An Analysis of the Method and Style of Interpretation of Kiai Shaleh Darat in Tafsir Faidh ar-Rahman through Fazlur Rahman’s Socio-Historical Hermeneutic Approach.

Abstract

This study examines Tafsīr Faiḍ al-Raḥmān fī Tarjamah Tafsīr Kalām Mālik al-Dayyān by Kiai Shaleh Darat as a representative work of Nusantara Qur’anic exegesis that emerged from the dialectical interaction between the classical Islamic scholarly tradition and the socio-cultural context of colonial Java. The study aims to analyze the exegetical methodology, the function of Arabic Pegon as a localized linguistic medium, and the role of the tafsir as an instrument of religious education and intellectual resistance. Employing a qualitative approach based on library research, this study integrates philological analysis with Fazlur Rahman’s socio-historical hermeneutics, particularly the double movement framework. The primary data consist of manuscripts and lithographic printed editions of Faiḍ al-Raḥmān, while the secondary data are drawn from studies on Nusantara tafsir and nineteenth-century Javanese socio-intellectual history. The findings indicate that Kiai Shaleh Darat employs a taḥlīlī method with a Sufi and contextual orientation, enabling the moral values of the Qur’an to be actualized through local language, Javanese cultural symbols, and spiritual ethics. The use of the Pegon script functions not only as a pedagogical strategy but also as a form of epistemic resistance to colonial hegemony and the elitization of the Arabic language. From the perspective of Fazlur Rahman’s hermeneutics, Faiḍ al-Raḥmān exemplifies the operationalization of the double movement of interpretation, namely the extraction of universal moral principles from revelation and their actualization within the social realities of Javanese society. Thus, this tafsir demonstrates that linguistic and cultural locality is not an obstacle, but rather an effective medium for the transmission and transformation of Qur’anic messages.