A Critique of Mostafa Malekian's View on the Evolution of Thought in the Quran

In the Quran, there is no evolution of thought; there is evolution of expression.

1. The term "evolution of thought" should not be used regarding practical rulings, or at the very least, in terms of its meaning and surrounding content, it differs greatly from the realm of thought, which seeks to identify reality, and must be examined separately. The evolution of rulings in the science of jurisprudence has been studied under titles such as ambiguity and clarification, abrogating and abrogated, and equivocation and dissimulation, and the role of their historical precedence and succession has also been considered to a considerable extent.

2. The evolution of thought sometimes means the existence of changes in content within the works of a single author, and sometimes it means a change in the views of an author throughout their works. The former does not necessarily signify a change in the author's views and can have various reasons, including consideration of the audience's mindset and the layered transmission of content in the educational process. Our claim is that the former exists in the Quran, as in any foundational text (mother text), but the latter has not been proven so far.

3. Professor Malekian's claim can be interpreted according to the first meaning and concurred with. That is, because there are various expressions in the Quran regarding the soul, knowing the historical order of revelation helps (only as an indicator) to clarify the Quran's true view on the soul. [You will note that in this case, it is not a new point.] However, based on the second assumption, mere differences in expressions regarding the soul are not sufficient; rather, it must be proven that the Quran's content in different places contradicts one another and indicates an evolution in the speaker's perspective. In Professor Malekian's statement, there is no evidence to prove this claim.

4. Regarding the issue of the soul, his statement is ambiguous and debatable. He says that the Quran states: "You have a soul, and it is this soul of yours that transfers to the other world." His discussion was about the resurrection of the body on the Day of Judgment, not the transfer to another world! So we ask, which verse indicates that "only" the human soul is resurrected on the "Day of Judgment"?! [Note that without the two qualifications of 'only' and 'Day of Judgment,' the argument is incomplete and, in fact, nothing is proven.] Our claim is that regarding the status of the soul and body on the Day of Judgment, there is no substantive evolution in the Quran. In the Holy Quran, from the Meccan verses to the end of the Medinan verses, the resurrection of humans on the Day of Judgment is expressed with both elements of soul and body, although the transfer to the intermediate world (Barzakh) occurs with the spirit, and on the Day of Judgment, the spirit is reunited with the body.

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A Critique of Mostafa Malekian's View on the Evolution of Thought in the Quran

Author: Mohammad Taqi Sobhani

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Examples of the Evolution of Thought in the Quran - Mostafa Malekian

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