God’s Word or Muhammad’s? Revelation & Prophetic Experience with Dr. Soroush | Thinking Islam Ep. 8

Is the Qur'an truly the word of God, or does it reflect the creative imagination of Prophet Muhammad (s)? How do we understand revelation in a world governed by reason and science? In this episode of Thinking Islam, we grapple with these fundamental questions with Dr Abdolkarim Soroush, one of the most influential voices in contemporary Islamic intellectual reform.

This wide-ranging conversation explores Dr Soroush's groundbreaking theory of the expansion and contraction of religious knowledge, his views on revelation and prophetic experience, and the controversial notion that the Qur'an might be better understood as "Kalam Muhammad" rather than literal divine speech. From essentials and accidentals of the Qur’an to the paradoxical nature of Prophetic life, we examine how prophetic experience can be understood in our post-prophetic age.

Dr Soroush is a distinguished philosopher of religion and a leading voice in Islamic intellectual reform. A Visiting Scholar at the University of Maryland and former Professor at the University of Tehran, he has also held visiting positions at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale Universities. Dr Soroush is renowned for his influential work "The Expansion of Prophetic Experience" and his contributions to contemporary Islamic thought and hermeneutics.

Video Chapters:
0:00 – Highlights
1:34 – Understanding the Phenomena of Revelation
4:40 – Expansion & Contraction of Islamic Interpretation
10:42 – Expectations from Religion
13:12 – Between Maximalization & Infallibility
17:22 – Is Revelation like Poetry or a Dream?
24:49 – Revelation as Creative Imagination
28:32 – Kalam e Muhammad or Kalamullah
35:58 – God is Also Sad When You're Sad
39:17 – The Speech of God is Metaphorical
47:18 – Essentials and Accidentals of the Qur'an
49:17 – Prophetic Experience & Its Expansion
53:15 – Prophetic Paradox
56:36 – Finality of Prophethood
59:00 – Imamate & Finality
1:03:45 – Thinking Islam Question

#ThinkingIslam #Podcast #Revelation #PropheticExperience #IslamicPhilosophy #AbdolkarimSoroush #Hermeneutics #QuranicStudies #IslamicStudies #ReligiousExperience #Islam #Muslim #Prophecy #Theology #Philosophy #IslamicIntellectualHistory #ReligiousThought #Mysticism #IslamicScholarship #ContemporaryIslam

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