Abdolkarim Soroush

“We coin concepts and we use them to analyse and explain nature and society. But we seem to forget, midway, that these concepts are our own constructs and start equating them with reality.”

“It is up to God to reveal a religion, but up to us to understand and realise it.”

“Establishing an equilibrium between the Islam of truth and Islam as an identity is one of the most difficult tasks of religious intellectuals.”

“The clergy earns its living from religion. If your interests are secured through religion, then you will defend your interests first, and religion will become secondary.”

“Compromise has a negative connotation.”

“Arresting development, attacking science, and glorifying poverty is not the answer to the vices that attend prosperity.”

“Islam, or any religion, will become totalitarian if it is made into an ideology, because that is the nature of ideologies.”