Fussilat ("They are Expounded")
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[41:42]
no falsehood can ever attain to it openly, and neither in a stealthy manner, [since it is] bestowed from on high by One who is truly wise, ever to be praised.

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* v.42 : Lit., “neither from between its hands, nor from behind it,” i.e., it cannot be openly changed by means of additions or omissions (Rāzī), and neither surreptitiously, by hostile or deliberately confusing interpretations. The above is one of the Qur’anic passages on which the great commentator Abū Muslim al-Isfahānī (as quoted by Rāzī) bases his absolute rejection of the theory of “abrogation” (for which see note 87 on 2:106). Since the “abrogation” of any Qur’ān verse would have amounted to its ibtāl – that is, to an open or implied declaration that it was henceforth to be regarded as null and void – the verse in question would have to be considered “false” (bātil) in the context of the Qur’ān as it is before us: and this, as Abū Muslim points out, would clearly contradict the above statement that “no falsehood (bātil) can ever attain to it.”