Respons Tafsir Hak Dinı Kur’an Dili terhadap Kebijakan Politik Türkiye: Analisis Hermeneutika Gadamer

Abstract

This article examines the response of Elmalılı Muhammad Hamdi Yazır’s exegetical work, Hak Dinı Kur’an Dili (The True Religion’s Language of the Qur’an), to the secularizing political policies of the early Turkish Republic. Situated at the intersection of Qur’anic studies and Turkish political history, this study employs a qualitative-descriptive method informed by Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics, focusing particularly on the concepts of pre-understanding (Vorverständnis) and horizon fusion (Horizontverschmelzung). The analysis reveals three dimensions of Hamdi’s critical response: first, his theological resistance to the Turkish translation project, arguing that the linguistic beauty and legal authority of the Arabic Qur’an cannot be reproduced in any other language; second, his implicit critique of laicism (laiklik) through his commentary on Q. al-An‘ām 6:159, where he equates the separation of religion from public affairs with the fragmentation condemned in scripture; and third, his pragmatic accommodation of the republican system, evidenced in his interpretation of Q. al-Kawthar 108:3 as indicating that legitimate leadership need not rest on dynastic lineage. The article argues that Hamdi’s tafsir constitutes a form of negotiated resistance, neither wholesale rejection nor uncritical compliance, toward the Kemalist political project. These findings carry comparative relevance for Indonesian scholarship, as Indonesian Qur’anic commentators have similarly navigated the intersection of religious authority and state secularism.