Developing A Method of Understanding Tafsir Nur Al-Ihsan Using Intertextual Reading: A Study Using The Expansion Method

Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan is the second interpretation after Tarjuman al-Mustafid written in the Malay language in the 19th century AD by Sheikh Muhammad Sa’id ibn Umar. The main objective of this study is to identify the influence of the external source in the text of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan. This study is important because it can unravel the reference works used by Sheikh Muhammad Said ibn Umar when producing Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan. This disclosure can also strengthen the work and continue to be a guide and reference for the community in understanding the contents of the Qur'an. When conducting research, the researchers applied the method of library research by using the intertextual reading methodology. This research focuses on the application of the Expansion method which is one of the approaches in intertextual reading when analyzing the text of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan. The research design used is documentation and fieldwork using the subjective approach that employs descriptive and qualitative data. The study reveals that there are nine (9) works which have influenced the essence of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan which are Tafsir al-Jalalyn, Tafsir al-Jamal, Tafsir al-Baydawi, Tafsir al-Khazin, Tafsir al-Baghawi, Tafsir al-Tabari, Tafsir al-Qurtubi, Tafsir al-Razi, and Tafsir al-Nasafi. The finding analysis also reveals that Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan is mostly influenced by Tafsir al-Jalalyn. Referring to the further study of this work, researchers are recommended to examine the text of the verses of the Qur'an, the use of punctuation, and the author's thoughts found in this Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan.


Introduction
The writings of Islamic works and translations into the Malay language have grown tremendously since the coming of Islam to Nusantara regions (Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, and Indonesia), which have covered various fields and branches of knowledge such as fiqh, aqidah, tafsir, hadith, and Sufism, among others. The writings and translations by previous Islamic scholars have remained as important sources of reference and are still used by contemporary scholars for academic purposes. It shows the success of previous Islamic scholars who produced writings that have not only attracted the interest of the public but also have benefited them. One of the Islamic scholars was Haji Muhammad Sa'id bin Omar Qadi Jitra al-Qadhi who produced a book in the field of Tafsir in the Malay language entitled Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan.
Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan has been a reference in understanding Qur'anic verses not only by the public but also by contemporary scholars who have used it as teaching material. This invaluable piece of work has given a contribution to the knowledge of the public at large so much so that scholars are attracted to study and examine this work from various aspects such as history, language, the influence, and stature of the author.
Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan is also one of the books on Tafsir al-Qur'an, which is still being used as teaching material and reference today, especially at Pondok institutions, mosques, and musollas. Pondok institutions such as Pondok Tuan Guru Haji Bakar at Kedah, Malaysia and Pondok Tuan Guru Haji Salleh Musa at Kedah, Malaysia have been using the book as the teaching material for their weekly teaching. However, there have been criticisms of the content of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan by certain sections of the public. Some of them opined that this book has its shortcomings because, in the writing of this book, the author does not mention any citation and uses many unjustified opinions in his tafsir (Zaim, 2010), so much so that the public should be careful when reading Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan (Taib, 2003).
Since Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan has been used as teaching material in the Tafsir al-Qur'an and a reference by the public at large in understanding verses of al-Qur'an, then efforts to refine this piece of work should be made. This study is one of the efforts which attempts to refine sources of reference and interconnections between the original text and other Tafsir texts using intertextual reading. This will answer the aforementioned problem statement. The objective of this study is to examine Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan to examine whether there exists the influence of other texts on the text of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan using intertextual reading. This study focuses on the application of the Expansion method on the text of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan as an early effort towards the refinement of the text which contributes to improving the invaluable work. Since the author of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan mentioned that he referred to works in the field of Tafsir while writing (Sa'id, 1970), this study focuses only on Tafsir works. From the perspective of methodology, this study employs library research and field study using a subjective approach to examine data descriptively and qualitatively.

