As for me, I have accepted Allah as my Lord, and Muhammad as my Prophet, and Islam as my religion, and the Qur'an as my leader, and the Kaaba as my qibla, and the believers as my brothers. Then they went to the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and informed him, and he said: You have attained goodness and succeeded. If you say: What does His saying: مِنْ عِنْدِ أَنْفُسِهِمْ relate to? I say: There are two aspects: one is that it relates to desire, meaning that they wished for you to revert from your religion, and their wishing for that is from themselves and from their desires, not from religion and inclination towards the truth, because they wished for that after it became clear to them that you are upon the truth. So how can their wishing be from the truth?

Or it may relate to envy, meaning extreme envy arising from the essence of themselves. So forgive and overlook, and follow the path of forgiveness and overlooking what may come from them of ignorance and enmity until Allah brings about His command, which is the killing of the Banu Qurayzah, the expulsion of the Banu Nadir, and their humiliation by imposing the jizyah upon them. Indeed, Allah is All-Powerful over everything, so He is capable of taking revenge on them from good, such as the reward of prayer or charity or others. You will find it with Allah; you will find its reward with Allah. Indeed, Allah is All-Seer of what you do, knowing that no deed of a doer is lost with Him.