30. Why were certain verses of the Quran changed later?

In verses 2:16, 13:39 16:101, we find that God Al-Mighty will bring changes in His verses in the Quran. 

Why should God change his own words/declarations? He is the All ‘Knower’, He could have revealed the verses without the necessity to change them later, are questions that can be expected from some when they go through these verses.

 It should be understood these verses do not portray ignorance of God but rather His immeasurable knowledge. 

We do understand, going back on promises and changing recorded history is not good. 

When formulating laws, we need to take into consideration the situations at that particular time. On observation of changes in the situation later, and not bringing about a change accordingly exhibits ignorance.

Let’s take the example of an emergency in a country; the government declares curfew, and once the situation changes relax it. Here continuing the curfew is not considered wise, and at the same time not imposing curfew at the time of the emergency cannot be considered prudent.

A mother will refuse a kind of diet to a two-year child, the same child when it reaches the age of ten the mother will feed her with a diet that was forbidden earlier by her. At this kind of a situation the mother already knew the change would happen, here we find there was a change in the kid and not in the wisdom of the mother. 

When Prophet Muhammad started his propagation of the message of God in Makkah, the very existence of Muslims was a big question mark, in that kind of a situation promulgating a law to severe the hands in case of theft would be meaningless. Bringing such kinds of laws would be meaningful only when Muslims have power. 

When it is declared a certain incident took place and been recorded in the year 2002, it should not be changed to have taken place in the year 1967. Because this is history. You cannot change what ever had earlier happened. These kinds of changes are not found in the Quran. There are changes in certain laws in the Quran. 

These are verses that were revealed to send home the message that Allah will change His messages as required.

The following verses 6:34, 6:115, 10:64, 18:27, 48:15 of the Quran say that Allah will not bring about changes in the Quran. Citing these verses some say that the Quran is self-contradictory. 

The verses 6:34, 6:115, 10:64, 18:27, 48:15 do not talk about changes in God’s message rather about the decisions and commandments of God Al-Mighty.

The following verses talk about Allah, where he asserts His power. For example, when He decides to destroy the people belonging to a certain community, no one can bring about another order to annul that.

When there is an assertion that Allah’s commandment cannot be changed, the implication is that it can never ever be changed by anything or anybody. This is the message conveyed here. And the other message embedded here is if a change is required, He is the One to bring about. 

These verses do not talk about verses being changed, hence there are no contradictions in the Quran. 

For more details regarding this topic please refer to point no 155,157 of these explanations.