KONTROVERSI ASḤĀB AL-QARYAT DALAM SURAH YĀSĪN

Abstract

This article examines the controversy of Asḥāb al-Qaryat (Residents of the land) in the Yāsīn surah. Asḥāb al-Qaryat is one of the stories told by al-Qur ʻan, but his name has been changed. A polemic arised among exegeses about the name of the country referred to in this Yāsīn surah. Some exegeses including al-Ṭabari mentioned that the country in question was Anṭākiyah (Antioch, including the territory of Turkey). While other exegeses rejected this opinion, Ibn Kathīr for example, with the arguments he built, critically rejected al-Ṭabarī's opinion above. The polemic of these two commentators is very important to be studied considering that the books they wrote are both included in the category of bi al-ma'thūr tafsir, namely interpretations built on the narrations of the Prophet Muhammad, his companions, and tābi'īn. This article concludes that in interpreting Asḥāb al-Qaryat, al-Ṭabari tends to be textual by using the israiliyyat narrative text while Ibn Kathīr rejected it by holding on to the context of verse 15 of Surah Yāsīn and based on historical evidence. Keywords: Asḥāb al-Qaryat, Mubhamāt al-Qur'ān, al-Ṭabarī, and Ibn Kathīr