Sufi Exegesis of the Qur’an and Its Public Controversy

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.201113.010How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Sufi exegesis, spiritual exegesis of the Qur’an, controversy of Sufi’s exegesis

Abstract

This research focuses on controversies around the existence of Sufi exegesis of the Qur’an. Historical facts reveal that studies about interpretation of the Qur’an have developed quite rapidly. This development goes hand in and with the development of science and philosophy in the Islamic world, as a result of the expansion of Islam into regions outside Arabia, and the contact of Islam with local culture and spiritualism. The development of religious sects in Islam has also contributed to the diversity of interpretation of the Qur’an among Muslim scholars. Sufi exegesis is only one type of the Qur’anic exegesis that has so far existed in the history of Qur’anic studies. Yet, the emergence of Sufi exegesis has triggered controversy among Muslim scholars, many of who regarded that the latter has deviated from the mainstream, established schools of Qur’anic exegesis. This paper is aimed at exploring the controversy around Sufi exegesis of the Qur’an: why and how this controversy has come to the forth? Data for this research, which mainly come from major books in the field of Qur’anic exegesis, are gathered through a historical approach, and analyzed with a content analysis method. Results of this research show that controversy around the rise of Sufi exegesis is revolved around issues of both epistemology and methodological approaches used by the Sufi when interpreting the Qur’an. Discovery of meanings of the Qur’an is made possible only through close examination of both texts and contexts of the Qur’an: yet, Sufi scholars of the Qur’an have given more emphasis on spiritual-meanings of the Qur’anic texts, in turn triggering criticism from other Muslim scholars.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - MA. Achlami HS
AU  - Isnaini
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/11/13
TI  - Sufi Exegesis of the Qur’an and Its Public Controversy
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st Raden Intan International Conference on Muslim Societies and Social Sciences (RIICMuSSS 2019)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 50
EP  - 55
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201113.010
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.201113.010
ID  - HS2020
ER  -