Quranic Perspective on Multiculturalism

This article expresses how the Qur’an responds to the reality of cultural society by examining the multiculturalism aspects within the revelations. This study applied a thematic interpretation method through four steps: a description of the themes, data compilation, data organization, and data analysis. The compiled data were the verses of the Qur’an, asbāb al - nuzul and hadiths related to the theme. The data were organized by sorting the verses of the Qur’an based on their revelations and classifying them b ased on makkī madanī and munāsaba themes. Data analysis was carried out through three patterns. First, the verses were correlated with asbāb al - nuzūl , makkī madanī and munāsaba to obtain the revelation sequence. Second, understanding each verse was performed by correlating and comparing it to other verses. Third, the results were linked with the concept of multiculturalism as previously described. The analysis revealed that multiculturalism in the Islamic perspective is based on ten verses of the Qur’an, em phasizing the paradigm that humans are equal despite the differences. The paradigm of equality encourages people to agree on universal principles, standards of goodness and justice in the midst of society, as well as tolerance and manners in public places to realize peace ultimately.


Introduction
Earth is inhabited by 7.7 billion people 1 of various colors, ethnicities, languages and religions. This diversity has a positive potential where every race or tribe can complement each other and work together to build a better world. However, diversity also has a negative potential to exacerbate conflict between humans triggered by the goodness of the world, 7 including kindness in responding to cultural society. This model of understanding was adopted by Abduh at the beginning of the Islamic world reform movement in the 19th century. To gain the goodness of the world in an Islamic way, Abduh emphasized the importance of understanding the Qur'an with its verses using the definition of each word as it was defined at the time it was revealed. 8 Abduh's interpretation paradigm is the basic building block for thematic interpretation methods to understand the Qur'an, the holy book of Muslims. As reinforced by the Pharmawi statement, Abduh was a thematic interpretation pioneer in the modern era. 9 Apart from Abduh, Fakhrurazi, Shatibi, and Ibn Qayyim had also discussed a thematic interpretation paradigm. Farmawi and Shabu stated that the three scholars had discussed the concept of al-wihdah al-mawdu'iyyah (unity of the themes of the Qur'an) 10 which stated that a letter in the Qur'an has many themes that can be integrated into one central theme so that the understanding of the Qur'an becomes systematic and integrative. Furthermore, Abduh added a method to sharpen understanding of a theme by compiling and observing other verses that describe the theme. 11 This method will lead researchers to a generic understanding of the verses of the Qur'an. Consequently, this understanding must also be correlated with social science to respond to current issues, including multiculturalism. 12 The above descriptions became the argument for using the thematic interpretation method in observing the view of the Qur'an on multiculturalism. This research was not aimed at changing the concept of multiculturalism as an understanding in social science. Instead, it revealed how the Qur'an responds to the reality of cultural society by understanding the main themes of multiculturalism referred to as the Qur'an. This study also compared the concepts in the Qur'an with the concepts of multiculturalism.

The Description of Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism emerged in Canada in the early 1970s. Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau officially proclaimed Canada's multiculturalism policy on October 8, 1971, in the House of Commons. He said no official (Canadian) culture, nor does any ethnic group take precedence over any other. No citizen or group of citizens is other than Canadian, and all should be treated fairly. 13 This statement confirmed that Canada adopted multiculturalism in managing a multicultural society despite Quebec's rejection of its interculturalism. 14 Le Petit Robert noted that multiculturalism was first used in France in 1971. 15  The historical explanation can act as a basis for the interpretation that multiculturalism means acknowledging cultural pluralism and promoting a political climate in which the maintenance of diversity is supported. 21 The cultural pluralism and the promotion of a political climate in multiculturalism would bring out two tensions, a will to difference and a will to sameness (equity, equality, fairness) simultaneously. 22 A will to difference aims to issue the diversity of multicultural society, usually brought about by immigration. 23 A will to sameness is crucial to be a stable, cohesive, vibrant society and at ease with itself. 24 Political and economic stability stemmed from multiculturalism will ultimately push forward the progress of The concept of advancing society becomes a post-reform Islamic paradigm. The Islamic paradigm, as mentioned by Ignaz, refers to Ibn Taymiya Purification, Ghazali Etic, and Pro-science. 25 Abduh, as a reformist figure in the Islamic world with his three paradigms, is said to be Martin Luther from the east. In relation, there are similarities between the renewal in the Islamic world and the Christian world by Martin Luther.
Renewal in the Christian world raises the work ethic protestant, while in the Islamic world, it raises the Islamic work ethic. In Indonesia, Islamic work ethics is vibrant in the Muhammadiyah business movement inspired by the thoughts of Abduh. 26 The Islamic renewal paradigm accepts multicultural society as a difference that must be appropriately addressed. The pro-science (natural and social science) paradigm directs this group to integrate various concepts of knowledge grounded from facts with the knowledge extracted from the verses of the Qur'an. The method of interpretation that accommodates these interests is the thematic interpretation. The

