A new Indonesian Tafsir: a truly big no 5!

In 1970 I started my PhD research about Indonesian Islam. My first idea was to write about Indonesian Tafsir of the Qur'an. But soon I realised, that I should do fieldwork and concentrate on  the readers first and leave for some time the writers, although I loved Hamka and his mosque in Kebayoran Baru. But looking to the text while in the country seemed a waste of time, as long as I could see much of the Muslim world by visiting pesantren. So, my doctoral dissertation was about the schools of the Indonesian countryside.
Still, I continued to work sometimes on Qur'anic subjects: one book on the Indonesian Interpretations of the story of Adam, one on the Qur'anic Jesus, a commentary on the longest sura, no 2, Baqarah, and one on the short chapters. Four small books: not bad, perhaps.
I used the four big commentaries: Hasbi Ash-Shiddieqy, Hamka, Departemen Agama and Quraish Shihab.

Last week I received a copy of the big project by Yunan Yusuf, a young lecturer in Jakarta in the 1980s, but now already in the midst of his sixties. As if the big five only now are coming to their final stage! Yunan started his commentary with the smaller sura: Juz 30, then going backward in the holy book, he has now arrived at juz 24. Yunan has an easy style if writing. Not so technical. Not too long in details. Not too much Arabic. This volume explains elements of the surahs 39-41, although not exactly the full surahs. This style of tafsir brings a method that is not concentrated on the sura as a literary unity, because it begins in the midst of a sura. It is explanation verse by verse or small blocs of 6-10 verses as unity. Angelika Neuwirth and her classification of the Meccan surahs is not used here, always taking a sura as a whole.
Yunan does not write for colleagues/teachers, but for pious or curious readers. His conclusions and his theological comments are in the subtitles.
He starts with one complicated verse, just still in juz 23: pages 31-33 are about sura 39:29. It is a parable of one verse only. Arberry translates: God has struck a parable: a man in whom partners disagreeing share, and a man the property of one man. Are the two equal in likeness? Praise belongs to God! Nay, but most of them do not know. This is first about a slave owned by three men: the three owners are in conflict about their property and the way they could use this slave. Another slave is owned by only one man, that is the right way. So, this world, mankind, must be seen as owned by One God alone, What if there would be three Gods ruling over mankind? nd the three quarreling about how to manage mandkind?

In the copy which Yunan sent us, he added a poem, syair, remembering our long relationship. In Ciputat we lived together, and my wife Paule tought him Dutch preparing for a study in the Netherlands (1983). We once made together a trip to Volendam, a touristic destination for many Indonesians. And last year, 2017, we met again in Utrecht. We hope to see you again in this world fi dunya and who knows, even once fi-l akhirat. But first we hope that Yunan will finish all thirty juz!