Abdul Karim Soroush And Religious Pluralism

Author: Omid Hadian Bersiani

Supervisor: Prof Dr. Jamal Malik

Department of Religion Studies

University of Erfurt - Germany

July, 2022
Abdul Karim Soroush, the Iranian philosopher, explains and analyzes the idea of religious pluralism in
his book SERATHAY MOSTAGHIM (straight paths)1 using ten foundations (two main foundations and
eight subsidiary foundations). Although he argues that the origin of this idea came from mystics such
as Rumi and Ibn Arabi, he considers this explanation of a plurality of religions to be a production of
the Enlightenment era. In this paper, we attempt to explain and simplify Soroush’s ten foundations
for the idea of religious pluralism and clarify which underlying assumptions lead Soroush to this idea.

Soroush defines this idea of religious pluralism in two ways: a positive definition and a negative
definition.

He writes: “Religious pluralism is an epistemological idea in regard of being truth of faith and faithful
people and wants to explain the plurality has made in religious world and show that this kind of
plurality is a natural and normal event which discover of being truth of majority of religious people.
And such a plurality is required by the human perceptive system and the multifaceted nature of
reality”.2

He further defines: “pluralism is acceptance of plurality and diversity of different religion and cultures
and respect and admit different religious' experiences of human beings.” 3

In other words, he tells us what is not pluralism. In this regard, he claims that the idea of pluralism
doesn’t mean that all religions are correct. And he also doesn’t mean there is no difference between
different religions. In general, the story of pluralism is not the story of criteria of truth or negation of
right and wrong and equality between right and wrong.

To further explain his idea of pluralism, he brings one example: he says to imagine there is a war
between two countries. In this case we can have two different viewpoints. The first concerns which
country is right and which country is not. And the second view is that we don’t consider which one is
right but we have dialogue; why is there war among human beings in history? Is there something in
human nature that tends to war or to something else? The second view is equivalent to the view of
pluralism and not the first one. It means pluralism doesn't consider which religion is right and which
one is wrong but rather it holds that there is plurality in religion during history and this pluralism tries
to explain many religious differences.

After these short unclear definitions, we begin with this question of why the plurality of religions
needs an explanation. In other words, what disadvantages does the idea of exclusivism have that has
caused some thinkers such as Soroush and John Hike try to find another way rather than exclusivism.

In general rejection of exclusivism and tendency to pluralism in Soroush words come back to three
factors: 1. making a pluralistic society in a real and deep meaningful way 2. the guidance of God 3.
rationality and reason faculty in human beings

Before explanation of each one of these three factors, I should mention in general that there are
three reactions or approaches to the plurality of religions: 1. Exclusivism, which ignores plurality.
1
1.This book contains two articles, one conversation, and an interview with Abdul Karim Soroush about
religious pluralism. (All translations from Persian to English are done by the author.)
2
2.Abdul Karim Soroush, Straight Paths (SERATHAY MOSTAGHIM), published by Serat Cultural Institute in 1999,
page 3.
3
3. Abdul Karim Soroush, SERATHAY MOSTAGHIM, 4.
According to this idea, the reality is only one and anything other than this one is wrong. So only one
religion is acceptable and other religions are a deviation from it. It is a common idea among many
religious people.

2. Inclusivism, which accepts plurality but unreal plurality and tries to return pluralities to unity.
Based on this approach, reality is one but in one specific religion there is all reality; therefor other
religions have some benefit to this reality.

3.Religious pluralism, which accepts plurality as real plurality and believes that it is impossible to
return plurality to a unity, thus we should accept these many realities as not only one.

It should be noted that Soroush cites these three interactions and approaches from John Hick 4, a
Christian philosopher and theologian who is a supporter of pluralism, and praises his article entitled:
“Do Muslims, Christians, and Jews worship the same God?” 5

a. Pluralistic society:

Pluralism can be considered in two different realms: .in society and in culture and religion. Thus we
have pluralistic society and pluralistic religion. According to the website Science Struck, pluralism is
when “people with different origins, backgrounds, belief systems, and other differences come
together to form society and live in it, then such society is known as pluralistic society. In this case,
there is no force or coercion by anyone or on to discard their existing belief system and adapt to new
one. Such a society is more or less based on the principal of ‘Live and Let Live.” 6

Although pluralism in society and pluralism in religion are related to each other, they are different in
meaning. According to Soroush, pluralism in society and pluralism in religion has a mutual
relationship. He argues that: whoever accepts pluralism in religion and culture cannot refuse or
disobey pluralistic society. In the same way, making a pluralistic society in a real way needs a
theoretical approach and idea of religious pluralism is an excellent theory to construct a pluralistic
society. Soroush in the case of unity between Islamic sects believes: such a truce is unstable and
without a theoretical base and it will never happen.

To sum up, the first reason some thinkers like Soroush refuse exclusivism and try to make the idea of
religious pluralism is to make a pluralistic society in a real and deeply meaningful way.

B: Divine guidance:

According most religions God is guiding and merciful. Soroush believes that if we analyze the plurality
of religion with the exclusivism approach and consider all religions wrong except one, the issue of
divine guidance is ignored. In his view, the name of guide for God is not a misnomer and such an
understanding that the majority of people are deviated is a wrong and only a human understanding
of this divine name. He believes guiding, like enlightening and healing, verbally and intellectually, is
appropriate and consistent with the success of majority and the failure of the minority. Therefore, in
most periods of history, most people should be considered guided otherwise this divine name
becomes a misnomer.

He argues that for accepting such an understanding three assumption are necessary:

44.
Abdul Karim Soroush, SERATHAY MOSTAGHIM, 16.
5
John Hick, Disputed Question, 146-163 (Yall University Press, 1993).
6
“What is a Pluralistic Society and What are Its Pros and Cons?” ScienceStruck,
https://sciencestruck.com/what-is-pluralistic-society.
1. first, we should consider the meaning of guidance in a vast and broad way and not limit it to some
beliefs.

2. secondly guidance should be accepted as a gradual concept which has different levels and degrees
not a simple and flat concept.

3. third, the free will of humans which derives from reason and Fitrat of humans should be
considered as a guided and benevolent free will, not as an evil free will that is against divine
guidance.

To sum up and in the philosophical language the idea of exclusivism is a paradoxical idea because
according this idea God is guide for all human and at the same time most of people are misguided.

C. Faculty of reason in the human being:

The other issue which has convinced Soroush to refuse exclusivism is the issue of rationality and
faculty of reason in human beings. According to exclusivism all people have gone in a wrong way
except one group which means the faculty of reason of most people is not trustable. In this case
Soroush argues that every person should clarify his or her foundation and there are only two
possibilities:

First: believe in Lack of validity of reason:

In this way, we would believe that the faculty of reason cannot judge in metaphysics as Kant believes
this way. If we accept this idea, we cannot choose one religion as truth one because we don’t have
any criteria to select and judge truth.

Validity of reason:

If we accept the validity of reason and at same time believe that most of people are wrong in their
understanding, there are then two possibilities:

First possibility is that those in the majority are wrong and have realized the reality and truth but
they refused truth and made enmity to truth

Or, on the other hand, those wrong majority could not understand the reality.

Both possibilities are not acceptable because the first possibility is against the nature of the human
that all religions speak about a divine nature of human and the second one is against the validity of
reason which is against our assumption (validity of reason).

Religious pluralism:

After the clarifying of disadvantages of the idea of exclusivism, Soroush tries to explain a new way to
analyze the plurality of religions, which he calls religious pluralism. In this regards he believes that
the idea of pluralism has two important foundations which can explain this idea very well. But he also
brings up eight other explanations and subsidiary foundation to complete his description.

1.first foundation: Hermeneutic pluralism (Plurality within religions):

Hermeneutic pluralism means diversity of understanding of religious texts. According to this
foundation the plurality of religions comes back to different understanding of human being in the
interpretation of religious texts. The origin and cause of this diversity of understanding come back to
three factors among to Soroush.

1. Due to the nature of the text, which has two requirements:

A. The silence of the text: the first requirement is common among all texts and it is not dedicated to
religious texts. In this sense the text is silent therefor for understanding of texts we get help from our
assumptions, our questions and our expectations about what will be discovered in the text. And
these assumptions and questions and expectations come from out of religion and whatever comes
out of religion is variable and fluid and changeable. Thus the interpretations of a text are changeable
and variable.

Soroush in the book titled The Theory of Expansion and Contraction of Religion discusses this
mechanism7. According this theory we don’t have one specific interpretation of religion and religious
knowledge like other knowledge is a human process. He brings up one example and says Shia and
Sunni are two different understanding of Islam and both can be true in their place.

