From the Human Reading of Religion to the Prophetic Reading of the World: Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari’s Hermeneutic Turn

Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari (b. 1936) has publicly called for the acceptance of critical hermeneutic methodologies to the study of Qur'an and Sunna, and has started to re-read and analyze the Qur'an with tools developed in linguistic philosophy. The application of such an approach to the study of the religious sources, their evolution and redaction, Shabestari suggests, would not harm the appeal of revelation, but to the contrary, strengthen religious belief. The article examines the secular hermeneutic Shabestari has most forcefully developed in his 2006 text Qara'at-e Nabavi-e az Jahan [The Prophetic Reading of the World] and the implications of this reading of the Qur'an for the nature of social order and political power. It also discusses the radical re-orientation Shabestari has undertaken with this view compared to earlier epistemological views, expressed in Naqdi bar Qara'at-e Rasmi-e Din [A Critique of the Official Reading of Religion] and Ta'amulati dar Qara'at-e Ensan-e az Din [Reflections on the Human Reading of Religion]. The paper closes with a comparative reflection on how Shabestari's hermeneutic turn differs from that undertaken by Malekian and Soroush.