Considering Aspects of Liberalism in the Tafsir of al-Razi

Reportage of Ramadan Tadarrus, “Reading al-Razi’s”

“According to Kautsar, Tafsir of Mafatih al-Ghaib, the work of al-Razi, is different from the majority of classical tafsir which limits salvation only for the followers of Muhammad called Muslims. Al-Razi is mufassir who requires two fundamental conditions to get salvation in the afterlife, namely believe in Allah and the Last Day as well as do righteousness without the necessity of faith to Muhammad. This statement leads Kautsar to conclude that al-Razi is a pluralist mufassir, or at least inclusive.”

Although it is oriented to contemporary situation and development, Islamic renewal still cannot completely release from classical insights of tradition or Islamic scholarship compilation. Through the study of classical Islamic intellectual heritage, we can figure out basic arguments that are usually used as guidance by opponents of liberal Islam in relation to debates on issues of freedom and Islamic renewal. At least, this is the reason mentioned by Abd. Moqsith Ghazali when he was asked about the importance of conducting studies on Islamic turats .

In this Ramadan, as in the previous year, the Liberal Islam Network (JIL) conducted reading turats. If the object of study in the Ramadan of the last year is the works of three liberal Sufis, al-Bushtami, al-Suhrawardi and al-Hallaj Maqtul, this year the object is a number of works of great thinker as well as mufassir, i.e. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. Discussion of al-Razi’s thoughts was divided into three sessions, and each session presented two speakers. This writing aims to report the second session of the discussion (Monday, August 8, 2011) which focused on the books of tafsir of Mafatih al Ghaib where Abd. Moqsith Ghazali (a tafsir scholar and liberalism observer) and Kautsar Azhari Noer (a comparative religion scholar) became the speakers. Moqsith discussed al-Razi’s tafsir in general, while Kautsar focused on al-Razi’s tafsir on Qur’anic verses of pluralism.

Moqsith started his presentation with discussing the origin of the name of al-Razi’s Mafatih al-Ghaib. This tafsir, Moqsith explained, has three different names, ‘Mafatih al-Ghaib’, ‘Tafsir al-Kabir’, and ‘tafsir of al-Fakhr al-Razi. According to Moqsith, the various names of the tafsir are because the author had not given yet the title. Different from al Razi, al-Qurtubi and Nawawi al Bantani mentioned their works. Al-Qurtubi called his tafsir as Jami’al-Ahkam and Nawawi al Bantani names his work as Marah Labid. A similar case also occurred in other tafsirs, such as the tafsir of Ibn Kathir.

Tafsir al-Razi which consists of 32 chapters (Dar al-Fikr edition, Lebanon, 1981) was arranged by mushafi systematic or commonly known as tafsir of tahlili (analitical). Borrowing Goldziher’s analysis, Moqsith explained that al-Razi did not finish writing all of his tafsir, he passed away before he can finish his tafsir until the 30th Juz (part/chapter) of the Qur’an. Then, the work of al-Razi was continued by his student, a judge from Damascus, al-Khalil Ibn Shamsuddin Hawy. Nevertheless, it is not clear, which part is the writing of al-Razi and of his student. It cannot be differentiated. This Tafsir was summarized by a scholar from Maliki school and uses a lot of arguments that are usually referred from many thinkers, from predecessor of mufassir’s arguments such as Mujahid, al-Thabari as well as Mu’tazilah scholars such as Abu Muslim al Ashfihani and al-Zammakhsyari, the author of tafsir al-Kasysyaf. However, Moqsith analyzed, al-Razi quoted those Mu’tazilah’s views not to refer, but to deny and criticize it.

According to Moqsith, al-Razi is one of very courageous Sunni mufassirs. When many scholars limited the interpretation by reason (ra’yu), al-Razi broke this taboo, even he did not care about the hadith which says that people who interpret the Qur’an by their reasons must be mistaken although it is true interpretation.
Tafsir al-Razi is quite unique and divergent in his time. The tafsir classified by scholars as a philosophical tafsir—because of its deep philosophical tendency—explained each verse of the Qur’an by applying many approaches, theology, philosophy, law, history, philology, even science. Based on this reason, Zainun Kamal (Dean of