Google Trend Analysis on the Discussion of Thematic Commentary in
Indonesia
Miftah Khilmi Hidayatulloh
1
1
Departement of TafsirHadis, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Ahmad Dahlan University, Yogyakarta
Keywords: Thematic Commentary, Google Trend, Google Keyword Planner
Abstract: Thematic commentary is one of the Quran interpretation methods that is widely researched by Quran
researchers in Indonesia. Bidayah fi Al-Tafsir Al-Mawdhu'i which elaborates the details of this method was
translated in September 1994 by RajaGrafindo Persada. Then, this method is known and discussed in
Indonesia. This Research analyzes how the interest of Quran researchers in the thematic commentary is, and
how if this method is compared to the other three methods: tahll, ijmli and muqran. The problem is
analyzed using Google Trend assisted by Google Keyword planner. Researcher found that the average trend
in thematic commentary is not that great. However, the interest in thematic commentary is greater than the
other three method.
1 INTRODUCTION
Thematic commentary ( ) is one of the
Quranic interpretation methods. Those methods are
thematic (), tahlīlī(), ijmālī(), and
muqāran() (Farmawi, 1996, p. 11). Thematic
commentary is mentioned in a book entitled Al-
Bidāyah fi al-Tafsīr Al-Mawdhū'ī written by Abdul
Hay Farmawi. However, Farmawi said that the first
man constructing this method is Ahmad Sayyid Al-
Kumi (Farmawi, 1996, p. 45). The thought of Al-
Kumi can be read in his book with the title “Tafsīr Al-
Mawdhū’ī li Al-Qur’ān Al-Karīm(
)” written by Al-Kumi and Muhammad
Ahmad Yusuf Al-Qasim–Head of the Tafsir
Department at the Ushuluddin Faculty of Al-Azhar
University, Egypt.
Thematic commentary is a method of Quran
interpretation that focuses on the theme contained in
the verse or surah of Quran. Therefore, this method is
really close to some parts of the Qur'anic Sciences,
especially those related to historical studies and
munasaba. Those historical studies are Asbāb Al-
Nuzūl, MakkiMadani and Tartīb Al-Nuzūl. The
character of this method is to understand what the
theme (purpose) of the verse or surah when it is
revealed. So it is necessary to understand as clear as
possible—through the three parts of the Quranic
sciences above—the situations and conditions of the
verse or surah when talking about it. The theme can
also be discovered through the order of the verses.
That is known as munasaba.
The understanding that is based on the history of
the revelation is considered as the truth of Quran.
Then, this understanding is brought to deal with
various contemporary problems. That is possible
because Quran has universal contents that remains
relevant for human being in every period. The period
includes the time of the Prophet Muhammad, his
companions, and this contemporary era.
This method does not try to take marj
ūh and
leave rājih or what is termed takwīl. Takwīl is part of
ilm Al-Quran that is related to the theology in Islam.
At the first time,takwīl had the same meaning as
tafsīr. It could be seen from what Al-Tabari often
wrote on his quranic interpretation book, Al-Jāmi’ Al-
BayānfīTa’wīlAyy Al-Qur’ān. When he wanted to
explain a verse, he said, “takwīl of this verse”.
The understanding that is based on the history of
the revelation is considered as the truth of Quran.
Then, this understanding is brought to deal with
various contemporary problems. That is possible
because Quran has universal contents that remains
relevant for human being in every period. The period
includes the time of the Prophet Muhammad, his
companions, and this contemporary era.
This method does not try to take marjūh and leave
rājih or what is termed takwīl. Takwīl is part of ilm
2304
Hidayatulloh, M.
Google Trend Analysis on the Discussion of Thematic Commentary in Indonesia.
DOI: 10.5220/0009942123042310
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Recent Innovations (ICRI 2018), pages 2304-2310
ISBN: 978-989-758-458-9
Copyright
c
2020 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
Al-Quran that is related to the theology in Islam. At
the first time,takwīl had the same meaning as tafsīr. It
could be seen from what Al-Tabari often wrote on his
quranic interpretation book, Al-Jāmi’ Al-
BayānfīTa’wīlAyy Al-Qur’ān. When he wanted to
explain a verse, he said, “takwīl of this verse”.
The meaning ofTakwīl has changed since the
period of muta’akhirīn(Qattan, 2000, p. 337). The
meaning of takwil is different from tafsīr. Takwīl
means to take marjūh and leave rajih. It can be found
in the word “” Surah El Fath: 10 which has
rājihmeaning as “hand”, that is interpreted with
ta’wīl, so it has a meaning as “power”. This kind of
meaning develops in asy'ariyah tradition.
Al-Azhar scholars have also been developing
thematic commentary method. Those scholars are
Mahmud Syaltut, Ahmad Sayyid Al-Kumi, Abdul
SattarFathulLahSa'id, Abdul Hay Al-Farmawi and
Mushatafa Muslim, etc. Thematic commentary that is
brought by the figures above has similar character.
However, this method has been growing since the
beginning of the discourse by Mahmud Syaltut until
that by Mushatafa Muslim.
Researcher obtains the details of thematic
commentary when this method was applied. First, the
researcher had to gather verses related to the theme.
Then, he sorted the verse based on the revelation of
the verse including the classification of makki and
madani. The next step was exploring asbāb al-nuzūl
for each verse to assist researcher in finding the theme
of the verse. Researcher could also use munasaba as
additional step of the method to find the theme of the
verse. Munasaba is the interpretation of Quranic
verse based on the location of the verse in the Quran.
The application of munasabacan be done by looking
at the theme of verse before and after.
