Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

9 6Islam i n World Cult u r e sH o w e v e r, Soroush has not always been known as a “liberal.” At the beginningof the Revolution, he was an important state ideologue, running thecouncil that controlled Islamic pedagogy at universities, and so was responsiblefor much of the oppression and persecution of dissident student groups.After Khomeini’s death, Soroush began to speak out against the state’s absolutismin the interpretation of Islam and enforcement of religious law. Usingmodern notions of rationality, Soroush takes a radical stance, saying that Islamiclaw must be totally reformed because it is a relative affair dependent onthe times, and not a timeless measure of God’s will for ultimate human happiness.Using Kant’s speculations on the use and power of reason, Soroush arguesin his well-known work The Contraction and Expansion of Religious Law t h a ttraditional Muslim jurisprudence is a product of the times of the Prophet.C o n t e m p o r a ry times are governed by a modern scientific, rational, and secularworldview and so have different social problems than those confronted bythe earliest Muslim communities. In order to maintain its relevance, Islamiclaw must engage the issues of today and develop accordingly.By saying that Islamic law as traditionally formulated is no longer valid forthe modern world, Soroush does not disregard Islam altogether, but he does,instead, argue that religion in the modern world should be primarily a type ofinward personal faith or spirituality divorced from law. Since he separates faithfrom premodern conceptions of religious law, he then argues that if Islam isinner faith, then enforcing a religious law will do nothing to build that innerfaith, and so the actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran are philosophicallyand religiously wrong. Rather, Soroush argues that the best way to create amodern state that allows religion to flourish is through a democracy in whichthe people themselves use modern rational analysis to decide what their lawsshould be, and if enough people are religiously motivated in this, then theywill all vote for a government that allows their faith to be cultivated and expressedin civil society (Vakili 2001, 155).Soroush also argues that a state should not use ideology to make society religious,and so he distinguishes between an ideological society and a religiouss o c i e t y, saying that[i]n an ideological society, the government ideologizes the society, whereas inreligious societies, the society makes the government religious. In an ideologicalsociety, an official interpretation of ideology governs, but in a religious society,[there are] prevailing interpretations but no official interpretations. In anideological society, the task of [the formulation of] ideology is relegated to theideologues. In a religious society, however, the issue of religion is too great for itto be relegated solely to the hands of the official interpreters. In a religious society,no personality and no fatwa is beyond criticism. And no understanding of