Compilation and Organization of Data
First, the verse about the paradigm of equality and social diversity.  Next, the munāsabah data from the ten verses were presented to find relevant information. To find these munasabah, researchers referred to the grouping of verse themes before and after them in the Qur'an translated by the Indonesian Ministry of Religion. The Ministry of Religion had gathered Qur'an experts to translate it, accompanied by themes to each group of verses. The themes made it easier for researchers to study the munāsabah of a verse with the verse before and after it in a surah. Besides, researchers can also refer to Naḥwa Al-Tafsīr Al-Mawḍū'ī by Muhammad Ghazali, which explicitly used ilm munāsabah to analyze the Qur'an themes.

No Code Surah's Themes Themes of Previous and Next Verses
Muslims is also something expected (verse 7).
The incident of Asma' (Muslim) and her mother (musyrik) is an example. The Prophet

Data Analysis
Data analysis was carried out through three patterns. First, the verses data were correlated with asbāb al-nuzūl, makkī madanī and munāsaba, so that the sequence of revelations in the ten verses was obtained. Second, understanding each verse data was conducted by correlating and comparing them with other verses' data.
The second pattern is similar to the application of grounded research and inductive in nature to infer theories or concepts based on data through constant comparisons 50 .
The grounded research model in Islamic studies was proposed by Dawam Rahardjo, but Muslim researchers have not yet applied it 51 . This research also did not fully apply grounded research because the compiled data were only literature data from the Qur'an and Hadith. Third, the analysis results were correlated with the concept of multiculturalism as described previously.
To simplify the analysis process, the ten verse revelations above were sequenced into figure 1 below, The deliberation order is not only to produce agreement from internal Muslim groups but also with non-Muslim groups. QS. Al-An'am [6]: 151-152 teach ten universal principles that can be agreed upon by three divine religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Maraghi calls these ten universal principles as waṣāyā 'ashr 55 , while the Bible calls it the Ten Commandments. These universal principles need to be agreed upon to avoid incorrect rules, criminality, understanding that justifies any means, and others, as described in QS. Al-An'am [6]: 136-140.
This description emphasizes that cultural communities must carry out deliberations to produce good agreements and universal principles shared by all society members. The idea of the Qur'an is linear with Wieviorka's multiculturalism.
Wieviorka believes that this idea can prevent the tyranny of the majority against minority 56 and form a society stable, cohesive, vibrant and at ease with itself 57 .
After the Badr war in the second year after the hijrah, QS. Al-Insān Tolerance and manners in public should be practiced by all members of society, Muslims and non-Muslims. Deliberation and good policies from a leader are the basis for forming these principles of tolerance and manners. Such a process can undoubtedly form a society to be stable, cohesive, vibrant, and at ease with itself, as expected by Bikhu Parekh. 59 The teachings of tolerance and manners in public indicate that the differences and identities of each community in society can be appropriately managed, not eliminated as in multiculturalism. This principle is similar to interculturalism in Quebec, which produces a specific vision of nationhood, identity, 56 Wieviorka, "Is Multiculturalism The Solution?," 900. 57 Parekh,Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory,236. 58 Al-Wahidi, Asbāb al-Nuzūl Al-Qur'ān, hlm. 431-432. 59 Parekh,Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory,236. national belonging, and distant from the liberal individualism as expected by Bouchard. 60 After some time after the Badr war, the phenomenon of Asma' bint Abi Bakr and her mother, Qutaylah bint Abd Al-Uzzay occurred. Asma' refused the gift and did not allow her mother to visit her house. She did this because her mother did not embrace Islam. Rasulullah PBUH stated QS. Al-Mumtahanah [60]: 8 so that Asma' did good deeds and be fair to her mother, as well as to non-Muslims who were not hostile to and expelled Muslims from their homes, as did the people of Mecca.
Islam has a paradigm to respond to an action with an equal act. This paradigm of "equal action" is not only between Muslims and non-Muslims but also within the Muslim community itself. A Muslim who hurts others, both Muslim and non-Muslim, will be dealt with accordingly (QS. Al-Baqarah [2]: 178). This paradigm shows that legal practice in society must be based on good and fair standards and agreed with rules through deliberation to reach a consensus so that all community members receive equal treatment regarding their deeds. This system can prevent the tyranny of the majority against the minority, as concerned by Wieviorka. 61 The teaching of doing good and fair is in QS. Al-Mumtahanah [60]

Conclusions
Multiculturalism seeks to unite cultural societies to become stable, cohesive, vibrant, and far from the tyranny of the majority to minorities. Multiculturalism from an Islamic perspective is based on the paradigm that humans are equal despite the differences. This paradigm of equality encourages people to be deliberate so that they can agree on universal principles, standards of goodness and justice in the midst of society, as well as traditions of tolerance and manners in the public to realize peace.