Intertextual Reading Method
One The intertextual reading method was originally known as dialogic which was introduced by Bakhtin in the year 1926 because there was voluminous Russian art literature that was difficult to comprehend at that time. As a consequence, this theory was introduced by Bakhtin to facilitate readers to understand the difficult literature. This theory considered that all literature that was written was based on dialogues between one text and another. In other words, this theory states that any text is influenced by other texts. This is supported by Harari (1979), who mentioned that "every text, being itself the intertext of another text, belong to the intertextual, which must not be confused with a text's origins".
The basis of this dialogic theory is used to understand Dostoevsky's literature such as The Gambler, The Idiot, and The Brother's Karamazov which were considered as difficult to be understood by the public using theories of literature such as formalism which were dominant during that time (Dostoyevsky, 1967). The Russian formalism approach which was on the rise during that time did not help the public to understand the approach of Dostoevsky's literature. Bakhtin's dialogism emphasized external aspects which influenced reading or how an author approached art literature and in turn would flow naturally into his literature writing. However, Bakhtin did not deny the importance of internal elements such as theme, thought, plot, characters, and other elements.
In the theory of dialogism, an author would have a dialogue with the text itself, himself, and readers. This would create dialogues between a text and another text and as a consequence, it would trigger changes, conflicts, and expansion in the literature which was being written by the author in terms of theme and problems, plot or characters, and characterization. Therefore, the relationship between external and internal structures in literature is important in this approach. According to Schmitz (2007), sentences used by someone in speech or writing interconnects among them and if there is no dependency among them, then any sentence or speech becomes gloomy and inexpendable. Schmitz (2007) mentioned; "Language always works within certain situations, and utterances produce their significance within this context. The linguistic material alone is not enough to determine whether a word or a sound is enthusiastic, gloomy, ironical, threatening, or deferential; rather, this depends on several factors such as intonation, volume, the interlocutor, and prior utterances in the dialogue" (Schmitz, 2007).
This theory was later discussed by Kristeva (1980) in her Ph.D. thesis entitled La revolution du Langage Poetique in 1970. However, Kristeva did not name this theory as dialogic, instead, she termed it as intertextuality. Hawthorn (2000) mentioned that every text which was written was influenced by other texts and this influence was discussed in intertextual theory. Therefore, readers should not be confused with the original text which is the hipogram of a given text. Hawthorn (2000) stated that "Kristeva defines the text as a permutation of texts, an intertext in the space of a given text...".
The development of this theory not only have taken place in Europe but also in the whole world. In Southeast Asia, it has been discussed as one of the modern literary theories in which one scholar in the field of literature named Sardjono (1986) has developed this theory. He has not only stood on the principles of Kristeva but has also introduced another principle termed excerpts. This principle applies when a text is incarnated in another text in an abstract form. Subsequently, there was the birth of new names in Indonesia such as Teeuw and Umar. Meanwhile, in Malaysia and Singapore, it became known after Abdul Rahman Napiah discussed it in several books, particularly in his Ph.D. thesis entitled "Tuah Jebat in Malay Drama: A Study of Intertextuality", in 1989. In this thesis, he not only discussed this theory at length but also applied it to the book entitled Hikayat Hang Tuah.
Upon examination of the book entitled Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art by Kristeva (1980) and Kakawin Gajah Mada by Sardjono (1986), 10 intertextual principles have often appeared in literature and manifestation reflected in a person's style of writing, namely transformation, modification, expansion, demitefication, haplology, excerpt, parallel, conversion, existence, and defamiliarization. Each of these principles does not have to appear separately in a certain work, which means that some of them could appear simultaneously. For example, when a particular text goes through a transformation process, it could also pass through a modification process, expansion, or any other intertextual principles at the same time.

