The changing approach to the text: Iranian scholars and the Quran

Middle Eastern Studies

Volumn 41, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 337-350

  Amirpur, Katajun ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ISLAMISM; RELIGION;

ASIA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; IRAN; MIDDLE EAST; WORLD;

EID: 21344445888     PISSN: 00263206     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00263200500105901     Document Type: Article

References (64)

1. For information regarding Taleqani, see the following: Shahrough Akhavi, 'Islam, Politics and Society in the Thought of Ayatullah Khomeini, Ayatullah Taleqani and Ali Shariati', Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.24 (1988), pp.4, 404-31;
2. Mangol Bayat, 'Mahmud Taleqani and the Iranian Revolution', in Martin Kramer (ed.), Shi'ism, Resistance, and Revolution (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1987), pp.67-94;
3. Nikki Keddie, Roots of Revolution, An Interpretative History of Modern Iran, (Yale: University Press, 1981), pp.210 ff.;
4. Hamid Dabashi, Theology of Discontent, The Ideological Foundation of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, (New York: University Press, 1993), pp.216-72.
5. For information on the liberation movement, see: Houchang Esfandiar Chehabi, Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism, The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini (London: Tauris, 1990).
6. Information on tafsir ilmi, i.e. 'scientific interpretation of the Quran', in the Arabian context, is offered by: Johannes M.S. Baljon, Modern Muslim Koran Interpretation (1880-1960), (Leiden: Brill, 1961);
7. and J.J.G. Jansen, The Interpretation of the Koran in Modern Egypt, (Leiden: Brill, 1974), pp.35ff.
8. See Shaoul Bakhash, The Reign of the Ayatollahs, Iran and the Islamic Revolution, (London: Tauris, 1984), p.168.
9. See Dabashi, (note 1) Theology, p.237.
10. Ibid., p.243.
11. Ali Shariati, Ma va Eqbal (We and Iqbal), (Tehran: Elhâm, 1979), 73f.
12. Ali Shariati, Ma va Eqbal (We and Iqbal), (Tehran: Elhâm, 1979), 73f. Quoted from Bahauddin Khorramshahi, Tafsir va Tafâsir-e jadid (Exegesis and Modern Commentaries), (Tehran: Keyhân, 1986), p.44.
13. Mortaza Motahhari, Dah goftâr (Ten lectures), (Tehran: Sadr, 1981), p.190ff. Quoted from Khorramshahi, Tafsir, p.47.
14. For information on Bazargan, see: Chehabi (note 2), Iranian Politics;
15. also Dabashi (note 1), Theology, pp.324-66.
16. For further information on this book see: Ann Lambton, 'A Reconsideration of the Position of the Marga al-taqlid and the Religious Institution', Studia Iranica, Vol.20 (1964), pp.115-34.
17. Saeed Barzin, 'Constitutionalism and Democracy in the Religious Thought of Mehdi Bazargan', British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 21 (1994) pp.1,85-101.
18. Chehabi (note 2), Iranian Politics, pp. 50-100.
19. For information on Tabataba'i, see Dabashi's detailed presentation in: Dabashi, (note 1) Theology, pp. 273-323.
20. See also Muhammad Hossein Tabataba'i, Der Koran im Islam (The Quran in Islam), (Bonn/Köln: Botschaft der Islamischen Republik Iran, 1986), p.50.
21. See Dabashi, Theology, pp. 308.
22. Several studies have been published in recent years on Sorush: Afshin Matin-Asghari, 'Abdolkarim. Sorush and the Secularization of Islamic Thought in Iran', Iranian Studies, Vol. 30 (1997), pp.1-2, 95-115.
23. Valla Vakili, 'Debating Religion and Politics in Iran: The Political Thought of Abdolkarim Soroush', (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1996);
24. John Cooper, 'The Limits of the Sacred: The Epistemology of Abd al-Karim Soroush', in Cooper et al. (eds.), Islam and Modernity. Muslim Intellectuals Respond, (London: Tauris, 1998);
25. Forough Jahanbaksh, Islam, Democracy and Religious Modernism in Iran (1953-2000): from Bazargan to Soroush, (Leiden: Brill, 2001);
26. Ashk Dahlen, Deciphering the Meaning of Revealed Law. The Sorushian Paradigm Shiite Epistemology, (Uppsala: University Press, 2001).
27. The present author has published the following on Sorush: Katajun Amirpur, 'Ein islamischer Luther? Abdolkarim Sorushs Kritik an der schiitischen Geistlichkeit' (An Islamic Luther? Abdolkarim Sorush's Critique of the Shiite Clergy), Orient, Vol.37 (1996), pp. 465-81;
28. 'Reformen an theologischen Hochschulen in Iran: Revolutionäres Establishment contra religiöse Aufklärer' (Reforms in Iran's Theological Academies: Revolutionary Establishment vs. Religious Advocates of Enlightenment), Orient, Vol.38 (1997), pp.535-57;
29. 'The Representation of the West in Iranian Alternative Culture', in Kai Hafez (ed.), Mass Media in the Middle East, (New Jersey: Hampton Press, 2000);
30. Die Entpolitisierung der Religion. Abdolkarim Sorushs Werk und Wirkung in der Islamischen Republik Iran (The Depoliticizing of Religion: Abdolkarim Sorush's Work and Impact in the Islamic Republic of Iran), (Würzburg: Ergon, 2003).
31. Some of Sorush's writings have been translated into English by Ahmad and Mahmud Sadri: Abd-alKarim Sorush, Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam, (Oxford: University Press, 2000).
32. Most of my information for this biographical sketch is drawn from an interview conducted by me in November 1996 in London with Sorush himself, and on a biography on the internet (Seraj homepage). Differences between the two sources are indicated where necessary.
33. Seraj homepage, updated version July 1996;
34. my visit to the homepage dates from 2 May 1997.
35. For information on the political role of Iranian students abroad, see: Keddie, Roots, pp. 236ff.. She concentrates on Abdolhasan Bani-Sadr, Ebrahim Yazdi, and Sadeq Qotbzadeh, all of whom held important posts in Iran after the revolution, but fell into disgrace after a short period.
36. 4: Sarât, 1995);
37. 5; Sarât, 1995).
38. In Nahâd-e nâ-arâm-e jahân, Sorush analyses the foundations of Islamic philosophy, specifically tauhid (monotheism) and ma'âd (resurrection [after Judgment Day]). The book also offers a detailed description of Molla Sadra's (d. 1660) philosophical concept.
39. For information on the aims of the Iranian cultural revolution, see: Mohsen Milani, The Making of Iran's Islamic Revolution: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic, (Boulder,CO: Westview Press, 1988), pp.294-304.
40. Interview with Abdolkarim Sorush.
41. My figurative translation of the title is 'The Changeability of Religious Knowledge'.
42. Abdolkarim Sorush, Qabz a bast-e teutik-e shariat - nazariye-ye takamol-e marefat-e dini. (Theory of Extension and Concentration/ Evolution and Devolution of Religion - the Theory of Religious Knowledge's Development), (Tehran: Sarat, 1994), p.347.
43. Sorush, Qabz, p.244.
44. Karl Raimund Popper, Objektive Erkenntnis, Ein evolutionärer Entwurf (Objective Cognition, An Evolutionary Sketch), (Hamburg: Hoffmann & Campe, 1984), pp.85ff.
45. Sorush, Qabz, pp.289,425.
46. For further information on this issue, see: Toshihiko Izutsu, God and Man in the Koran. Semantics of the Koranic Weltanschauung, (New York (reprint): Books for Libraries), 1998).
47. Sorush, Qabz, pp.220,231.
48. Sorush, Qabz, p.359.
49. Karl Raimund Popper, 'Normal Science and its Dangers', in Imre Lakotos & Alan Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, (Cambridge: University Press, 995, pp.51-8,55). - Newton's quote runs as follows: Hypotheses non fingo.
50. Sorush, Qabz, pp.215,236.
51. Sorush, Qabz, p.252.
52. Compare Rashid El-Solh, 'Islamist Attitudes towards Democracy: A Review of the Ideas of Al-Ghazali, al-Turabi and Amara', British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 20 (1993) pp. 1,57 63.
53. Gudrun Krämer mentions Amara and several others as prominent figures of this school of thought. Gudrun Krämer, 'Cross-Links and Double Talk? Islamist Movements in the Political Process', in Laura Guazzone (ed.), The Islamist Dilemma. The Political Role of Islamist Movements in the Contemporary Arab World, (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1995), pp.39-68,51.
54. The following writings may be consulted as exemplary of the extensive literature on this issue: Martin Forstner, 'Das Menschenrecht der Religionsfreiheit und des Religionswechsels als Problem der islamischen Staaten' (The Human Right of Freedom of Religion and of Changing One's Religion: A Problem of Islamic States), Kanon (Vienna), Vol.10 (1991), pp.105 86;
55. Rudolph Peters & Gert J.J. De Vries, 'Apostasy in Islam', Welt des Islams, Vol. 17 (1976/77), pp.1-25.
56. See, among others: Abdoljavad Falaturi, Westliche Menschenrechtsvorstellungen und Koran (Western Perceptions of Human Rights and the Koran), (Köln: Islamische Wissenschaftliche Akademie, 1992);
57. Der Islam im Dialog (Islam in Dialogue), (Köln: Islamische Wissenschaftliche Akademie, 1979);
58. Adel Theodor Khoury, Christen unterm Halbmond. Religiöse Minderheiten unter der Herrschaft des Islams (Christians under the Crescent. Religious Minorities under the Reign of Islam), (Freiburg: Herder, 1994).
59. In a lecture Sorush gave at Tehran university on 21 August 1997. It was published under the title Zâti va arazi dar din, Kiyân, Vol. 8 (1998) pp.4-19,42.
60. Al-Ghazali, however, did not deny the necessity of applying the shari'ah. His aim was rather to show that, contrary to common opinion, the sufis did not at all deny the necessity of the duties of religious practices like the five mandatory prayers. In Ihya ulum ad-din, al-Ghazali describes how nothing but the fulfilment of the rules of shari'ah can be the base of a genuinely sufite life-style. But the meaning of the religious duties is only understood by humans when they have attained the highest rank in the soul's way towards God.
61. See: W. Montgomery Watt, Islamic Philosophy and Theology (Edinburgh: University Press, 1985), p.92.
62. Abdolkarim Sorush, 'Tahlil-e mafhum-e hokumat-e dini' (Analysis of the Term 'Religious Government'), Kiyân, Vol.6 (1996), pp.2-13,7,32.
63. Ibid., p.3.
64. Ibid., p.9.