easier", Muslim could read them and see how their burden had been eased by God's abrogation. Another question raised is whether abrogating rulings (al-hukm) but not Quranic wording (al-tilawa) contradicts the verse of abrogation Q.2:106 which states "any ayah We cause to be superseded or forgotten, We replace with something better or similar", and not "any hukm We cause to be superseded or forgotten ..." The Arabic word Ayah, is the word used in the Quran for verses in that book, although it is also used for other of God's "signs". If God intended for sharia rulings and not wording to be abrogated why wouldn't verse Q.2:106 say so? Tafsir scholar Tabarī ingeniously explains this problem away by noting that the faithful believe that no one part of the Quran can be "superior" to any other part (because the Qur'an was composed by the divine author and is Mu'jaz, or so miraculous it is impossible to imitate). However 2:106 talks of God replacing ayah "with something better or similar". Since all verses of the Quran are all equally wondrous, ayah in this context cannot be referring to the words of the Quran. The principle of mu'jaz, however, does not carry over to shari'a law whose wording is not divine (those its substance is) and whose quality may vary in excellence. Thus, by process of elimination, John Burton explains, "the only other thing it [ayah in Q.2:106] can refer to is the ruling derived from the verse," i.e. "the rulings of the shari'a", hukm. Still another issue was how ayah could be forgotten ("cause to be forgotten") when a prophet like Muhammad was meant to be protected from flaws like forgetting. This was explained by modifying the definition of "cause to be forgotten" ('aw nasaha) to "defer" or "leave". 2. naskh al-tilāwa dūna al-hukm This form of naskh — abrogation of the wording (al-tilāwa) of some part of the Quran but not the ruling (al-hukm) based on that part — is acknowledged "only by a minority of scholars". The traditional evidence offered for it is the lack of verses for rajm [stoning adulterers], and rada [kinship from breastfeeding] in the Quran, notwithstanding the fact that both are generally accepted parts of traditional Islamic law. In the first case, a punishment of stoning to death (lapidation) for adultery is found in the Islamic law of the founders of all four surviving schools