B. Having multiple layers of religious texts:

Soroush believes that religious texts and some other deep texts like Rumi and Hafez texts have
different layers and aspects, which when we discover one layer another layer appears and this
characteristic makes these texts always alive and fresh. he argues that that is why we never have the
last commentator of Quran or other religious texts. To support his claim, he cites traditions that
believe that the Qur'an has seven or seventy parts and layers (batin).

2.Due to the nature of human being and its human cognitive system:

There are two important theories about the object and the mind. The common idea in Islamic
philosophy is our mind is like a mirror which shows the reality and object outside of the mind and the
mind is passive, not active. This is theory called "theory of mental existence” (wujod Zehni). But
Soroush believes that our mind is not only passive like a mirror but both active and passive and
knowledge is a thus a consequence of interaction between our mind and the real world

2.Second foundation: positive pluralism (Extra-religious pluralism)

Positive pluralism, which is the most important base of religious pluralism, stems from diversity of
interpretations of religious experiences.

To clarify this idea, we should explain religious experience according to Soroush. He explains this idea
in an influential book titled Expansion of Prophetic Experience. Religious experience means facing an
absolute and transcendent matter. In this book Soroush argues that revelation is a kind of religious
experience. He mentions examples of religious experience, such as the prophet's experience as if
someone were speaking to him, receiving a message in a dream (i.e., Abraham's experience), seeing
angels, and what goes on behind the scenes of the visible world. He gives the examples of religious
experience; so, we can say that he considers religious experience as a kind of perception. 8

7
Abdul Karim Soroush ,The Theory of Expansion and Contraction of Religion, published by Serat Cultural
Institute in 2008.
8
Arash Naraqi, Rereading Soroush Idea About Prophetic Experience And Its Expansion, 1. (2005)
http://arashnaraghi.org/wp/?p=352.
He considers a prophet who has religious experience or revelatory experience a person that can
obtain special evidence through special channels that others are unable to access.

Considering that Soroush always repeats that the religious experience is not limited to prophets and
others can have such experiences like Holy Mary who had it, we conclude inspiration is a kind of
religious experience which is unique to prophets.

Soroush sometimes uses religious experience and revelatory experience and prophetic experience
instead of each other, but in his opinion, prophetic religious experience is not essentially different
from mystical religious experiences. They are of the same type, and their difference is only in their
degree and intensity.

The second point which we should explain is the function of these religious experience or revelation.
Soroush unlike the traditional understanding believes that revelation is a function of the prophet's
character and not the other way around. Soroush says in this regard: “The Prophet, whose entire
capital was his personality, this personality was the place and creator of religious and revelatory
experiences, and the expansion that was created in his personality led to the expansion of
experience, and therefore revelation was not subject to him That he is subject to revelation”. 9

Elsewhere he writes: The religion of Islam revolves around the personality of the Prophet of Islam
and religion is the same internal and external experience that the Prophet goes through. In fact,
religion is the spiritual and social experience of the Prophet and therefore religion is subject to the
personality of the Prophet.10

Soroush uses inductive reasoning to confirm the claim that revelation and religion are subject to the
character of the Prophet. By quoting some Qur'anic evidences as well as historical evidences, he
proves the subordination of revelation to the character of the prophet by induction.

He invokes four important contexts to substantiate his claim. In other words, he tries to show that
revelation has been subject to the character of the prophet Mohammad in four ways.

First, the duration of the revelatory experience and the length of the verses that were revealed to
the Prophet depended on the tolerance threshold of the Prophet himself. Soroush testifies in this
regard, in the words of Ibn Khaldun, that the repetition of the experience of revelation raised the
Prophet's approval, and as a result the Prophet could endure the experience of revelation for a
longer time and receive longer verses. Soroush, following Ibn Khaldun, believes that this is why the
surahs of Makkah are short, unlike the surahs of Madinah. 11

He says in this regard: “The length and shortness of the Qur'anic verses have been a function of the
physical and spiritual strength of the Prophet. As the Prophet became more experienced in receiving
revelation, and became more accustomed to this unusual phenomenon, the verses of the Qur'an
became longer.”12

Second, the content of the revelation, especially its Sharia, has been influenced by the character and
personal character of the Prophet. Here, unlike the previous case, we are not talking about the ability
of the prophet to receive revelation, but the claim that the law ( Shari'a) brought by the prophet was
a reflection of his personality and personal behavior. Soroush refers to Rumi's son as saying that he
claimed that the difference in laws and Shari'a was due to differences in the characteristics of the
prophets. In other words, the law of any religion is a mirror of the character of the prophet who

