I can’t even believe that a secular person could interpret the Holy Quran. A person likely to believe in this notion must be of unsound mind, if they follow what is told by a secular person with regards to the interpretation of the Holy Quran. He must be mad.
But suprisingly political analyst Farish A Noor believes that anyone can interpret a Quran. Even a guy who lives in Tanjung Rambutan can interpret Quran. Even a guy whose stroking inside bathroom can interpret Quran. Even a prostitute can interpret Quran. Even a killer and rapist can interpret Quran.
These are what Farish was suggesting when he said;
“Interpretation, of any text, is necessarily a subjective, historically-determined and culturally-contextualised endeavour. Every act of reading is necessarily subjective and therefore contingent and we cannot escape from the possibility of error, misinterpretation and misappropriation.”
I can understand what he meant by those words. But putting a bang guy in the same standard with Ulama is a total absurd and cannot be regarded as something logical. I mean, the Ulama, or any religious people, they have studied the substance of the Quran. They know better than anyone else who didn’t study it.
Hence it has put them in the frontline of people who is to be asked about any missunderstanding or whatsoever if it relates to the Quran.
Just for an introduction for the non-Muslim who reads this article, a Holy Quran is a word from God. Because of its natural structure, the wording or the Quran is highly understandable but sometimes cannot. On that particular part, the wording interpretation constitutes a very crucial part to be dealt with. That is why we oftenly refer that part to religious scholar like the Ulama, the Council of the Muftis and the Fatwa Council.
Yes people can read the Quran but they can’t just interpret the Quran without a optimum knowledge. This will induce a person to a deeper individual conflict of belief and faith, if he has wrongly interpret the Holy Quran. This must be avoided and because of that, we encourage this type of people to refer the intepretation parts to the scholar or religious group of people.
Another things is if we allow anyone to interpret the Holy Quran, we afraid that it will lead to a public confusion if these people go out and spread his own interpretation. He can easily interpret it by himself, and if he is unsure about his knowledge capacity, he must go to any religious scholar before his Aqidah is affected.
Farish also put an anology like this;
“This is true of reading a holy scripture as it is true about reading the menu of a restaurant, for the fact is that reading is necessarily a risk-laden enterprise and this has more to do with the nature of language as a social phenomena than anything else.”
Firstly, Holy Quran is not a menu. Menu is created by human, where as a Quran stands by itself, is created by Allah (God). Yes it is a risk to order a food by following the menu guide made by human, but do we need to risk our faith by wrongly interpreting the Holy Quran? Ask Farish. Maybe he will.
Farish also stated that;
“Going back to the genesis of all the major religious belief-systems in the world, we see that the foundational movement of such religions entailed the act of reading and interpretation. From the very outset of revelation itself, the possibility of error and misunderstanding has always been there.”
Farish Noor
If he is already aware of the possible/forseable misunderstanding that might occur in the future, why should he take that risk? If he already see that it is going to happen, why shouldn’t he avoid it? If you can see a car is ramming towards you in opposite side, will you wait or run like hell? Farish will wait, perhaps?
If Farish so smart, he can call himself a religious scholar and interpret the Holy Quran by himself, but please don’t tell the public that they can interpret by themselves too because this will lead to self conflict and confusion. This is what happen when we think about freedom too much in every second we enjoyed.
Allah gives us brain for us to think. So Farish is a big boy now. Think okay?
Filed under: Current Affairs, Uncategorized
When you are sick, would you go to see a lawyer who reads medical book? Why not, cause everybody can interpret the medical book.
When you want to build house, would you go to see a doctor who reads civil engineering book. Why not, cause everybody can interpret the civil engineering book.
Such a plain stupidity for someone who claimed he is an intellectual.
For those who think liberalism and the freedom of speech are the way of life will definitely agree with Farish. But as a muslim, what does he said is totally unacceptable.
We liked some of his ideas. We understand some of his grouses. We symphatised with some of his unworldly experiences.
