Criticism of Montgomery Watt, Dermenghem, and Sūrūsh’s Opinions About the Introversive Revelation of the Prophet of Islam (s)

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, department of Comparative Studies of Qur’ān, Higher Education Complex of Qur’ān and Traditions, Al-Mustafa International University, Qom, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, department of Arabic Language and Literature, Complex of Language, Literature, and Culture Studies, Al-Mustafa International University, Qom, Iran

Abstract

Revelation, “the divine message to the prophets in order to guide people,” is the base and pillar of divine religions and the most precious, heavenly gem in the lap of earth residents, and it has an unbreakable connection with the nature and destiny of humans. Through the expansion of research studying Islam in the West in recent centuries, the hypothesis wherein adoption of some Qur’ānic contents from earlier religious and literary texts was an arena for the studies of Orientalists. William Montgomery Watt and Dermenghem can be deemed as those Orientalists who have connected the common phenomenological view of the West about revelation to the theological view mostly originating from Christian theology. Elucidation of this issue is necessary so that the legitimacy of Islam and Qur’ānic revelation and its superiority over all divine religions could be proved. The article at hand is organized with using the descriptive-analytical method and a criticizing approach along with gathering and analyzing data. The findings of this study show that the Western researchers and Orientalists such as William Montgomery and Emile Dermenghem have put forward their opinions based on some principles including the impact of the character of the Prophet (s) on the form of revelation, fallibility of revelation and the Prophet (s), the presence of the element of human in Qur’ān, and so on; none of these is accepted by Shī’a thinkers, and they are in contrast to the religious thoughts of Islam. Each of these principles is faced with serious criticisms including the infallibility of Qur’ān; the harmony of religion with science in Islam; the perfect character of the Prophet (s) in receiving the revelation which matters, not his being a medium; lack of ambiguity and contradiction in Qur’ānic revelation; and so on.     

Keywords

References

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Classical and Contemporary Islamic Studies (formerly known as Journal of Contemporary Islamic Studies)
Volume 4, Issue 1
Winter & Spring
January 2022
Pages 113-127

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