Seeing Islam as a Social Fact: Hermeneutic Approach to the Quran in Abu Zayd's Thought

This study aims to discuss Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd's thoughts on the Quran as scripture. Using the type of literature study research, this article explains Abu Zayd's thoughts as contained in several of his writings. This study's findings state that Abu Zayd's argument that the Quran as a cultural product and cultural producer (muntaj tsaqafi and muntij tsaqafi) departs from Abu Zayd's approach, which sees Islam as a social fact. There is a big difference between Islam, studied as a social fact, and Islam, seen as a religious doctrine. Islam as a social fact demands objective and positive scientific work. Abu Zayd took a new approach to the Quran by shifting the direction of study from a vertical dimension to a horizontal dimension. The horizontal dimension referred to by Abu Zayd is the canonization in which the teachings of the Quran were spread gradually by the Prophet Muhammad. This article also concludes that Abu Zayd sees it as a text for studying the Quran. It is at this point that Abu Zayd uses a hermeneutic approach. It is at these two points that Abu Zayd said that his study of the Quran is based on the human aspect. What Abu Zayd means by studying the Qur'an, which departs from the human aspect with a horizontal dimension is also what is meant by Islam as a social fact in this article. In the order of writing, the article sequentially discusses the following points. The first part of this article reviews a brief biography of Abu Zayd, along with the social and political conditions that influenced his thinking. The second part explains the Quran as a text. And in the last section describes the Quran as a product as well as a cultural producer.


Introduction
So far, there has been some literature discussing Abu Zayd's thoughts. Most of these works discuss Abu Zayd's thoughts on revelation and al-Quran hermeneutics (e.g., Campanini 2011, pp. 52-62;Kermani 2006;Rahman n.d.). Some scholars discuss the humanistic approach of Abu Zayd's thought (e.g., Sukidi 2009). Some scholars also compare Abu Zayd's thinking with other Islamic thinkers, especially those with an Islamic reformist spirit, such as Fazlur Rahman and Muhammad Arkoun (e.g., Völker 2015). Research also explores pluralism from Abu Zayd's perspective (e.g., Zohouri 2021). In addition, several scientific works support the Egyptian court's decision against Abu Zayd; in other words, this scientific work is here to criticize Abu Zayd's thinking. Traditionalist scholars write most scholarly works on this model (e.g., Bälz 1997;Najjar 2000).
Previous researchers have not looked at Abu Zayd's thinking comprehensively. They did not see the political conditions that influenced Abu Zayd, nor did they see that each of Abu Zayd's thoughts departed from an objective philosophical paradigm. The point is that Abu Zayd is aiming to see religion as a social fact, including his view of the Quran as a cultural product. Instead of trying to see first the paradigm used by Abu Zayd in his thinking, these scholars who criticized Abu Zayd immediately justified Abu Zayd. They let go of specific factors that influenced Abu Zayd. For example, the research by Abu Hadi in his Ph.D. thesis reviews the thoughts of Abu Zayd in understanding the texts of the Quran and Hadith (Abu Hadi 2011). Apart from that, the research conducted by Mustafa also did the same thing in criticizing Abu Zayd (Mustafa 2014). They did not see the essential factors why Abu Zayd had thoughts like that. Different from the studies mentioned above, this article will position itself as a study in viewing the thoughts of Abu Zayd, who sees religion as a social fact, not a matter of theology and faith. Not only that, using the type of literature study research, this article explains Abu Zayd's thoughts as contained in several of his writings. The previous researchers were still trapped in studies that saw Abu Zayd's work as the work of theology and faith. The first part of this article reviews a brief biography of Abu Zayd, along with the social and political conditions that influenced his thinking. The second part explains the Quran as a text.
And in the last section describes the Quran as a product as well as a cultural producer. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd is an Egyptian scholar who authored several works in Arabic literature, the Quran, and Islamic studies. He received his Ph.D. at Cairo university in 1981 with the thesis title Ibn Arabi. During his lifetime Abu Zayd was known as a controversial It is essential to explain that since the beginning Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd has said that his study of the Quran is based on the human aspect. Abu Zayd wants to present a study of the Quran by moving the direction of study from the vertical to the horizontal dimension (Abu . What Abu Zayd meant by studying from the horizontal dimension was canonization, namely the gradual dissemination of the message of the Quran by the Prophet Muhammad. Moreover, a basis for this study is to see the Quran as a text. It is referred to in this article by Islam as a social fact. What is meant by Abu Zayd with the study of the Quran, which departs from the human aspect with a horizontal dimension, is also what Islam means as a social fact in this article. It is essential to understand in advance so that there are no misperceptions that it confuses the study of faith and the study of social facts.