9
Abdul Karim Soroush Expansion of Prophetic Experience,13.
10
Abdul Karim Soroush Expansion of Prophetic Experience, 19.
11
Abdul Karim Soroush, Expansion and Prophetic Experience, 11-13.
12
Abdul Karim Soroush, Expansion of Prophetic Experience, 13.
brought that religion. For example, "Because Muhammad was characterized by love of women and
purity, his religion became like this.”13

Third, the content of revelation is based entirely on the events of the Prophet's personal life and in
proportion to and in response to them. Soroush tries to show that the content of revelation in
dialogue and trade is determined by the events of the Prophet's personal life.

He says in this regard: “The Qur'an was gradually revealed and gradually obtained by . preserving the
spirit of its principles (mohkamat) Someone would come and ask the Prophet, someone would
slander the Prophet's wife, someone would start a war, the Jews would do something, the Christians
would do something else, slander the Prophet's madness, gossip about the Prophet's marriage to
Zayd's wife, and so on. And all this was reflected in the Qur'an and the words of the Prophet. And if
the Prophet lived longer and more events took place, his confrontations would inevitably increase,
which means that the Qur'an could have been more than it is”. 14

Fourthly, the content of the revelation has been influenced much more deeply by the level of
knowledge and livelihood of the time of the Prophet. Soroush mentions slavery as an example.

From Soroush's point of view, these four reasons can confirm the following theory:

Revelation is the "function" of the character of the prophet, in the sense that the person of the
prophet, or more precisely the character of the prophet, determines the content of the revelation.

After clarifying of his idea about religious experience lets come back to the idea of religious pluralism.

Religious pluralism according to this foundation analyze the plurality of religions as different
understandings and different interpretations of reality (the absolute and transcendent matter) which
occurred for prophets.

In this opinion, Soroush is strongly influenced by Rumi. He says in this regard: “Rumi words are proof
here for first of all I consider him as the last mystics (khatam al orafa) and second his words are very
eloquent and fluent”15.in this regard Rumi has a plurastic poem which is very controversial. he says
the origin and cause of differences between Islam and Zoroastrianism and Judaism comes back the
point of view of three prophets.in fact he wants to say the differences of those three religions is not
the difference between right and wrong but the reality was one thing which three prophets look at
that reality in three different point of views.in other words god emanated with different emanation
for three prophets.

To be more clear, we can get help from two allegories and examples. The first one belongs to Rumi
which Soroush has brought in this issue. There was an elephant in India in a dark room and till that
time people hadn't seen an elephant so everyone touches part of elephant and explain elephant
according to their touching. One touched the trunk of the elephant and said that the elephant is like
a gutter, and another touched the elephant's ear and said that the elephant is like a fan, and
someone touched the foot of the elephant and said that the elephant is like a vertical.

In the case of pluralism, reality is like that elephant. And prophets like those people which cannot see
the elephant but every person in his capability to understand the elephant.

13
Abdul Karim Soroush, Expansion of Prophetic Experience, 22. John Hick, Disputed Question, 146-163 (Yall
Un.Press,1993).
14
Abdul Karim Soroush, Expansion of Prophetic Experience, 20.
15
AbdulKarim Soroush, Straight Paths (SERATHAY MOSTAGHIM),8.
Another example is quoted from Shams, master of Irfan Rumi, is mirror. He said the reality is like a
mirror which fell down and broke and each prophet according his capability took one piece of that
mirror.so all religion is part of one reality which if any person wants to know reality as whole should
know and accept all religions.16

At the end I would like to call this foundation which Soroush called positive pluralism, the first
esoteric pluralism because two next foundations are esoteric too.

3.third foundation: the second esoteric pluralism:

This idea also is taken from Rumi. It holds that whenever there is an invasion and conflict in the world
there is a hidden treasure.

Soroush says the wisdom of diversity of religion is covering one secret and mystery.

It means one of the names of God is zealous. According to this name god doesn't allow people which
doesn’t want the reality in real meaning to find the reality But how? He made different religions for
those people fight each other while real believers find the treasure.

Based on this theory if someone asks why do we have different religion? We can answer that it is a
God decision of God.

