This essay sheds light on a specific religious reformist within the Islamic tradition. This contemporary reformist is none other than Abd al-Karim Soroush, whose theory on fundamental building blocks within the Islamic tradition, such as revelation and prophethood, has sparked the interests of philosophers, theologians, and scholars of religion in general, and Islamic religious tradition in particular. By conducting a content-based analysis of his own work The Expansion of Prophetic Experience: Essays on Historicity, Contingency and Plurality in Religion the essay aims to a) examine his views on revelation and prophethood, b) explore his theory in relation to Islamic jurisprudence and ethics, and c) investigate any legal and ethical problematizations that his theory poses within the Islamic tradition. In an effort to revive the essence of Islam and reform the approach to the Quran and Islamic tradition, Soroush breaks down prophethood into two components: prophetic mission and prophetic experience. According to Soroush, both the prophetic mission and experience are tied to the era in which Muhammad (peace be upon him) operated. Such a contextual approach entails viewing and interpreting the Quran as a canonized book that reflects Muhammad's intuitive experiences and their continuous interaction with the cultural, social, and economic conditions prevalent during his time. By categorizing different aspects of the Quran into essentialism and accidentialism, Soroush argues that traditional legal and ethical derivations belong to the accidental category, which implies that they should not be viewed as static but rather dynamic and subject to reinterpretation in light of the contemporary context. To consider the traditional interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence and ethics as a secondary aspect in relation to the primary aspect of Islam, namely its essence, and to strip jurisprudence of its centrality and authority has both advantages and disadvantages within the Islamic tradition. The advantage may lie in a more rational and accepting approach towards religious pluralism and women's rights. The disadvantage can manifest in challenges related to Muslim identity formation and the arbitrary definition of essential Islam that his theory may entail.

The emergence of the theory of maqāṣid al-sharīʿa as a legal theory, which is a purposive approach to the law in which the main purposes of the law are considered as deriving elements of the legal rulings, has occurred in a particular socio-political and cultural context for the Shīʿa and within a particular epistemological construction. Given the lack of a historical reading of Shīʿī jurisprudence and the limitations of the methodological approaches which have to date been employed, this research applies a holistic approach. “The Bahbahānian paradigm” is identified as the overarching epistemological paradigm in modern and contemporary Shīʿī jurisprudence. The Bahbahanian paradigm was formed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and is arguably characterised as being a combination of Aristotelian epistemologically, formalist methodologically and soft utilitarianism. Within this paradigm in the context of the twentieth century, maqāṣid al-sharīʿa emerged in Shīʿī thought, especially in its systematic and comprehensive theorisation by Muḥammad Taqī al-Mudarrisī - a contemporary Shīʿī scholar. The introduction of the maqāṣid al-sharīʿa approach represents a paradigm shift that departs epistemologically, methodologically and functionally from the Bahbahānian paradigm. Mudarrisī’s maqāṣid al-sharīʿa paradigm is characterized as pragmatic epistemologically, more accessible and dynamic methodologically and employing a virtue ethic. Mudarrisī’s maqāṣid al-sharīʿa reflects the eclipse of the quietist character of the previous paradigm and the ambition of the contemporary Shīʿī religious institution. This ambition comprises a more significant role in the public sphere, which is embodied in the application or renewal of the sharīʿa in reality on one hand, and confronting the systematical secularization of the modern nation-state of the public sphere on the other. Mudarrisī’s version of maqāṣid al-sharīʿa is obligated to challenge three intellectual enterprises; that is, the classical Shīʿī jurisprudential reasoning by embracing hermeneutical tools which are more accessible to religious knowledge; the Sunnī soft utilitarian maqāṣidī approaches by providing virtue ethical jurisprudence; and the secular nation-state by providing a flexible legal system.