فصلنامه قبسات
پیاپی 47 (بهار 1387)

Some writers consider revelation as a kind of inspiration and poem and religious experience resulted from the culture of the corresponding age. This is somehow that one cannot attribute epistemological truth to it. These writers also attribute this perspective to Muslim philosophers. This article will try to prove that the Islamic philosopher’s understandings of revelation, including the philosophy of the Lyceum and philosophy of Illumination and the transcendental philosophy, are completely in opposition with the theory of considering Quranic and Resali revelation as religious experience and poem [created be Prophet]. They consider revelation as a Divine truth. Therefore the Divine revelation takes place when a prophet passes the stages of potential intellect and habitual intellect and actualized intellect and reaches to acquired intellect and communicates with the Active Intellect. However Prophet is never considered as the subject creator of revelation according to the perspective of Muslim philosophers. Another subject mentioned here is how are the particular and general revelations created which are explained according to the perspectives of Ibn-Sina, Sheikh Ishraqh and Molla-Sadra.

We will first mention the order of the worlds of being, which are also the degrees of Gods’ knowledge, until the end of the Divine administration of matters in this brief article. As a result the existential position of Quran and the course of its descent in the worlds of being will be elaborated. Then in the discussion of theology and the book of God’s existence (world of creation), we will discover the relationship between Quran and the other kinds of theologies and existence books. Consequently we have illustrated a perception of the existential position of the Holy Quran which is deduced from Molla-Sadra’s Quranic and interpretational books.

This article will explain Prophet Mohammad's (PBUH) role in revelation. After explaining the reality of revelation, the writer of the article will mention four perspectives which analyze Prophet's (PBUH) role in revelation: a- The famous traditional view (genetic role); b- The uncommon traditional view of the minority (subjective role of prophet = spiritual descent of Quran); c- The philosophical and mystical view (genetic role);d- The religious experience view (subjective role according to the interpretation of some intellectuals).Analyzing these views, the writer will try to harmonize the famous traditional view and the philosophical and mystical view for the first time and compare them with Quranic and narrational foundations.

This article will research on the relationship between revelation and religious experience from Dr. Abdol-Karim Soroush's view. According to his view revelation and religious experience are of the same type and religious experience occurs for other people as well. Therefore just like the Prophets (PBUT) revelation occurs for everyone. He believes revelation has two aspects: 1. the formless aspect of revelation, 2. the formal aspect of revelation. The responsibility of the individuals including the Prophets is to create a form for the formless aspect of revelation. These for creations have no preference compared to each other. Thus he considers religious experience as the basis of piety which leads to (results in) religious pluralism. He vigorously believes religious pluralism. He inserts (dekhalat dadan) human being in the meaning and creation of revelation (He introduces being man-made in the meaning of revelation), therefore its characteristics such as deficiency and imperfection are also transmitted to revelation. Consequently it needs permanent polish. In this article the meaning of religious experience, different perspectives regarding religious experience, and also the factors resulting in the emergence of empiricism are mentioned. Finally his view is criticized: religious experience cannot be an appropriate basis for religion, because an experience being religious presupposes believing in the doctrinal aspect of religion which is incompatible with religious experience as a basis and it's also proven that his views about religious experience is contrary to rational demonstration and Quranic doctrines.

Revelation is one of the fundamental concepts of Islam. The form of revelation which is mentioned in Quran is not mentioned in the holy books of other religions. A question which arises regarding revelation is how it should be analyzed? Is revelation a kind of religious experience or is it a kind of God’s verbal communication with human being? This article has investigated and criticized Dr. Soroush’s perspectives in this regard. According to the writer’s belief, an acceptable model of revelation should have two characteristics: first it should have exact philosophical foundations, and second it should be consistent with Quranic facts. Dr. Soroush’s view in this regard doesn’t have any of the two mentioned characteristics.

Allameh Tabataba’i believes revelation is an infusion such that it is veiled for everyone except the one who was meant to become aware. The following characteristics of revelation are introduced in Quran: its goal, content and its kinds. Allameh believes that the Prophet’s understanding of the unseen is what is called “revelation” in the language of Quran, and the state that one receives from revelation is called “prophecy”. According to the Holy Quran’s clear terms, revelation is descended to Prophet’s (S.A) heart and the first time the Prophet receives a revelation and his mission is declared to him, he doesn’t doubt that this revelation is sent by the Glorified God. Revelation which is the same as the esoteric consciousness of the prophets, is not like the common innate consciousness of people which is the same as the intellectual consciousness. Revelation is invulnerable and guarded from the origin of emission to the stage of people’s receipt. Also Quran’s letters are descended by God just like the meanings of Quran which are descended by God; thus the content of revelation includes both of them.

The course of Christian religious researches shows the presence of two perspectives about revelation: linguistic and empirical. The first approach can be divided into two groups of literal and propositional and the second approach can be divided into historical experience and religious experience. According to the linguistic perspective, revelation bears a collection of true propositions which are sent by God. The empirical perspective emphasizes on the internal finding of God for human beings. The view which has more defenders among the Christians is the empirical approach which has been drawn to religious experience in recent centuries. After explaining the linguistic perspective, this article will explore the factors of its comedown (fall?). Then it will discuss about the essence of empirical approaches, especially religious experience, and the results of accepting it.

The foundations of Quran will be mentioned in this short article so that one cannot imagine some false matters have entered Quran by the culture of the Prophet's times. These foundations are as follows:1- Rightfulness of Quran, 2- Quran's guiding, 3- Being along with knowledge, 4- Miracle and Tahaddi (the recall of struggle against the miracle of Quran's verses), 5- Coherency with nature, 6- Quran as a pure revelation and God's terms, 7- Attributing Quran's letters to God is a literal attribution not allegorical, 8- Illiteracy of Prophet does not effect the content of revelation, 9- Custody and truthfulness of bearers of revelation, 10- Sanctity of Quranic verses, 11- Human's wisdom as a criterion for evaluating Quranic verses, 12- The necessity of predication of God's terms to the closest literal meaning, when paraphrase is needed, 13- The necessity of having a comprehensive look at all of Quran's commands, 14- Perfection of the Holy Quran and its demonstration of everything, 15- Quran as the last divine book and its eternity, 16- An eternal message which is related to the culture of the times.