Can one verse of the Quran cancel another?

Can one verse of the Quran cancel another? In Islamic legal exegesis the answer is called naskh, "abrogation", and it recognizes that one ruling may not suit every situation. In the classic form, a ruling is abrogated to introduce an exception, but the text the ruling is based on is not repealed. The standard examples are the change of the qibla, the direction of prayer, from Jerusalem to the Kaaba in Mecca, and a gradual ban on alcohol.

The classic account tells that ban in three verses. The first gently discouraged drinking, the second forbade Muslims to be drunk at prayer, and finally alcohol, along with gambling, was totally prohibited. It has been described as an act of wisdom: an abrupt total ban would have been too harsh.

The surprise is how little the scholars agree on what counts. With few exceptions, scripture does not say which verses are abrogated, and the estimates range from fewer than ten to over 500. Al-Zuhri, who died in 742, counted 42. By the 11th century the number had risen to 238 or 248, and then it fell: al-Suyuti, who died in 1505, found only 20, and Shah Wali Allah of Delhi, who died in 1762, only five. Part of the swing comes from the word itself: early commentators used naskh for a ruling that merely narrowed an earlier one, and Yasir Qadhi argues that counting such cases inflated the totals.

The idea is part of Sunni orthodoxy, accepted by all four schools of law by at least the 9th century. But some do not accept it. John Burton says no single verse in the Quran unequivocally points to the naskh of another, and since the 19th century modernist and Islamist scholars have argued against it.