A Study of the Reinterpretation of the Qur’ān in a Seventeenth-Century Malay Sufi Text Written by al-Rānīrī
Abstract
Sufi interpretations of the Qur’ān aim to justify a mystic view of the God-human-universe relationship, focusing on the Qur’ānic verses. This paper studies controversies related to the interpretations of the Qur’ān by the Wujūdiyyah Sufis of Malay in the seventeenth-century Acheh and the Malay Archipelago. Their interpretations were pantheistic according to their opponent, the Shaykh al-Islām of Acheh, Nūr al-Dīn al-Rānīrī (d. 1658). Al-Rānīrī challenged the teachings of the Wujūdiyyah Sufis to cleanse Sufism from pantheistic views. The text chosen, al-Fatḥ al-Mubīn ‘alā ’l-Mulḥidīn (A Clear Victory against the Heretics) is a Jawi text written by al-Rānīrī before he left Acheh in 1446 for India. The Wujūdiyyah Sufis interpreted the Qur’ānic verses to support their ideas. In response, al-Rānīrī reinterpreted the same verses to demonstrate the flaws found in their teachings. Issues of reinterpretation, authoritative interpretation, and cogency are clearly expressed in the text. The article provides an overview of the seventeenth-century Malay Sufism which the contemporary scholars of the Islamics often ignore. The paper begins by giving a background of the controversy and proceeds to discuss arguments articulated by al-Rānīrī for a reinterpretation of the Qur’ānic texts misinterpreted by the Wujūdiyyah Sufis, in his quest for upholding the true Sufi view. Whenever possible, a comparative view of the teachings and statements of Ibn al-‘Arabī (d. 1240 CE) is brought into the analysis.
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