Ali Akbar Ahmadi Aframjani's Article 'Theology of Chaos', Part Two

Theology of Chaos

Observations on Dr. Abdolkarim Soroush's "The Mighty Prophet" Theory, Part Two

Ali Akbar Ahmadi Aframjani

... I said that Soroush, in his genealogy of the "Mighty Prophet" theory, considers it to be preceded and informed by his 2007 lecture at the Rumi Studies seminar, in which he had set the "Love-letter of the Masnavi" against the "Fear-letter of the Quran." Furthermore, I demonstrated that if we delve into the origin of fear and the reason for God's fearsomeness, it becomes clear that Rumi and Ghazali hold a single opinion on this matter, and both link the root of God's fearsomeness to His unruliness in behavior. This is while the Quran introduces God as a law-abiding creator and agent, and relates the reason for His fearsomeness to the observance of the law of justice.

This discussion can provide an introduction to understanding Soroush's "Mighty Prophet" theory. In fact, my method is to place Soroush's prophetology under the shadow and within the purview of his theology, and to proceed with the analysis and interpretation of this subject from such a perspective.

In other words, this is an important point: if Muhammad (PBUH) is a prophet (which he is) and has brought a message from God to humanity (which he has), then our analysis of the God who is the sender of this prophet and message has a complete and total bearing on knowing His messenger and understanding the message that was sent.

So the question is: A God who observes no rational, philosophical, logical, ethical, or legal rule, and is an autocratic, illogical, reckless, bloodthirsty male lion, untrustworthy, a rabid predator, cruel, capricious, and arbitrary being (that is, the very God of Ghazali and Rumi, of which Rumi is the discoverer of such a being's beauty), yes, what message could such a being have given to His emissary for humanity? And what kind of behavior towards people has He recommended him to adopt? Let us search for the answer in Soroush's January lecture...

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Theology of Chaos; Observations on Dr. Abdolkarim Soroush's "The Mighty Prophet" Theory, Part Two

Complete PDF file of this article

Read Part One here

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