The issue of abrogation in the Holy Quran has always been a challenging topic among commentators and Quranic scholars. In the Western tradition of Islamic studies, John Burton is one of the most influential scholars who has tried to question the mechanism of compilation and collection of the Quran with a critical approach. This article analyzes Burton’s views on a type of abrogation that he considers “the abrogation of judgment and recitation” (simultaneous abrogation of judgment and recitation) and considers it as a posteriori justification for the loss of some Quranic texts. Burton argues that the concept of abrogation, especially the abrogation of recitation, was an attempt by early commentators to explain ambiguities such as “the Prophet’s forgetfulness” or “the forgetting of some verses by God.” To prove his claim, he refers to verses from the Quran and their interpretations. According to Burton's analysis, these narrations actually represent verses that were omitted or "missing" from the final collection of the Quran. To prove this claim, he examines verses such as Ibn Adam and Beer Ma'una as examples.

This study, while carefully explaining and expanding Burton's arguments, assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the narrative and theological foundations of his theory and explains how this critical perspective has influenced contemporary discussions of Quranic sciences.