Methodology
This research is library research, a series of activities or processes of obtaining, finding, and selecting written sources or data regarding a problem in a particular aspect or field, which becomes the object of research reasonably through systematic, directed, and accountable work procedures. In other words, this research uses library materials as research objects. For primary sources, the author refers to and relies on analysis and synthesis of almost all of Abu Zayd's scientific writings on the Quran, both books and various articles.
While secondary sources consist of written works on Abu Zayd's thoughts on the Quran.
To analyze these sources, descriptive-explanatory is used. Descriptive research is aimed at analyzing and presenting an analysis and synthesis of the construction of thought systematically so that the conclusions put forward later are always clear on a factual basis and can always be returned directly to the source of the data obtained. Meanwhile, explanatory research explains the socio-historical background which is the reason emergence of thoughts, as well as exploring the extent of the relevance and implications of thought in contemporary discourse and context. With these two analyses, the author seeks to read, see, understand, and present Abu Zayd's thoughts on the Quran and its studies.

Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd and His Political Culture
At the age of 11, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd began to join the movement group al-Ikhwān al-Muslimun (1954)  was published in 1983, after which many of Abu Zayd's works appeared. One is Mafhūm an-Nash by Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd in response to his study of the Mu'tazilah group. He began to argue that the study and interpretation of a text must be viewed "objectively," namely by using scientific methodologies and approaches such as linguistics and hermeneutics as a scalpel to the text (Abu Zayd 2008). According to Abu Zayd, the two approaches, namely hermeneutics and linguistic studies, are two sets of science that can produce a product of contextual and progressive interpretation of the Quran (Abu Zayd 2004).
Since Islamic thinkers such as Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida emerged, Egypt has always been a mecca for developing Islamic world thought. The study discourses widely discussed is the study of the Quran. Various types of methods of understanding the Qur'an emerged from Egyptian intellectuals. From Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida, Amin al-Khulli, and Thaha Husain. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd is further considered the latest figure in this field (Abdul Rahman 1999).
Since childhood, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd experienced hot and tense times and situations in Egyptian history. After being free from the shackles of French colonialism, Egypt was immediately faced with efforts to create self-government. At the same time, several movements and struggles of competing ideological thoughts emerged, some of which were religious and secular. The dominant ideology and the majority at that time was the ideology of secular Arab nationalism (separating religion and state affairs). At that time, the ideology of Gemal Abdul Nasser's regime was official (Haydar 2015).

"My academic experience in the United States was quite fruitful. I did much reading on my own, especially in philosophy and hermeneutics. Hermeneutics, the science of interpreting texts, opened up a brand-new world for me and has opened up a whole new world for me)."
Undeniably, the influence of colonialism from Western countries on Islam has caused Islam to be divided, giving birth to a European-style social elite. Apart from that, the education sector is deliberately infiltrated by state interests and structured duping.
According to Said Masykur (Masykur2015), there were at least several attempts to make the Western imperialists or colonialists try to deceive, which ultimately resulted in the infertility of the Islamic world.
First, from the beginning, the colonialists intended to divide Islamic countries. They know that the solid ideological-cultural power of Islam is difficult to defeat if united. The imperialists know that such a force will be easily defeated if conditions are divided.
Second, the imperialists tried to destroy the order of life starting from their penetration into the traditional agricultural sector, the system of ownership, exchange, production, and other public works carried out by traditional societies. The imperialists demand that the natives dress, eat and drink, build houses, and even educate their children in the Western way.
So that an assumption is embedded in the minds of the natives that their civilization is ancient and Western civilization is advanced. From there, gradually, the natives began to be anti-local products and switched to Western products.
Third, they, the imperialists, entered Islamic sciences and traditional educational institutions. The imperialists encouraged the natives to enter European universities and then formed a notion that the parameters of truth must follow the Western-style modernist way of thinking.
Fourth, the imperialists deliberately created intrigues against minorities (non-Muslims) which became the embryo of the birth of schisms and conflict between traditional schools of thought. Because according to them, the imperialists must make such an effort to facilitate the mission of forming a modern society.
In general, there are at least two factors behind the rise of Muslim intellectuals in the mid-20th century; first, the restlessness of the clergy against the presence of imperialism.
Finally, the Aqidah purification movement emerged, which became known as the reform movement. Second, the dominance of the West in the field of Islamic politics ultimately encourages Muslims to carry out political movements to create a balance of power against the progress of the West.

