An Indonesian Initiative to Make the Qur’an Down-to-Earth: Muhammad Quraish Shihab and His School of Exegesis Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie (Dr. Phil.) am Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin Vorgelegt von: Munirul Ikhwan Berlin 2015 Erstgutachterin : Prof. Dr. Johanna Pink Zweitgutachterin : Prof. Dr. Birgit Krawietz Tag der Disputation : Mittwoch, 27 Mai 2015 ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................. v Transliteration ...................................................................................... vii Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 An Overview of Qur’anic Exegetical Activity in Indonesia ................................................ 4 A Biographical Sketch of Muhammad Quraish Shihab ...................................................... 7 Constructions of Quraish Shihab’s Authority .................................................................... 15 An Overview of Previous Studies ......................................................................................... 17 Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................................... 19 Research Methods and Structure ........................................................................................ 27 Chapter 1 .............................................................................................. 30 Quraish Shihab’s Hermeneutical Approach to the Qur’an ...................... 30 Privileging the Qur’anic Text ............................................................................................... 31 Guidance-oriented Interpretation ...................................................................................... 35 A Quest for Meaning .............................................................................................................. 41 The Fixed Text and the Changing Reality .......................................................................... 45 The Qur’an and the Challenge of History ........................................................................... 52 The Qur’an and Scientific Findings ..................................................................................... 55 Western Hermeneutics ......................................................................................................... 57 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 2 .............................................................................................. 65 In the Footsteps of a New Scholasticism ................................................ 65 Construction of Religious Authority ................................................................................... 66 New Directions of Islamic Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia .................................... 69 A New Scholasticism and al-Azhar ...................................................................................... 73 In the Footsteps of the New Scholasticism ........................................................................ 82 a. Maṣlaḥa .................................................................................................................................. 83 b. Taisīr ....................................................................................................................................... 84 Legal Reasoning based on the Principles of Qur’anic Exegesis ....................................... 86 a. Bank Interest ......................................................................................................................... 86 b. Adultery Punishment ........................................................................................................... 90 c. The Ruling of Silk and Gold for Men .................................................................................. 91 Advocating Ikhtilāf as a Mercy ............................................................................................ 92 a. The Moon-sighting Controversy ........................................................................................ 94 b. Finding Mercy in Ikhtilāf .................................................................................................... 97 Crossing School Boundaries ................................................................................................. 99 Muslim Women’s Veiling, Between Religion and Custom ............................................. 100 iii Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 107 Chapter 3 ............................................................................................ 108 Interpreting the Qur’an in the Context of the Indonesian Nation-state108 Religion, Indonesian Nation-State and National Common Good ................................. 110 Islamizing the Common Good ............................................................................................ 122 Nation-state in the light of the Qur'an ............................................................................. 125 Delegated Sovereignty ........................................................................................................ 132 Seedlings of ‘Islamic’ Democracy ...................................................................................... 138 Defending the National Common Good ............................................................................ 142 Formal Implementation of Sharīʿa .................................................................................... 145 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 148 Chapter 4 ............................................................................................ 150 Staging Qur’an-based Religious Virtues ................................................ 150 Media Revolution and a New Sense of the Public Sphere ............................................. 151 Marketing Piety in the New Public Sphere ...................................................................... 154 Branding Religious Intellectualism ................................................................................... 160 The Making of Religious Intellectualism .......................................................................... 165 Projecting the Good of Moderate Islam ............................................................................ 168 Public Intellectual of the Qur’an ........................................................................................ 175 Opening New Horizons for Religious Civility .................................................................. 178 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 183 Chapter 5 ............................................................................................ 185 Toward Creating a School of Qur’anic Exegesis .................................... 185 Center for Qur’anic Studies ................................................................................................ 185 Islamic Moderation as a Common Platform .................................................................... 192 The Idea of a School of Qur’anic Exegesis ........................................................................ 198 A Qur’an-based Intellectual Movement ............................................................................ 205 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 210 Concluding Remarks ............................................................................. 212 Summary .............................................................................................. 217 Zusammenfassung ................................................................................ 220 Bibliography ......................................................................................... 223 List of Resource Persons ....................................................................... 243 List of Online Sources ........................................................................... 244 Appendix .............................................................................................. 245 iv Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Johanna Pink for her supervision, support, patience, and constructive discussions until I could finish this piece of research. I shall always be grateful for her kind words and support, especially during my first year of settlement in Berlin. Without her encouragement, this present thesis would have never been able to take its present form. I am also grateful to the Institute of Islamic Studies, Free University of Berlin for allowing me to use its facilities during my research, and especially to Prof. Dr. Birgit Krawietz for her support, advice, and constructive comments, and to Frau Angela Ballaschk and Frau Sonja Eising for helping me in technical matters. My special gratitude is always