For him who claimed to be intellectual, he misses some elements of emotion and spiritual acceptance. He now thinks too highly of himself and regarded himself “learned” therefore he qualified to interpret the Quran. In short, Farish is pompous, high nosed, “riak”, boastful and therefore looses all his intelligence. Watch out on your akidah!
Guess it’s true to Farish too that anyone can also interpret a book on advanced nuclear physics, no? After all, all readings begets interpretation, right?
Real fools always reveal themselves.
You are foolish to think that anyone CANNOT interpret your holy Scripture. That was the basis for Lutheranism in Christianity. That we are individual souls with free will. That we are here to make our own choices and do as we will. Right or wrong.
This is the basic flaw of your particular understanding of Islam. You see it as a collective rather than and individual journey of all of those souls.
Good Luck with all of that.
Lester Luttrell,
Agnostic Antagonist
The holy book was brought down for all mankind. Not just for the elite “islamic intellectuals” to comprehend. I do not believe that God brought down a holy book, which are only subjected to the intepretations of the “elites”. God gave all mankind a holy book, there are no qualifications required to truly understand the book. God is fair to all mankind, thus, the book was for all mankind, to read, to understand and to embrace. Not just for the minority elitist.
Books on medical studies are meant for doctors, engineering books are meant for engineers and so forth. The holy book was brought down for all mankind to read and understand, it wasn’t meant for the ustaz and ulamas only.
This is the fundamental flaw that plagued the religion for hundreds of years. The result, only a few understood, while the majority live in ignorance. True, if majority read the holy book, they will be subjected to many intepretations, yet I believe, if we open up our hearts and read with sincerity, Allah will give us petunjuk and hidayah(enlightenment).(God opens up his heart to those who seeks forgiveness, even a prostitute or criminal may seek forgiveness and enlightenment from God, and if they picked up the holy book to read and seek enlightenment, God bless!) Instead, many of us pledge ignorance, and believe that the holy book wasn’t meant for many of us to understand but only for the elites,so we lived with that convenience, that God has shut our hearts and minds from enlightenment.
If islam is the true religion for all mankind, then the book was meant for all to read and comprehend, just as the gates of heaven was meant for who all who seek, not just for ustaz and ulamas only….
Don’t just recite…read and understand…Allah will bless those who make the effort….not those who make excuses…
bright,
You have a very good point there. Quran was revealed for all mankind who seeks the truth and the straight path (Siratal Mustaqeem). The main problem in our society is the idea of reading the Quran in its original arabic is enough to fulfill the obligation as a muslim. It is true, reading Quran aloud in arabic is a very commendable thing to do and encourage by God. Yet,as a muslim who implore God to show him the straight path at least 17 times a day,doesnt he ever wonder what it is the Quran
-cont-
that command such an encouragement from God. It is a fact that majority of us are not proficient in arabic, but is it a valid excuse (today) for us to just be as we are, without any effort to explore the beauty and the truth in our sacred kitab?. We seemed to be content with leaving the job of understanding of Al-Quran to certain individuals with their own trade-mark intrepretations. And we have to follow these intrepretations with no question asked.
Does it ever occur to muslims that they themselves should read,study and do their own research on the content of the Quran. There ae lots and lots of materials available today including here in the Internet.(www:openbuhan.com. is an example).
I salute some of our bloggers who started the campaign to ‘Read the Quran with the language that you understand’,of course the campaign is not initiated by those ‘individuals with their trade-marked intrepretation’ mentioned above. Never in any khutbah or forum perdana ever mention or encourage muslims to read the Quran in the language they understand. I always wonder why. May be they want us to be forever ‘Quran-illitrate’and will always dependent on them to understand Al Quran. Their favourite excuse will always be a hadith,appoximately meaning ‘learn something yourself and your teacher will be satan.( The authencity of this hadith is still being debated). We can agree with that,so, what we should do now is to study the Quran thouroughly and if we find something we cannot understand, by all means, find a legitimate ulamak ( not those self-qualified ulamaks)and ask them, argue with them till you are satisfied.
I think this is the correct approach to explore the most sacred of our kitab.
Thanks.