ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2 we explore Abdolkarim Soroush’s hermeneutic approaches to the Qurʾān. We argue that Soroush rejects the traditional Islamic conception of revelation, in which the Prophet is viewed as a passive transmitter of God’s message, with no role in shaping the content or wording of the Qurʾān. In his theory of revelation, Soroush links the Prophet’s personality and revelatory experiences to the context of revelation, and argues that the revelation and the Qurʾān were adapted to their historical context through the mind of the Prophet. We also discuss three aspects of Soroush’s theory of Qabz va Baṣṭ-e Teʿorīk-e Sharīʿat (the contraction and expansion of religious knowledge) and explore how these are related to broader ideas Soroush presents regarding the interpretation of the Qurʾān.