Al-Quran as a Text
Since the beginning of his discussion, Nasr Abu Zayd sees that the study of religion is currently filled with theological views that efficiently justify (Harb 2005 analytical study by returning religious texts to their original context in which the text was born as a product of human history. In this way, the central core of religious teachings will be known. To achieve this type of study like the model above, the first step that researchers must consider is first to place an aura of sanctity from the text and then return it to its original context in the context of plunder. Researchers in this momentum need to guarantee a broad and open mind space to reach the context of a complete historical understanding. Openmindedness can make it easier for researchers to understand society's condition when the text is present with them. The text (in this case, the Quran) must be understood as part of the reality of society as a party that interacts with the text. Using text, understanding it, and solving specific problems. That is the spirit of study that Abu Zayd wants to bring.
According to Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, the Quran is a sacred text that remains in terms of pronunciation. However, it becomes different when humans interact, so it loses its sacredness. Permanent from the side of God's absolute revelation but becomes relative when humans try to interact with him (Abu  For Abu Zayd, religion is "a collection of divine texts embodied in history," while religious thought is human interpretation or understanding of these texts (Abu Zayd 1996 Zayd). According to him, historically, religion is a fixed collection of sacred texts, while thinking about religion as a human effort (ijtihād) to understand religious texts. If so, interpretation is human understanding of the revealed text; therefore, it is relative and cannot be an absolute truth that all humans must follow. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd sees nash (text) and mushaf (book) as different. According to him, "Text" requires explanation, understanding, and interpretation, whereas mushaf is more to writing whose form has been formed into an object (book) or a particular corpus of manuscripts (Abu Zayd 1990 To respond to this fact, according to Abu Zayd, we must look at the treasures of classical Islamic thought from various perspectives. One way is with hermeneutics. Historically, hermeneutics has been used by Muslim scientists according to the knowledge they have studied since the beginning of the course of Islamic thought. The holy text they believe in and have faith in is the Quran. History tells us that the Quran cannot be separated from the development of other Islamic studies such as Islamic law, ushul fiqh, philosophy, and Sufism (Abu Zayd 1994). Al-Qur'an hermeneutics is more than ulum al-Qur'an as traditionally understood. More than that, it is a study that is transformed into a multiinterdisciplinary. Contemporary Qur'anic hermeneutic studies inspired by the social sciences and humanities must be addressed. That was what Abu Zayd wanted to do.
To arrive at that stage, Abu Zayd first deconstructs the concept of revelation (Tabī'at al-Naṣṣ). This step is the beginning of entering the contextual interpretation methodology initiated by Abu Zayd. According to Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, the Qur'an was revealed in two stages. The first is the process of the vertical descent of the text of the Quran from Allah to the angel Gabriel, and this stage is called tanzil (Abu Zayd). Second, the process of the angel Abu Zayd argues that the Quran is described as a treatise (message) because the Quran is a message (Abu . Then, of course, there is a communication relationship between the Sender and the recipient of the message through a language code or system. However, because the Sender cannot be the object of scientific study, the entry point for scientific study is reality and culture. The reality that gave birth to human movement as the target of the text and governed the recipient of the text, namely the Prophet Muhammad. and culture in the form of grammar. what is contained in the structure of the Quran and has been manifested during the communication process between the Quran and its audience . This dimension is the dimension of Al-Qur'an discourse. The discourse dimension is a living and dynamic area; it manifests in the context of everyday life so that it is not only conveyed in Arabic, which only focuses on the place where the revelation was sent down, but also has an influence on the thinking and culture of the recipient. It can be seen in how the Qur'an enters and influences everyday human life. Abu Zayd mentions in his writing "the Qur'an in Everyday Life" that the Quran greatly influences Muslims (Abu Zayd 2000). Abu Zayd sees this in the implementation of the pillars of Islam, zakat as the concern of Muslims towards social conditions, the area of Islamic philanthropy, rules regarding food and drink, the nature of women, the language of communication used daily, and so on which are found in the spiritual life of Muslims. Departing from that thought, Abu Zayd began studying the text of the Quran by placing the Quran as a cultural product of muntaj al-tsaqāfat, as well as producing a culture of muntij li al-tsaqāfat. It can be proven historically to have occurred in two phases, the first is the openness phase (marhalah al-tasyakkul) in more than 20 years when the Qur'an formed itself structurally in the underlying cultural system, and the second is the phase of forming a new culture, namely when the text of the Quran forms and rebuilds its cultural system.

