Abdulkarim Soroush

From Philosopedia

Abdolkarim Soroush (1945 - )

Soroush (Persian: عبدالكريم سروش ), the pen name of Hosein Haj Faraj Dabbagh (Persian: حسين حاج فرج دباغ) [1], has been called by Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar "Iran's leading public intellectual" for more than two decades.

Soroush, according to Tabaar, an adjunct lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, was originally chosen by Ayatollah Khomeini to "Islamicize" Iran's universities, "only to eventually turn against the theocratic state. His lectures were disrupted, he was beaten, and he reportedly was nearly assassinated."

After studying pharmacy, he received a doctorate in analytical chemistry in London, then spent over five years at Chelsea College, where he studied history and the philosophy of science.

He was a former professor at the University of Tehran but currently is a visiting scholar at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. He was also affiliated with prestigious institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. In 2005, Time named him one of the world's 100 most influential people. In 2008 Prospect named him the seventh most influential intellectual in the world.

Philosophy

Soroush, an expert on Rumi and Persian Sufi poetry, has summarized his philosophy. He distinguishes

• between "religion" and our "understanding of religion" -

in The Theoretical Contraction and Expansion of Shari'a, he separates religion per se from religious

knowledge. The former, or the essence of religion, is seen as beyond human reach;

the latter is a sincere but limited and fallible form of human knowledge.

• between "essential" and "accidental" aspects of religion;

• between "minimalist" and "maximalist" interpretation of Islam;

• between values and morals that are considered internal in respect to Islam and those that are external;

• between religious "belief" and religious "faith"; and

• between religion as an ideology/identity and religion of truth.

Who Wrote the Koran?

Tabaar, in a New York Times Magazine article, said Iran's ayatollahs rebut his major views. Muhammad's revealed truths commanded him to tell people certain things, they insist. Soroush, responding to Tabaar,

told me, he was like a bee who produces honey itself, even though the mechanism for making the honey is placed in him by God. This is “the example the Koran itself sets,” says Soroush, citing the Koran: “And your Lord inspired to the bee: take for yourself among the mountains, houses . . . then eat from all the fruits . . . there emerges from their bellies a drink . . . in which there is healing for people.”

Soroush has been described as a Muslim Luther, but unlike the Protestant reformer, he is no literalist about holy books. His work more closely resembles that of the 19th-century German scholars who tried to understand the Bible in its original context. Case in point: when a verse in the Koran or a saying attributed to Muhammad refers to cutting off a thief’s hand or stoning to death for adultery, it only tells us the working rules and regulations of the prophet’s era. Today’s Muslims are not obliged to follow in these footsteps if they have more humane means at their disposal.

Soroush’s latest views have not endeared him to the powerful conservative wing of Iran’s establishment. Some have accused him of heresy, which is punishable by death. There have been demonstrations by clerics in Qom, the religious capital of Iran, against his recent work. But Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, unexpectedly warned against feeding the controversy. He said those who are employing “philosophy or pseudo-philosophy” to “pervert the nation’s mind” should not be dealt with “by declaring apostasy and anger” but rather countered with the “religious truths” that will falsify their arguments.

In Iran today, many opponents of the government advocate the creation of a secular state. Soroush himself supports the separation of mosque and state, but for the sake of religion. He seeks freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Thus he speaks for a different — and potentially more effective — agenda. The medieval Islamic mystic Rumi once wrote that “an old love may only be dissolved by a new one.” In a deeply religious society, whose leaders have justified their hold on power as a divine duty, it may take a religious counter-argument to push the society toward pluralism and democracy. Soroush challenges those who claim to speak for Islam, and does so on their own terms.

Critics

In the mid-1990s Ansar-e-Hezbollah - a militant conservative Iranian Islamic group - assaulted him and his audiences.

Soroush, according to Robin Wright, in The Last Great Revolution (2000),

• Over the next year, he lost his three senior academic appointments, including a deanship. Other public appearances, including his Thursday lectures, were banned. He was forbidden to publish new articles. He was summoned for several long "interviews" by Iranian intelligence officials. His travel was restricted, then his passport confiscated.