ABSTRACT
Qurʾān commentaries or tafāsīr have often been viewed as merely about the explication of the words of God and, therefore, are independent of the social realities from which they emerged. It is true that, as Muslim commentators themselves often express, the meanings of the Qurʾān are so deep to the extent that all efforts and endeavors to understand this Holy Scripture only reflect one drop in the ocean of meanings. The Qurʾān says, “If every tree on earth was a pen refilled by the sea, and by seven more seas besides, the words of God would not be exhausted” (Q 31:27).1 However, by removing these commentaries from their historical, social, and political contexts, it is impossible to fully understand them and their discursive contexts. Since the task of interpreting the Muslim scripture will continue to occupy believers, it is important not to decontextualize the tafsīr tradition as if it emerges from a vacuum. It is instructive to see how the commentators of the Qurʾān or mufassirūn engage with both the Qurʾanic text and their own contexts. Without paying attention to these contexts, one may fail to appreciate the role of the Qurʾān and its impact on Muslim life. In this chapter, I attempt to show just that in such a way that tafsīr will be seen as reflecting social, cultural, and political contexts from which it emerges. I am interested in exploring the extent to which the mufassirūn’s local and modern contexts have shaped, and been shaped by, their understanding of the Qurʾān. How is the exegetes’ engagement with their surroundings reflected in their exegetical works? The underlying assumption of this question is that Qurʾān commentaries are not static but rather evolving discourses. What makes modern tafsīr modern is its engagement with modern realities. In this chapter, I examine a modern tafsīr, known as Tafsīr al- Azhar, written by the Indonesian author Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah, known by his pen name Hamka (d. 1981). Frequent reference to Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā’s Tafsīr al- Manār will be made because there is a strong affinity between the two modern tafsīrs. I will argue that both Hamka and Riḍā were deeply engaged with modern issues and wrote their tafsīrs from the perspective of the twentieth century. My study focuses on Hamka’s exegesis of Qurʾanic passages that deal with issues of modern concerns, such as inter-religious relations. Using this selection, we will see the extent to which Hamka has engaged with issues facing Indonesia, a country with the largest Muslim population in the world.
