Bridging Conservative and Modern Approaches: Muhammad’s ‘Abduh’s Interpretation of al-Fatihah

Najmah Sayuti (Faculty Cultural Sciences of Gadjah Mada University Faculty of Literature and Humanities of State Islamic University Imam Bonjol)
Fadlil Munawwar Manshur (Department of Arabic Literature, Faculty Cultural Sciences of Gadjah Mada University)

Sunan Kalijaga: International Journal of Islamic Civilization
Vol 3, No 2 (2020)

Muḥammad ‘Abduh (1849-1905) is a modern Moslem scholar of Egypt. He was known as a reformist and an architect of Islamic modernism. Through his modernism, he introduced a synthesis of Islamic teachings and modern thought in order to bridge between conservative and modern approaches. This present paper is analysis of his tafsīr on al-Fātiḥah to understand his mix approches. The author found that ‘Abduh’s tafsir applied conservative language to reflect his radical ideas. However, ‘Abduh also introduced modern approaches in his tafsīr. Finally, it is found that al-Fātiḥah in ‘Abduh tafsir contains the substantial messages of the Qur’an.