publish date : 7/9/2015 12:00:00 AM
id : 489
A Review of the Theological Analysis of the Nature of Revelation with an Emphasis on Sayyid Murtada’s Viewpoint

A Review of the Theological Analysis of the Nature of Revelation with an Emphasis on Sayyid Murtada’s Viewpoint

Despite the epistemological challenges concerning the study of the nature of the revelation, the Muslim thinkers, each based on his own specific principles, have tried to provide a rather clear analytical model for the revelation communication and its nature. The theological analysis of the nature of revelation is the most neglected approach, in spite of its highest conformity with the religious texts in this regard. This article is a review of this approach with an emphasis on Sayyid Murtada’s viewpoints. The strong points of this view have been employed to remove some of the deficiencies of this approach. Sayyid Murtada considers three main principles as the pre-requisite conditions in regard with the Qur’anic revelation, including: being verbal, being hidden (innate), and the intermediacy of The Angle (duality of the status). Therefore, it can be said that the revelation is a voice and utterance (not necessary of material quality) produced by God, which directly or indirectly, through the intermediacy of the Revelation Angle, is perceived by the prophet PBUH through a peculiar perception power, lacked by other people. In this way, some of the questions in this regard have been answered, as well.

Keywords: nature of revelation, Qur’anic revelation, divine words, being verbal, being innate, The Revelation Angle, Sayyid Murtada

* Ph.D. Candidate of the Islamic Theology, Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute