F. Isac’s Qur’anic Hermeneutics in Context of Islamic Liberation Theology

Farid Esack is a modern Islamic scholar of South African origin who suggests original Qur’anic hermeneutics in the scope of theology of liberation. The characteristics of his theology considered in this article are: the praxis of liberation, contextualism, scrupulous textual analysis, hermeneutics oriented at struggle with institutions of oppression. It is noted that his hermeneutics diff ers from the hermeneutics of other theologians of liberation — he represents the praxis of liberation as a main task of theology of liberation. His method is not only theoretical scholarly speculative exercise on textual interpretation, at the same it inspires and encourages people for changes in society, for enhancement the lives of people where justice comes as its necessary fundamental stipulation. His refl ective theology is an intellectual response to the challenges of postmodern world aimed at establishing such virtues in society as justice, freedom, mercy and setting up more egalitarian Islamic society.

Tekstualisme Dan Kontekstualisme Penafsiran Kontemporer Terhadap Surah Al-Maidah Ayat 38

Not only in the interpretation of classical scholars, the discourses on the interpretation of contemporary scholars are also diverse and often contradictory even though they are based on the same textual basis of the Qur'anic verse. This study intends to identify trends in the interpretation of contemporary scholars regarding the legal sanctions for cutting hands in al-Maidah verse 38. Two figures are studied, namely Ibn 'Asyur and Muhammad Syahrur. The main data objects of this research, namely the book (kitab) entitled al-Tahrîr wa al-Tanwîr by Muhammad Tahir Ibn 'Asyur and al-Kitâb wa al-Qur'ân Qirâ'ah Mu'âsirah by Muhammad Syahrur, and. The research approach used is a philosophical normative approach. The analytical theory used is the typology of textualism and contextualism of interpretation which was coined by Abdullah Saeed. Meanwhile, the nature of the research approach is descriptive-analytic. The results of the study conclude that the interpretation of Ibn 'Asyur regarding al-Ma'idah verse 38 can be categorized as a textual interpretation. This can be seen from his interpretation of the literal meaning of the verse. In addition, Ibn 'Asyur also tends to view the punishment of cutting off hands for thieves to be a deterrent as well as a preventive measure. In contrast to Ibn 'Asyur, Muhammad Syahrur's interpretation of the legal case of cutting off hands for thieves includes contextual interpretation. This can be seen when he understands the verse of cutting off hands for thieves, he gives a meaning that gives space for ijtihad for an area and conditions to enforce punishments that have a deterrent effect, provided that it must not exceed the punishment of cutting off handsas the maximum limit.

Teologi Mistik Pengharapan Bagi Sebuah Restorasi

Mystical Theology of Hope for a Restoration: The Interpretation of Ezekiel 37: 1-14. Various problems in the world have made humans live in suffering, especially when facing a pandemic which is still ongoing today. Humans need strength and certainty to face these difficult times in order to rise from adversity and experience restoration that is able to bring life into hope. This article examines efforts to cultivate hope theologically by describing a mystical theological view of hope in Ezekiel 37: 1-14. By using qualitative methods, especially through the approach of textual interpretation that examines the text to find the core of the news, the main message is found in the view of the mystical theology of the hope of the Prophet Ezekiel regarding the picture of Israel's recovery in exile, through Ezekiel's vision of the condition of dry bones scattered in the valley. The final findings of this article reveal that restoration from God is both a physical and a spiritual one that is represented by the act of God's Spirit awakening the dry bones. This event contains a bright hope for Israel, and for humans who believe, that life will be restored as long as humans are willing to keep themselves faithful as God's people. Abstrak: Teologi Mistik Pengharapan bagi Sebuah Restorasi: Tafsir Yehezkiel 37:1-14. Berbagai persoalan di dunia telah menjadikan manusia hidup di dalam penderitaan, terkhusus ketika menghadapi pandemi yang masih berlangsung saat sekarang. Manusia membutuhkan kekuatan dan kepastian untuk menghadapi masa-masa sulit ini guna bangkit dari keterpurukan penderitaan dan mengalami restorasi yang mampu mengantar kehidupan ke dalam pengharapan. Artikel ini mengupas upaya menumbuhkan pengharapan secara teologis dengan menjabarkan sebuah pandangan teologi mistik pengharapan dalam Yehezkiel 37:1-14. Dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif, khususnya melalui pendekatan tafsir tekstual yang meneliti teks untuk menemukan inti berita, ditemukan pesan utama dalam pandangan teologi mistik pengharapan Nabi Yehezkiel mengenai gambaran pemulihan Israel dalam pembuangan, melalui penglihatan Yehezkiel terhadap kondisi tulang-tulang kering yang berserakan di lembah. Temuan akhir dari artikel ini mengungkapkan bahwa pemulihan dari Allah merupakan pemulihan fisik dan sekaligus spiritual yang digambarkan melalui tindakan Roh Allah yang membangkitan tulang-tulang kering. Peristiwa ini berisi harapan yang cerah bagi Israel, dan manusia yang percaya, bahwa akan membuat pulih lagi kehidupan asalkan manusia mau tetap menjaga diri untuk setia sebagai umat kepunyaan Allah.

Literacy of Islamic Thought: Contestation, Claim of Truth, and Polemic of Religion in Islam in Gorontalo, Indonesia

As many previous studies tend to discuss the biography of local Islamic figures and overly-textual interpretation in exploring the Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia and criticize the western concepts of democracy in Gorontalo, this study aims to explore the newly-found dynamics of contestation of local Islamic thought in Gorontalo Province. Conducting in Gorontalo, a northern province in Sulawesi Island inhabited mainly by Muslim communities, this study employs a qualitative approach with a descriptive method. In the present work, the discourse of Islamic thought in Gorontalo is found to develop into a massive and uncontrolled state, leading to polemics among the Muslim community in the area. The polemics among people, including in the social media, involve two groups that are ideologically and epistemologically different: the liberal Islamic groups, i.e., ANSOR and PMII, and the fundamental Islamic groups, i.e., Tablighi Jamaat and Wahdah Islamiyah. Issues of religion-culture debate, khilafiyah, religious pluralism, and prohibition of Christmas salutation are among the main highlights of the polemic, especially among Muslims in Gorontalo. The presence of fundamentalists represents the new phenomenon in the Islamic thought discourse in Gorontalo, which is known for its subjectivity in perceiving the absence of the basic principles or nash (Qur'an and hadith) of the fundamentalists. Consequently, a debate between the two groups, claiming which one has the absolute truth, is inevitable. This situation also ends up with fundamentalist extremism labelling others as infidels (takfiri) and deviant to Islamic teachings.

NATURE OF LEGAL RELIEF THROUGH THE LENS OF INTERNATIONAL CIVIL PROCEDURE

The paper argues that legal relief should be treated as a complex notion that has both substantive and procedural dimensions. This argument is illustrated by reference to international disputes as a situation where legal classification has immediate practical consequences. Building on this argument, the paper concludes that courts and tribunals have to apply both substantive and procedural laws when resolving issues pertaining to legal relief. The purpose of each particular legal rule should be decisive to determine its legal nature, while other approaches to legal classification, such as textual interpretation of legal rules, are open to criticism. The paper also reviews a number of practical cases which could be resolved based on the suggested approach to legal classification. In particular, it is argued that the mixed classification of legal relief is helpful to address potential conflicts between remedies available under foreign substantive law and the procedural apparatus of the forum court (lex fori). This approach is also potentially efficient in the context of transnational enforcement of arbitral awards and state court judgments, and in particular it can be used to justify the power of the enforcing court to adapt the relief ordered by the foreign award or judgment to the procedural tradition of lex fori.

The Epistemology of Reading and Interpretation

Reading and textual interpretation are ordinary human activities, performed inside as well as outside academia, but precisely how they function as unique sources of knowledge is not well understood. In this book, René van Woudenberg explores the nature of reading and how it is distinct from perception and (attending to) testimony, which are two widely acknowledged knowledge sources. After distinguishing seven accounts of interpretation, van Woudenberg discusses the question of whether all reading inevitably involves interpretation, and shows that although reading and interpretation often go together, they are distinct activities. He goes on to argue that both reading and interpretation can be paths to realistically conceived truth, and explains the conditions under which we are justified in believing that they do indeed lead us to the truth. Along the way, he offers clear and novel analyses of reading, meaning, interpretation, and interpretative knowledge.

Where There’s Fire There’s Smoke

What critics emphasize in their study of the Bible in art depends on a wide range of issues, including the artist’s sociohistorical context, the purpose for which the art is created, and critics’ own interpretive interests. Because all approaches treat biblical art as interpretation in its own right, critics must first address the relationship between text and image. This chapter applies Cheryl Exum’s method of visual criticism to establish a genuine dialogue between biblical texts and their artistic representations in order to interpret figural representations as artistic solutions to textual cruxes. This method is used to elucidate a difficult scene—the painting of Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones in the Dura-Europos Synagogue. This scene will be examined in light of textual problems in MT Ezekiel 9:1–6, rabbinic textual interpretation of Ezekiel 8-9, and the iconography of idolatry in the cycle of synagogue paintings. The scene does not focus on every detail in these chapters; rather, it produces evidence of idolatry, in the display of bowls and incense burners and, more dramatically, in the portrayal of the executioners’ search for the protective Tau as they carry out the divine command of judgment. The artists’ selection of these two episodes indicates a keen engagement of the artists with questions of identity and idolatry in the religiously plural city of Dura-Europos. Thus explained, the scene clarifies the contribution of the Ezekiel painting to the synagogue cycle’s emphasis on Jewish identity in a polytheist context.

Mechanisms for Interpretative Cooperation: Fan Theories in Virtual Communities

This work focuses on analyzing fan theories as interpretive processes shared by users of virtual reading communities. Within these spaces of participatory culture, a complex strategy of interactions among its members is encouraged to formulate conjectures about the text's intentions and negotiate its degree of relevance. We have based our research on a methodology linked to the ethnography of reading. From a representative sample of the narrative universes of A Song of Ice and Fire and Harry Potter, the different modes of agreed collaborative textual interpretation are explored. The data show that within these communities of practice, three reading models are developed: predictive theories in which future narrative contents are inferred; explanatory theories in which narrative arcs are endowed and charged with meaning through the analysis of canon and, finally, alternative theories with a highly creative component in which the interpretative limits of the text are explored. Within these virtual communities, hermeneutical proposals are characterized by the activation of complex, heavily referenced literary argumentation to maintain semiosis active and expand the horizon of expectations of its members.

FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE: Strukturalisme dan Pengaruhnya Bagi Dunia Penafsiran Alkitab

Abstrak Terlepas dari maraknya pendekatan hermeneutika pascastrukturalisme yang mengabaikan tatanan struktur dan sistem tanda, strukturalisme memainkan peranan yang vital dalam jantung hermeneutika modern. Sebagai sebuah alat baca terhadap tanda (dan keterjalinan teks) dalam masyarakat, strukturalisme memberikan fondasi yang kokoh bagi peneliti bahasa dan teks untuk mengkaji pesan bermakna yang disampaikan melalui tanda. Dalam dunia hermeneutika Alkitab, strukturalisme memberikan pengaruh yang signifikan bagi keragaman dan kekayaan penafsiran teks-teks Kitab Suci. Penelitian ini berusah untuk memaparkan strukturalisme sebagai sebuah perangkat hermeneutika modern dan menunjukkan pengaruh strukturalisme bagi dunia penafsiran Alkitab. Menggunakan teks Lukas 18:1-8 dan Mazmur 8:1-9 sebagai alat peraga, penulis mendiskusikan kemampuan dan keterbatasan pendekatan strukturalisme dalam mengkaji teks. Kata Kunci: Ferdinand de Saussure, Strukturalisme, Signified-Signifier, Tanda, Langue-Parole, Sintagmatik-Paradigmatik, Sinkronik-Diakronik. Abstract Despites the rampant approach of post-structuralism hermeneutics which disregards structural pattern and sign systems, structuralism plays a vital role in the heart of modern hermeneutics. As a reading tool toward signs (and inter-texts) in society, structuralism has laid a solid foundation for philologist to decipher meaningful message that is delivered through sign. In the world of bible hermeneutics, structuralism contributes significantly to the diversity and richness of textual interpretation to Scripture. This research endeavors to expound structuralism as a tool of modern hermeneutics and show its influence on the world of bible interpretation. Taking Luke 18:1-8 and Psalms 8:1-9 as teaching tools, the writer discusses the ability as well as the limitation of structuralism in understanding the texts. Kata Kunci: Ferdinand de Saussure, Structuralism, Signified-Signifier, Sign, Langue-Parole, Sintagmatic-Paradigmatic, Synchronic-Diachronic.

Text and Document in Dante’s Vita nova

This article considers the importance of material philological features of the early manuscripts of Dante’s Vita nova for the work’s critical reception. Over the centuries, editors (most notably Giovanni Boccaccio) have recast textual meaning in the work mainly by marginalizing the poet’s glosses and by reformatting the poems. Attention to the material features of the earliest extant manuscript of the Vita nova (MS Martelli 12) with respect to later copies, however, prompts us to consider the creative interplay between Dante’s prosimetrum and the material features of the manuscript. To interpret a text critically is to acknowledge and to examine also how a manuscript or print edition orients textual interpretation. The editorial history of the Vita nova teaches us about the cultural processes and discourses of literary culture and about Italian literary history.