4. Fourth foundation: the third esoteric pluralism:

This foundation is similar to the second foundation (positive pluralism) but there are some
differences. That is why Soroush put it in a separate foundation. In the second foundation the focus
was on the prophets and different interpretation and different point of views of prophets but in this
foundation the emphasize is on the reality. In fact, in the second foundation the plurality of religions
was explained with different point of views of prophets about the reality but here the plurality of
religion is explained based on the characteristics of reality. In this regard Soroush follows Rumi and
argues that the reality is not simple and one aspect and prophets in their religious experiences
encountered the many numbers of esoteric realities which selected some of them (according their
personality) to interpret as a special religion.

5.Fifth foundation: pluralism in salvation

Pluralism in salvation means whoever acts according his religion sincerely, no matter which religion,
is guided to the straight path and will get the benefit of grace of God. In fact the focus is not on the
rightness or wrongness of religion and religion is only a way of salvation.in this case Soroush has two
interesting points which I would like to mention.

The first point Soroush following of Sufi believe in a wide meaning of salvation. According t a
common idea of plurality of salvation, following of religion sincerely is a prerequisite of salvation but
according on Sufi idea salvation is a wide umbrella which covers all humans except those who make
enmity with truth. The idea of first approach is that heaven is given with reason not excuse but the
idea of second is heaven is given with an excuse.

And the second point is that Soroush believes that this foundation comes back to inclusivism. But
how?
16
Mostafa Malekian. The Concept of Pluralism in Epistemology,Ethical Psychology Lecture, 2011.
As mentioned earlier, Inclusivism has one similarity with Pluralism and one difference. Both of them
consider plurality of religions as a fact and accept it (unlike the Exclusivism which doesn't want to
notice to the plurality of religion as a fact) but pluralism consider the plurality as a real one which it is
impossible to return to unity but inclusivism believes that the plurality of religion is not real. And all
religions come back to one religion even if they don’t know it. Thus all followers of all religion are
guided and that is the meaning of pluralism in salvation. In this regard Islam believes that the reality
in a whole sense is in it and other religion with removing of their deviations which made by human
come backs to Islam thus all believers are Muslim even if they don’t know and according this
explanation, they interpret this verse: “Indeed, with Allah religion is Islam” 17. In the same way
Christians have the same claim. in this regard Soroush quotes Christians like Carl Rohner and calls the
sincere followers of the truth hidden Christians or untitled Christians. 18

6. Sixth foundation: Negative pluralism (1)

In this foundation, the name divine guide plays a pivotal role. It means divine guidance has a wide
meaning which beyond than theological and juridical issues and the norm for being guided is real
want of human. In this regard, plurality of religion is explained with a negative way which means in
plurality of religions, we should remove theological and juridical issues as norm of being guided.

In this matter, Soroush refers to the story of Moses and the Shepherd, which belongs to Rumi. 19

7. Seventh foundation: negative pluralism (2):

Although the original version of religions is completely true but human understanding and current
religion is not pure. As soon as divine religions come down to earth and got engage with human
reason, the purity lost. Thus, we don’t have a pure religion. Thus, impurity could be considered as
another explanation of plurality of religions. It means if one religion was a pure religion completely
and other religions were wrong completely, no one would wait to distinguish between right and
wrong but there is no pure religion completely. Soroush in this regard writs: “the reason which
ideological conflicts stay permanent and no one doesn't want to convert to other beliefs is that every
person finds such beauty and truth in their religion which ignore their ugliness and wrongness and
finds much ugliness and wrongness' in other beliefs which hide their beauty and rightness” 20

According to this idea, the acceptance of plurality of religion would be much easier because we don’t
have a pure religion in this world and rightness and wrongness are intertwined with the nature of the
world and human understanding.

8.Eighth foundation: Kinship pluralism

Based on Sufi understanding, rights (truths) have a close relationship to each other, and so that
Soroush derives a general rule about this kinship among truths. The general rule is that “truth
thought is kind of thought which has correspondence and consistency with other truth thoughts.” 21

Based on this rule, plurality of religion is not only a grace of God but it is also necessary for
discovering the truth for those who looking for it.
17
Surah Al-Imran, verse 19.
18
Abdul Karim Soroush, Straight Paths (SERATHAY MOSTAGHIM), 16.
19
Abdul Karim Soroush, The Story Of Moses And Shepherd in Hidden Secret, Tarbiat Modares University,number
5,6, in 1992, 26.
20
Abdul Karim Soroush, Straight Paths (SERATHAY MOSTAGHIM), 17.
21
Abdul Karim Soroush, Straight Paths (SERATHAY MOSTAGHIM), 19.
9.Ninth foundation: pluralism in existence: (positive and negative pluralism):

According to this foundation, plurality of religions and also plurality of culture and plurality of ethics
is part of plurality of existence. For more understanding of this idea we should explore its underlying
ides which it is fundamental reality of existence.