Al-Quran as Muntaj and Muntij Tsaqafi
In his basic view, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd said that the nature of the Quran is a language text (nash lughawi), a cultural product (muntaj tsaqafi), and a historical text (nash Tarikhi) (Abu Zayd 1990). Some researchers emphasize that Yusuf Rahman, for example, said that Abu Zayd's statement was since the text of the Quran appeared together with a cultural structure in which there was a central signifying system (Rahman n.d.). Even though the text's origin is from a holy divine source, it cannot be separated from the bounds of space, time, and certain social-historical conditions. From there, the Quran is a product of culture because it interacts with humans as cultural actors, and at the same time, the Quran is also a cultural producer because it presents a new culture. The new culture can be completely new that has never been found before, or the tradition is new through changes to old traditions that have been changed and modified.
To strengthen his theory of the Quran as a cultural product (muntaj al-tsaqāfah) and, simultaneously, a maker of a new culture (muntij li al-tsaqāfah) in the two phases above, he applies a semiotic study of the Quran (Abu Zayd 2004). According to him, an accurate text is a text that can free itself from the bonds and shackles of the initial context in which it was produced; according to Abu Zayd, an accurate text can bring out its vitality, apart from norms from outside it. Text, on the one hand, is an object in the form of a cultural product where it is born and joined in, and on the other hand, it is also a subject that changes the socio-cultural system itself.
Text enters the level of "semiotics" when it becomes a subject that can carry out transformations and changes at a new structural level. Therefore, Abu Zayd sees that the power of the text of the Qur'an as a miracle (i'jāz al-Qur'ān) is not to be returned to its divine source because, indeed, from the beginning, the source was extraordinary; more precisely, the mu'jizatan side of the Qur'an lies in the privilege of its literature which far surpasses other texts and brings extraordinary changes to the form of civilization. authority, and power except for the epistemological area (as-sultah al-ma'rifiyyah) (Abu Zayd 1990), namely the text's authority only as a text to be applied at a certain epistemological level. Every text can bring out its new epistemological side, departing from the assumption that it renews the texts that make it new. However, the authority of this text does not change and metamorphose into cultural-sociological authority unless it is carried by certain groups that carry it with an ideological framework.
Therefore, Abu Zayd voiced efforts to liberate from the power of the text (tahrīr min sultah al-nusus); he called for an effort to understand, analyze, and interpret texts objectively and authoritatively. The point is a scientific interpretation based on language studies without getting stuck in text authoritarianism. Authoritarian interpretation (interpretative despotism) occurs when the reading model has tendentious, ideological, and political nuances (al-qirā'ah al-mugridah).

Conclusion
Discussing a thinker like Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd must start with who Abu Zayd was, how the political situation influenced his thinking, and from what point of view he studied religion. Abu Zayd is not in the mood to see Islamic studies as mere theological studies.
However, Abu Zayd sees it deeper from the point of view of objective social facts. The model of religious studies that Abu Zayd is studying is a form of effort to advance Islamic studies, which were initially known to be backward. It was motivated by the social conditions in Egypt at that time, where Abu Zayd lived.
One of the results of Abu Zayd's thoughts departing from this way of thinking is regarding the Quran. Abu Zayd sees the Quran as a cultural product as well as a cultural producer. It is again important to emphasize that Abu Zayd's argument departs from the point of view of religious studies, which are objective and historical, not theological. Thus, according to Abu Zayd, a vital research task, today is a critical and analytical study by returning religious texts to their original context in which the text was born as a product of human history. In this way, the central core of religious teachings will become known.
Abu Zayd sees the Quran as a text that communicates between God and his creatures.
God wanted to respond to the social conditions of Arab society at that time through the Quran. In this way, the Quran is present as a response to the culture and social conditions of the Arab community. Furthermore, the response of the Quran to Arab social conditions sometimes comes in the form of a complete abolition of old traditions or a slight change in the