Attacks against the Quran from a Historical Perspective

by Hana Arisesa

Study of the interpretation Quran is one the most essential scholarship in Islamic Study. In Islamic history, the branch of Quranic interpretation has vital position in the Muslim communities, as it a way to understand the meaning of the Holy Quran. Islam acknowledge many scholars, from early Islam until nowadays. Ibn Abbās, Mujahid, Qatādah, Suyūṭī, etc, are some prominent scholar in Quranic interpretation. They have built the Islamic methodology to understand Quran. They develop many branches of Quranic science along with the flowering of other Islamic science. Their effort can be followed by the next generation so that the ummah get the benefits from them. Muslim scholars have given great service to the understanding of the Qur'an, particularly in bringing out the style and idiom of the Qur'an, and its literal and metaphorical use of the language (Gökkir, 2004).

Due these positions, the importance of the Quran, so many western scholars conduct Quran studies in their institutions. Unfortunately, their study, at majority, do not merely understanding the meaning Quran, but they try to attack Quran with their research. They develop their own methods according to their standard. They do not follow the way as Muslim Scholar do it, except to support their claims. This paper will discuss about the attack against the Quran from a Historical Perspective.

Historical Aspect of Scriptures.

There are three holy books which has unique relationship, i.e. Quran, Bible, and Torah. These books bring up enormous report in the academic field. Not only their comparison, but also including critics, discussion, and their interpretation. Era renaissance in the Europe, makes important milestone in human history, not only in economic and political aspects but also huge contribution in academic field especially in Holy scripture Study. Due to the complexity and difficulties of the understanding the Bible, the scholar proposes the methods of the Bible Critic using their standard, which later emerge the science of Hermeneutic to study Bible. The study of biblical criticism from a historical perspective is a consequence of nature of Bible itself.  The dissatisfaction of the scholars with the abuse of the church's religious power led to the birth of biblical criticism. They do liberal approach to both theology and the Bible (Capetz, 2011).  Besides the dissatisfaction of the scholars with the authority of the church in interpreting the bible which caused a lot of polemics, as well as the fact that the writer of the Bible is unknown, then the complete of the Bible manuscript can only be found in the 4th century, the Bible critic from historical perspective foundation is built. So, they want this approach to apply into Quran.

Historical Aspects Study of Quran.

After successfully reading the Bible from historical perspective, they want to implement these similar ways to Quran. The Quran is assumed to be a historical product that needs to be reinterpreted according to the development of time and place. They want to separate the religious-theologycal aspect of Quran. The historical reading implies that there is a historical meaning to the text, that it meant something specific to its original audience (Bauer, 2016) In this assumption, Quran threated to human works in a specific event at the Islamic history. This will cancel the divine aspect of Quran, which the assumption is Quran as revelation from Allah as His’ speech literary. As a Human product, like other work, such as Bible, poetry, etc, Quran affect the historical phenomena during the time revelation. The meaning of the interpretation Quran as traditional muslim scholars did, only suitable at the time, so the re-interpretation of Quranic meaning for now should be addressed (Salim, 2014).

Historical perfective study Quran tight with the Author based-critical theory. This theory has its popularity in the 19th century. However, this critic cannot be separated by Author’s properties, such as his education, age, background personal, emotional state, age, and ambition (Gökkir, 2004).

However, they have challenge in the Quran study. The things that propelled them successfully when confronted with biblical criticism they did not encounter were the same when they applied it to the Quran. Quran is protected until the Judgement day. The history of Quran complication is very clear, strong, not same as Bible. So that, the effort of the Western scholars almost get a less response according to this study field. Several Islamic scholars have different way to encounter this. Some of them totally reject this method, some of them support this approach, and some them are trying to reconcile this with the traditional one.

The new reading of Quran based on Historical aspect using hermeneutic methods will revolt to the traditional Quranic interpretation which establish in the long Islamic History. The sacredness of the text is almost completely removed, replaced by a lively and fluid text, the interpretation of which is adjusted to the interest of each readers. According to them, this method is needed to fight against “the anti-utopian attitude of Islam” (Campanini, 2005).

The Problem in the hermeneutic is the assumptions that were first made as the basis for conducting a critical study. (Campanini, 2005) says:

“If religious texts are normal linguistic texts and accordingly may undergo hermeneutic analysis, ipso facto the Qur'an cannot be interpreted literally as a scientific text”

This mean will be nullified Quran from religious and holy text side. Consequence, will change the meaning that has been explained by Islamic scholars from generation to generation. Moreover, what has been agreed upon by most Muslims is that the Qur'an is the literary speech of Allah. The view of Hermeneutic is not only new to Muslim scholars. In early muslim there has been a school that states that the Quran is a creature of God, which is embraced by the Mu'tazilah. So, it is not surprising that the rationality thought brought by western scholars in applying Hermeneutics has received a warm welcome from Mu’tazilah circles who have doctrinal conformity.

Western and Islamic Intellectuals in Quran Critic.

There are so many Western scholars support this. In Muslim intellectuals also some of the support this approach. The Western Prominent scholars in this field are such as T Noldeke, and Gadamer, meanwhile from Muslim intellectuals named Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd, Mohammad Arkoun, Amin al Khulli, Fazlur Rahman, and Hasan Hanafi. Each of these characters brings their own topic and spirit. As Nasr Abu Hamid popularized the use of the term Hermeneutic Humanism in his study of the Quran, and many other similar thoughts.

Conclusion

Criticism of the Quran from a historical perspective has been reported. The re-reading of the Quran was brought by western scholars who were influenced by the Bible criticism method. These efforts of these Western Scholars are clearly as an attempt to destroy Islam, rather that pure academic reasons. Even though it didn't get a great response from Muslim ummah, reinterpretation of critic Quran from historical perspective has its own supporter. So, Muslim must aware to the hidden agenda behind the discourse of reading the Quran text using this approach. Due to the different sosio-historical processes between Quran and Bible, the applicability of Quran Critic will be big challenge in this fields.

Bibliography

Bauer, K. (2016). In Defense of Historical-Critical Analysis of the Qurʾan. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion.

Campanini, M. (2005). Qur'an and Science: A Hermeneutical Approach. Journal of Qur'anic Studies.

Capetz, P. E. (2011). Theology and the Historical-Critical Study of the Bible. The Harvard Theological Review.

Gökk, N. (n.d.). THE APPLICATION OF MODERN CRITICAL THEORIES TO THE STUDY ... Department of Middle Eastern Studies.

Gökkir, N. (2004). OF THE QUR’AN – WITH A PARTICULAR FOCUS ON QUR’ANIC. Thesis.

Salim, F. (2014). Kritik terhadap Studi Quran Kaum LIberal. Perspektif.