The Manipulation of 2:143 and 2:187

"The Quran does not detail the previous Qiblah, so you need the hadith." A closer look at what the Quran actually left out: nothing you need.

I. The Claim

Those who insist the Quran alone is not sufficient reach for 2:143. The previous Qiblah, they note, is not detailed in the Quran - it reached the believers through the prophet. Therefore, they conclude, the community once followed an instruction not written in the Book, which proves the need for a second source: the hadith. A parallel claim is made about 2:187, where the rules of fasting are relaxed from earlier rules said to be absent from the Quran. One answer covers both.

II. A Test That Expired Before the Book Was Sealed

"...We changed the direction of your original Qiblah only to distinguish those among you who readily follow the messenger from those who would turn back on their heels. It was a difficult test, but not for those who are guided by GOD..." (2:143)

"We have seen you turning your face about the sky (searching for the right direction). We now assign a Qiblah that is pleasing to you. Henceforth, you shall turn your face towards the Sacred Masjid. Wherever you may be, all of you shall turn your faces towards it..." (2:144)

The interim Qiblah was, by the verse's own words, a test - a temporary arrangement in force while the Quran was still coming down, and terminated inside the Quran itself by 2:144. Whatever instructions governed that interim, they expired the moment the permanent command was revealed, before the Book was even complete. Sura 2 was the 87th sura revealed; the revelation continued for years afterward. What the finished Quran preserves is exactly what the finished religion requires: the standing Qiblah of 2:144. God states the principle Himself about what came before:

"Such is a community from the past. They are responsible for what they earned, and you are responsible for what you earned. You are not answerable for anything they have done." (2:134)

"For each congregation, we have decreed a set of rites that they must uphold..." (22:67)

Demanding that the Quran document an expired test is demanding details that God deliberately retired. A book is not "incomplete" for omitting the scaffolding that was taken down before the building opened.

III. The "Missing" Fasting Rule Is Not Even Missing

The 2:187 version of the claim collapses faster, because the verse narrates its own history:

"Permitted for you is sexual intercourse with your wives during the nights of fasting... GOD knew that you used to betray your souls, and He has redeemed you, and has pardoned you. Henceforth, you may have intercourse with them, seeking what GOD has permitted for you..." (2:187)

The old rule, the change, and the new rule are all inside the verse: intercourse during fasting had been prohibited, and 2:187 lifts that prohibition for the nights. Rashad Khalifa's footnote on 2:183-187 spells it out: prior to the revelation of the Quran, intercourse was prohibited throughout the fasting period, and "this rule is modified in 2:187." No hadith is needed to reconstruct what the verse itself reports and retires in one breath.

IV. Inspiration Is Not Legislation

Did the prophet receive communications from God outside the Quran? Certainly - the Quran says so. God informed him privately concerning his wives (66:3), and God even inspired the mother of Moses, who was no messenger at all:

"We inspired Moses' mother: 'Nurse him, and when you fear for his life, throw him into the river without fear or grief. We will return him to you, and will make him one of the messengers.'" (28:7)

But notice what such inspiration never is: religion for others to follow. It was personal, situational, and expired with its situation - exactly like the interim Qiblah. Nor can the prophet's hadith be smuggled in under this heading: his personal words were not revelation at all - God reprimanded him in the Quran for several of them (66:1, 33:37, 80:1), which is impossible if they were inspired (see the corruption of 53:2-4) - and the fabrications circulated in his name have their own verse: "We have permitted the enemies of every prophet - human and jinn devils - to inspire in each other fancy words, in order to deceive..." (6:112). What God made binding on us, He wrote into the Book and called it complete:

"Shall I seek other than GOD as a source of law, when He has revealed to you this book fully detailed?..." (6:114)

"...We did not leave anything out of this book..." (6:38)

"These are GOD's revelations that we recite to you truthfully. In which Hadith other than GOD and His revelations do they believe?" (45:6)

So the argument from 2:143 proves the opposite of what its users intend. The one time the Quran points to an instruction outside its text, it is an instruction God cancelled - and the cancellation is in the text. Everything still in force is in the Book. That is what "fully detailed" means, and it is why the Quran alone was sufficient the day it was completed and remains sufficient today.