The principle of existence is against the principle of quiddity. These are two important ideas in
Islamic philosophy which have different fruits.

One the fruits of principle of existence is individuality and uniqueness, unlike the theory of principle
of quiddity, which speaks about generality and general concepts. According to the first one, every
human is an independent world which is different from others. In this sense we have a real pluralism.
Interestingly when Soroush arrives to this idea he talks about it with a warmth full of excitement and
love and considers the true freedom of man in discovering his uniqueness from all other people. In
otherwords in discovering the individuality and loneliness of man. In this regards he says: "pluralism
in this meaning is real and original. And this opinion is based on an essential distinction. Doubts and
anxieties, loves and faiths of people are distinct and different, and therefore every person is alone in
the true sense of the word”.22

Based on this understanding which every human is completely different from others, plurality of
religions finds a very interesting meaning. In fact every human needs a special religion. In this regard
Soroush doesn't accept the common understanding of” perfect human “(Insan Kamel) which Sufism
talk about it and believes that we have perfect humans not one perfect human.

10. Tenth foundation: Causal pluralism

The last foundation for plurality of religion which is more compatible with many religious people is
causal pluralism. Soroush believes that religiosity of most people has a cause not reason, like
different colors and languages which exist in the world. For a better understanding of his idea, we
should differentiate between cause and reason and then we should explain different types of
religiosity according to Soroush.

To clarify, we are helped by one example to differentiate between cause and reason:

Consider the following statement. "Iron expands due to heat." There are two types of approaches
and questions about this proposition. Sometimes we may ask someone how do you know that iron
expands due to heat and what is your reason for this claim. Can anyone say in response that I have
personally tested and seen that iron expands due to heat? It may also be argued that I have heard
from physicists that all metals expand by heat, and since I know that iron is also a metal, we conclude
that iron expands by heat. But another approach to the above proposition is to ask why iron expands
due to heat. That is, what interactions occur during which heating iron leads to expansion. The
solution to the question is that the question is about the outside world. For example, it can be said
that heat increases the motion of iron molecules, and this increase in motion requires more space,
which ultimately leads to an increase in volume, i.e. the expansion of iron. The first question was
about reason and second one was about cause. But if a Muslim is asked what is the reason for
choosing Islam, he can answer that, for example, because its laws were in accordance with reason or
other reasons. But if he is asked what is the cause, he can answer, for example, because my parents
were Muslims or because I was born in a Muslim country and such answers. So causes are non-

22
Abdul Karim Soroush, Straight Paths (SERATHAY MOSTAGHIM), 21.
cognitive and non-argumentative factors and include: education, environment, living conditions,
natural evolution, social and hereditary conditions, interests and greed, etc.

The religion of the majority of people has a cause, not a reason. But why? To answer this question
Soroush differentiates religiosity in three classifications, which each one has different foundation of
religious pluralism.

According to Soroush, there are three types of religiosity:23

1. First: Pragmatic (utilitarian) religiosity:

In this type of religiosity, a view or an action’s ultimate purpose, utility and outcome (this worldly or
other worldly) are of paramount importance to the believer. It is a religion for life (not synonymous
with life or higher than life). Here, the volume of deeds is the measure of the intensity or otherwise
of conviction: performing the hajj numerous times, visiting shrines, praying frequently and so on.

Soroush in this regard says: "Believers, in this type of religiosity, are the slaves and God is the master
and the sultan (not the God of wisdom, nor the Alluring Beloved). And the Prophet wears the cloak of
a commander, issuing orders about what a believer may and may not do, and speaking of glad tidings
and ominous portents (not an insightful man of knowledge with exalted experiences, nor a wise and
brilliant thinker).”24

2. Second: Gnostic religiosity:

Here one finds a theoretical rationality which is sensitive to the appropriateness of a reason for a
claim, not just a practical rationality that is concerned about the appropriateness of a means to an
end. If we identify pragmatic religiosity by its dogmatism, gnostic religiosity can be identified by a
sense of rational wonder. Hence, upon entering the realm of gnosticism, dogma is exchanged for
doubt and wonder, and, as dogmatism is left behind, the road is paved for entering the realm of
certainty.

