Extracting al-Razi’s Quranic Notion on Epidemic from His Magnum Opus Mafatih al-Ghayb

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic that struck the world has changed the landscape of human life post-21st century. The existence of such epidemic diseases has also been recorded in the world history of human civilization. Interestingly, the Quran, which was revealed fifteen centuries ago, also touches on the issue of pandemic or epidemic diseases that occurred to the previous generations and provides a reminder for the future generations. The Quran explains that epidemic diseases are one of the forms of worldly azab or punishment sent by Allah as a reminder of the damage and tyranny committed by human beings. The interpretation of epidemic diseases in the Quran has been parsed by a famous exegesis scholar, Imam al-Razi in his magnum opus, The Exegesis of Mafatih al-Ghayb. His masterpiece has brought a new dimension in understanding epidemic diseases through the combination of naqli and aqli approaches. Nonetheless, the collection of epidemic verses in The Exegesis of Mafatih al-Ghayb has been less frequently discussed. Therefore, this paper presents a study that identified and analyzed the verses related to epidemic diseases based on the views of Imam al-Razi. This study employed the qualitative method based on the text analysis approach using the Quran and The Exegesis of Mafatih al-Ghayb. This study found that the words rijz, rijs, and azab are synonymous with epidemics. These three words have certain characteristics that lead to the spread of the epidemic as stated by Imam al-Razi. Additionally, there are several holistic approaches stated by al-Razi in understanding epidemics and how to avoid them at present time and in the future. This approach needs to be understood by every layer of the society in order for the message of the Quran on epidemic diseases to be understood well and to curb the spread of epidemics.

Comparative Analysis Between Lata’if Qur’aniyyah (Quranic Subtleties) and Tadabbur Al-Qur’an (Quranic Reflection)

“…Mafatih al-Ghayb, the work of al-Razi (1999), was the basis for delving deeper into the Lata'if Qur'aniyyah concept, while Qawa 'id Tadabbur, written by oleh Habannakah (2009), became the basis for observation of the concept of Tadabbur al-Qur'an. Hence, studies relating to the excellence of contemporary issues in Quranic studies are also assayed by local and international scholars, covering various issues such as the extracting al-Razi's Quranic notion on epidemic from his magnum opus Mafatih al-Ghayb (Mohd et al 2021), review of reciting al-Qur'an in restoring the resilience and mental health among quarantined Covid-19 patients (Rahman et al 2020), the columnists of Quranic exegesis of the Pengasuh magazine from 1953 to 2017 (Ibrahim et al 2020), context and internal relationships as the most relevant and fruitful approach to understanding the text of the Qur'an (Haleem 2005), the Quranic exegesis in history and scholarship (Saleh 2004), al-Nursi's methodological approach in thematic Qur'anic exegesis (El-Khatib 2019) as well as the subtleties method in the interpretation of Imam al-Razi (Zabidi & Abdullah 2019).…”