[ms] The Criticism of Liberal Muslims Against Ulum al-Qur’an: A New Tendency in the Interpretation of al-Qur’an

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Ulum al-Qur’an is one of the earliest knowledge known among Muslims. It comprises of various essences of important
sciences which help to improve the comprehension of verses in al-Qur’an. Among those sciences are pertaining to Nasikh
Mansukh, Asbab Nuzul, Nuzul al-Qur’an, Makki and Madani verses and others. However recently, there is a tendency
among the Liberal Muslims to use Hermeneutic for Quranic Interpretation and criticizing Ulum al-Qur’an. Hermeneutic
is a science of interpreting the Bible which contains rules and law to complement interpretation. Therefore, it is the aim of
this paper to discuss those criticisms which promote al-Qur’an as a mere product of culture but not as the pure words of
God. This study applies the contents analysis on several of the Muslim Liberal works related to the Quranic Interpretation
and Ulum al-Qur’an. The findings of this study show that those works have negative impact that can undermine the
credibility of the knowledge of Quranic exegesis as well as to lower down the Islamic knowledges as a whole.