A Critical Study on Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid's Theory about the Nature of Revelation

The Egyptian scholar, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd with a history of Sufism studies, especially Ibn Arabic studies in his doctoral thesis, and with consideration the accepted conception about propositional revelation tried to provide a naturalistic and nonmetaphysical explanation of revelation –since he was avoiding metaphysical explanation of religious concepts- relying on the theory of imagination in sufiyyah. Such an approach to the nature of revelation is faced with problems. 1. From the cultural point of view, Abu Zayd's studies of kihanah and its cultural prevalence is not enough and so its explanation by him involves difficulties. 2. Cultural superstitions like kihanah cannot provide good explanation for revelation and prophecy. 3. His explanation is not compatible with inner religious evidences such as those verses that warn revelation comparison with those cultural phenomena. Providing an extreme exposition of Sufism's theory about revelation Abu Zayd's theory will not be in coherence with the accepted theory of revelation which regards it propositional and also it is in contrast with his epistemic view borrowed from continental philosophy.