Thematic Presentations in Indonesian Qur’anic Commentaries

Abstract

The study of thematic interpretation (tafsīr mawḍū‘ī) in Indonesia focuses primarily on the products of interpretations written in the 2000s, with little attention paid to the origins of thematic interpretations in Indonesia. This article will look at different ways of presenting thematic interpretations in the Indonesian commentary literature prior to the 2000s. This article will also investigate whether the development of the form of interpretation in the Middle East, particularly Egypt, has had any impact on the form of Indonesian thematic interpretation. The methodology used in this study is a literature review based on thematic interpretations (mawḍū‘ī) of several Egyptian commentators, including Amīn al-Khūlī (d. 1966), Mahmūd Shaltut (d. 1963), Bint Shāti’ (d. 1998), ‘Abd al-Hayy al-Farmawī (d. 2017), Hassan Hanafī (d. 2021), and Mustafā Muslim (d. 2021). The authors also use content analysis to examine some of the Indonesian commentary literature. The conclusion of this article demonstrates that thematic interpretation discourse in Egypt had a significant influence on the development of thematic interpretation in Indonesia, particularly interpretation literature published in the 1990s. This influence can be seen in the presence of a glossary and an index of discussion topics, complete with Qur’anic verses and arranged alphabetically or chronologically. This is in keeping with the spirit of Amīn al-Khūlī (d. 1966), who emphasized the importance of thematic discussions in determining the Qur’anic viewpoint on specific issues.