The Relation between Revelation and Religious Experience (An Investigation of Dr. Soroush's view)

This article will research on the relationship between revelation and religious experience from Dr. Abdol-Karim Soroush's view. According to his view revelation and religious experience are of the same type and religious experience occurs for other people as well. Therefore just like the Prophets (PBUT) revelation occurs for everyone. He believes revelation has two aspects: 1. the formless aspect of revelation, 2. the formal aspect of revelation. The responsibility of the individuals including the Prophets is to create a form for the formless aspect of revelation. These for creations have no preference compared to each other. Thus he considers religious experience as the basis of piety which leads to (results in) religious pluralism. He vigorously believes religious pluralism. He inserts (dekhalat dadan) human being in the meaning and creation of revelation (He introduces being man-made in the meaning of revelation), therefore its characteristics such as deficiency and imperfection are also transmitted to revelation. Consequently it needs permanent polish. In this article the meaning of religious experience, different perspectives regarding religious experience, and also the factors resulting in the emergence of empiricism are mentioned. Finally his view is criticized: religious experience cannot be an appropriate basis for religion, because an experience being religious presupposes believing in the doctrinal aspect of religion which is incompatible with religious experience as a basis and it's also proven that his views about religious experience is contrary to rational demonstration and Quranic doctrines.