Title: Between Reformist and Interpretation: Notes on Hamka’s Methodological Strategies as Reformist Mufassir
Abstract: Reformist mufassir is a suitable title to be given to Hamka, one of the Malay-Indonesian figures.He was a reformist of the Islamic revival in Indonesia and a mufassir to the Tafsir al-Azhar.However, is there any connection between the translation made and his reformist soul?What are the reformist elements in his translation to restore the greatness of the Muslim communities that have been left behind in every aspect and greatly influenced by the colonialists?Therefore, this paper of qualitative study, applied content analysis method towards Hamka's work, Tafsir al-Azhar, in order to answer these questions.The discussion in this paper was organized into two sections.First, a discussion on the background that influenced Hamka's reformist soul.Second, analyzing the reformist elements in Tafsir al-Azhar.As a result, this paper found five reformist patterns in the translation, namely the encouragement to use the senses and to think, the integration between the arguments of naqli and aqli, answering the accusations from Muslim enemies, answering the issues in Islamic society, and comparisons between the Torah, the Bible and the Qur'an.It can be concluded that all these reformist elements are essential of restoring the greatness of the Islamic generation, especially in Indonesia.These elements provide a new dimension in the discipline of tafsir and invite the community to change from the narrow-mindedness to the vast space of ijtihad.