Application Of Expansion Method In Tafsir Nur Al-Ihsan
This article looks at only one angle from the aspect of applying the form of the intertextual method, namely the application of the expansion method. In Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan, there are five debates discussed by Sheikh Muhammad Sa'id including The Contexts and Occasions of the Revelation of the Qur'an, hadiths, the stories of isra'iliyyat, The Abrogating and Abrogated Verses in the Qur'an (Nasikh and Mansukh) and The Text about Advantages (Fadhilat). However, the discussion did not include the source of the intake. Such a thing causes the author's interpretation to be disputed by some scholars, especially on explanations that are apparently contrary to reason and sharia. However, the results of the research that has been done found that the discussion is sourced from the works of muktabar such as Tafsir al-Jalalyn, Tafsir al-Baydawi and Tafsir al-Qurtubi which is indeed certified in its interpretation value (al-Dhahabi, 2005).
Expansion is one of the methods listed in the intertextual principles used to identify the source of the original text used by the author before it is detailed. This method occurs when the author of work expands and details the description or even the meaning of a text from the original work referred to in the text being written. This is because the author has been influenced by his reading material and then he moved the text read into his text in addition to making some additions. The expansion method is always applied by most authors and it is also one of the dominant methods that influence the writing of a work. It is described as a method that will be applied in any work even if the author is not aware of it at all. The thesis produced is influenced by previous studies, as well as articles, newspapers, books and even novels that will be influenced by the existing writing, even the addition of sentences will occur when the author wants to detail information from the text that has been read.
Following the study of the work of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan, this method can strengthen the reader's confidence in the interpretation made by Sheikh Muhammad Sa'id after the original source referred to by him was identified, even elevating the status of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan comparable to the works of muktabar others such as Tafsir al-Jalalyn and Tafsir al-Baydawi. An example of the application of this method can be seen through the writings of Sheikh Muhammad Sa'id in Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan, namely (Sa'id, 1970): "The Jews say to all Muslims: we are the people of the Book before you and our qibla first and there are no prophets' from the Arabs and if there is a true Muhammad there must be it from our nation, then come down…".
While the text from Tafsir al-Baydawi which is the original work referred to: ‫روي‬ ‫لت‬ ‫ز‬ ‫ز‬ ‫فن‬ . ‫منا‬ ‫لكنت‬ ً ‫نبيا‬ ‫كنت‬ ‫لو‬ ، ‫منا‬ ‫كلهم‬ ‫األنبياء‬ : ‫قالوا‬ ‫الكتاب‬ ‫أهل‬ ‫أن‬ Both texts explain the reason for the revelation of the 139th verse of surah al-Baqarah where the Jews have claimed that their nation is ahead of the Arabs in matters of religion. They claim that if the Prophet Muhammad SAW was the true Prophet, of course, he came from their nation. After examining both texts it was found that the text of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan is more detailed in terms of its description than the text of Tafsir al-Baydawi. Even so, both texts express the same information and meaning. The application of the expansion method occurs in the text of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan because the author explains that the people who claim to be such are Jews and the allegation is aimed at Muslims. On the other hand, the text of Tafsir al-Baydawi does not state this. Through this method, readers can not only detect the relationship between the two texts, but also increase their understanding of the interpretation of the sentences that have been made, and even obtain additional information detailed by the author. Therefore, the application of expansion methods in conducting this research is important to identify the original source of a text in the text of Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan and additional comments made by the author.

Table1
The Tafsir al-Razi also four times (3.8%) and Tafsir al-Nasafi two times (1.9%). Therefore, the text which has the most influence on Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan using the expansion method is Tafsir al-Jalalyn.

Conclusion
Based on this study, it could be concluded that the intertextual approach has its method. This method combines processing, construction, and digestion of the two aspects which are internal and external aspects of the construction of a piece of work. The internal aspect is observed when the authors set the style of interpretation (tafsir) according to their aspirations, while the external aspect is when there exist external works which affect the written text. Tafsir Nur al-Ihsan is a tafsir which was written by Sa'id (1970). This work has received widespread acceptance not only in Malaysia but also in Egypt and Thailand on par with other contemporary tafsir. What is interesting about this work is its brief presentation style even understandable by the laymen and is also loaded with various knowledge. His easy style meets the needs of all levels of society and is suitable for use by modern civil society such as Malaysia.