Contemporary Islam is witnessing the advent of new critical discourses from within its own modes of articulation. It confronts a new epistemic and interpretative situation, which is generally felt... Show moreContemporary Islam is witnessing the advent of new critical discourses from within its own modes of articulation. It confronts a new epistemic and interpretative situation, which is generally felt as something of an emergency. This emergency in epistemology and hermeneutics is largely the result of a radical shift of the categories of modern philosophy, science, culture and geography. Given the fact that the exploratory elaboration of law for centuries has been the dominant mode of self-expression in Islam, one of the key themes of contemporary Shici thought is the search for a legal identity. The current debate on the sharica (divine law) in Iran underscores the continued significance of this exploration. In the debate, the radical post-modernist cAbd al-Karim Surush contests the epistemic certainty of eternal knowledge, so common among modernists. Show less