Theologians and exegetists are two of the prominent representatives of this category. This religiosity
is reasoned (as opposed to causal), investigative, reflective, based on choice and free will, wondrous,
theological, non-mythical, non-clerical, individualistic, critical, fluctuating and non-imitative.

Here God appears in the form of a great rational secret and, awed by His Splendor, His servants seek
to unravel the secret. And the Prophet is like a great teacher and philosopher who has conveyed his
lessons in the most intense form, while believers are like his students and novices who strive for a
rational understanding of his words, and nonbelievers are like ungrateful pupils or like ignorant
people who are incapable of even recognizing their own ignorance. Thus, the Prophet’s target is also
perceived differently. Here, his target is believers’ minds, not their emotions. And believers become
followers of his school to the extent that they can find rational fulfilment. The Prophet’s task is to
teach and to pledge their betterment, not to demand and compel, and the believer’s task is rational-
not physical or emotional - acceptance and submission.

3.Third: Experiential religiosity:

23
Abdul Karim Soroush, “Types of Religiosity,” Kian Magazine 50 (March 2000), translated in English by
www.drsoroush.com. (the translation of this part “types of religiosity” in Persian to English is done by this site)
24
Abdul Karim Soroush, “Types of Religiosity.”
According Soroush, when we come to experiential religiosity, we step from the domain of separation
into the domain of union. The previous types of religiosity can be described as religiosities of
distance, for the first was physical and practical and the second mental and reflective. The first was
based on instrumental rationality and the second on theoretical rationality. One was after utility and
the other after knowledge. But experiential religiosity is neither physical nor mental, neither
instrumental nor theoretical; it seeks the evident and the manifest, and if gnostic religiosity is
concerned with hearing, the experiential believer is concerned with seeing.

He describes experiential religiosity in this way: “passionate, revelatory, certain, individualistic,

deterministic, quintessential, reconciliatory, ecstatic, intimate, visual, saintly, mystical and
mysterious.”25 Here, God is a graceful and loving. The Prophet is an ideal, a serene man and a model
of successful religious experience. To follow him is to share his passions, to extend and repeat his
experiences, and to be drawn into the magnetic force field of his personality. Sin is that which
muddies, weakens or destroys the devotional link, the power of discovery and the state of union, and
worship is that which feeds the flames of ecstasy. Heaven is the experience of union and hell the
bitterness of separation.

To sum up, Soroush, after explaining three different religiosities, argues that most of religious people
are in the first group and according to the first group plurality of religion has a cause and not a
reason (the last foundation). And for the second group and third group, plurality of religion has a
reason which can come back to those first nine foundations mentioned above.

References:

1. Abdul Karim Soroush, Straight Paths (SERATHAY MOSTAGHIM), published by Serat Cultural
Institute in 1999
2. Abdul Karim Soroush "Expansion of Prophetic Experience, published by Serat Cultural
Institute in 2000
3. Abdul Karim Soroush. Types of Religiosity, Kian Magazine number 50 in March 2000
4. Abdul Karim Soroush. Reason, Freedom, Democracy in Islam. Published by Oxford University
Press 2000

25
Abdul Karim Soroush, “Types of Religiosity.”
5. Abdul Karim Soroush. Tradition and Secularism, published by Serat Cultural Institute in 2005
6. Abdul Karim Soroush , The Knowledge of Secret And Enlightenment, And Religiosity,
published by Serat Cultural Institute in 1998
7. Abdul Karim Soroush, The Story Of Moses And Shepherd in Hidden Secret, Tarbiat Modares
University,number 5,6, in 1992
8. Abdul Karim Soroush ,The theory of Expansion and Contraction OF Religion, , published by
Serat Cultural Institute in 2008
9. Arash Naraqi, Rereading Soroush Idea About Prophetic Experience And Its Expantion,
10. John Hick, Disputed Question, (Yall Un.Press,1993)
11. Mostafa Malekian, Religious Experience, Naqd And Nazar Maggazine number 23 and 24, in
2000
12. Mostafa Malekian. The Concept of Pluralism in Epistemology, Ethical Psychology Lecture,
2011