انوار معرفت

"Prophecy" which is based on revelation is one of the principles of monotheistic religions. Thinkers have different views on the truth of revelation and its various dimensions. In the meantime, a group of contemporary intellectuals have taken a different approach and presented interesting opinions about revelation by relying on some mystics’ words. Among these people is Abdul Karim Soroush. From his viewpoint, revelation is the same as dream, and dream is the same as revelation; the Qur'an is a kind of dream, and the Holy Prophet is the narrator of prophetic dreams. For him, the Qur'an is the word of Muhammad and is figuratively attributed to God. He believes that Gabriel does not have an objective existence out of the prophet's imagination. In fact, he denied the mediating role of Gabriel in the transmission of revelation and introduced the Prophet as responsible for revelation. To explain his view, Soroush takes advantage of the opinions of the people of knowledge about the metaphysics of union and the Hadīth of Qurb al-Nawāfil (Hadith concerning nearness to God) and Qurb al-Faraiz . Using descriptive-analytical method, this article examines Soroush's claim and his mystical references; it makes it clear that his claim is principally distorted and his reference to metaphysics of union is incomplete and incorrect. Because a perfect man reaches the stage of annihilation and becomes annihilated in God and as a result he is only a listener and has no initiative in this regard.