Considering Revelation as Visionary; A Critique of Abdulkarim Soroush's Views

One of the assumptions recently made by some authors is considering revelation as a dream and replacing the notion of "interpretation of the Quran" with "explanation of the Quran". In this hypothesis, revelation is considered as a kind of dream and therefore understanding its contents is only possible through interpretation. Abdulkarim Soroush claims that this hypothesis enjoys enough textual and historical evidence. The present paper reviews the evidence for this hypothesis and, through a phenomenological outlook, sets the following criteria for judgment about this issue: reference to the revelation itself, the states and words of those who have a revelation from God, and the people who are closest to them. This article rejects his proofs for denying any verbal communication between the creator and the creature in revelation, and then presents evidence for the realization of revelation in the state of wakefulness. At the end of the paper, it is proved that revelation, even if it is a dream, does not need to be interpreted and explained. In this library - based study, an analytical – critical research method is used.