Those steps helped finding the universal
understanding of Quran. For example, MiftahKhilmi
H. had researched jihad in Quran using thematic
commentary method with the title Al-
JihādwaTathbīqātuhu Al-Mutanawwi'ah fi Hayāh Al-
Shahābah (DirāsahQur'āniyahMawdhū'iyyah). This
research tells that jihad is different with war. War in
Islam had just been allowed after the revelation of
Q.S. Al Hajj: 39. The background of this order is the
oppression from the leaders of Quraisy who hostiled
Islam and Moslem. It means, jihādin the ayah of
Quran revealed before Q.S. Al Hajj: 39 had another
meaning. For example, IbnTaimiya interprets
jihad in
Q.S. Al-Furqan: 132 not as a war, but it had meaning
jihad in ilm, qalb, bayān and da’wah (Hidayatulloh,
2017).
2 THE GROWTH OF THEMATIC
COMMENTARY
The term thematic commentary has not been
explicitly mentioned except by Al-Kumi(Farmawi,
1996, p. 45). At first, the discourse about tafsīr al-
Qur’ān bi al-Qur’ānappeared. Its appearance was
long time ago. IbnTaimiyah (728 H) called it as the
best method to interpret Quran (Thayyar, 1428, p.
271) because the argument is in the verse not in Ra'yu
(mind) (Kumi&Qasim, 1982, p. 8). IbnTaimiyah used
that method in various writings about tafsīr. Al-
Qaysi's had made up the work of IbnTaimayah about
tafsir in his dissertation. IbnTaimiyah interpreted the
verses in the Quran with Quran itself and Hadith. The
interpretation of this model is known as the
tafsīrbilma'tsūr (Qays, 1428).
The Quran interpretation with the Quran itself
continued to grow until Mahmud Syaltut offered this
method with other formulas. It discovered the
solution for contemporary problem by collecting
verses of the Quran that disscussed about the theme.
The problem will be undestood comprehensively by
the Quran. According to Mahmud Syaltut, this is the
ideal method (Kumi&Qasim, 1982, p. 18) as well as
the new one to interpret the Quran.
The important reasons related to the urgency of
the Quranic interpretation with the Quran itself is the
idea of MuqatilibnSulayman which became known as
the science of al-wujūhwa al-nadzā'ir. This science
discusses that each of the similar words in different
verses has different meaning, either little or a lot. So
the verses have to be collected to be analyzed one by
one so that the detail meaning of the word will be
found (Muslim, 2000, p. 20).
Tafsīr Al-Qur’ān bi Al-Qur’āngained concern
from the supporters of Thematic commentary. Al-
Kumi, a lecturer in the Al-Qur'an department, began
to discuss his thesis. Then Al-Kumi wrote a book on
Thematic commentary as the dictate of Thematic
commentary subject in the Department of Al-Qur'an,
Faculty of Ushuluddin, Al-Azhar University. The
writing was assisted by Al-Qasim who was the head
of the department at that time. Al-Kumi wrote this
book starting from pages 3 to 44 and 65 to 79, while
Al-Qasim wrote from pages 45 to 64 and 80 until the
end of the book.
FathullahSa'id, also wrote a work on Thematic
commentary method. His work entitled Al-
MadkhalIla Al-Tafsir Al-Mawdhū'ī. FathullahSa'id
developed this method. He classified the steps to
apply Thematic commentary into (1) ijmāl (global);
and (2) tafshīl (detailed) (Sa'id, 1981).
Google Trend Analysis on the Discussion of Thematic Commentary in Indonesia
2305
Then, thematic commentary method spreaded out
from Egypt to Arab Gulf Countries by an Azhari
named Mushafa Muslim. He has a work related to this
methodology with the title MabāhitsfīTafsīr Al-
Mawdhū’ī. When he was a lecturer at Syariqah
University in the United Arab Emirates, he guided a
group of Thematic Interpreters to write seven
volumes with the title Al-Tafsīr Al-Mawdhū’ī Li
Suwar Al-Karīm. Now, he is the rector Al-Zuhara
University in Turkey.
3 GOOGLE TRENDS
Google Trends is one of the google products. Google
is a large company founded by two Ph.D students
named Lary Page and Sergey Brin. In 2004, Google
launched Google Trends. Google used this product to
give service to google users to observe the trend of
keywords. However, before 2006, the data on Google
Trend wes not up to date. In 2006, Google Trend data
was finnaly updated. Even in some countries it was
updated every hour.
This service is very useful, especially for
professionals who has big interest in information
about updated trends such as businessmen, public
officials, senator, and consultants. Even bloggers also
need it to determine good keywords for his blog.
Google trend can show keyword trend of the
world, the country and even the region at certain time.
The compared keywords are at most five topics at the
same time. It is very useful to compare between
topics. So that it can be recognized which of the topics
is the hit in the area. This information can be used as
a data for various purposes, including academic
needs.
Google Trend picks up trend data from Google
search engines. The most-searched keywords by
visitors are stored by Google and become the basis to
determine the trend. Google has its own algorithm to
do this. Here are some working mechanism of Google
Trend: (1) Number 0 shows the minimum search
value compared to other searches. (2) Google will not
calculate the same keywords by the same IP address
in the near searching time. (3) Google will count one
keyword that has the same or exact topic. For
example, the word "thematic commentary", Google
will also consider the keyword "thematic commentary
research" as a same search. (4) Data facilities
provided by Google for each country are different. (5)
Google will update the data trends per week. (6) Data
owned by Google Trend is the data since 2004. (7)
Google scales data trend between 0-100 (Google,
2018b).
Google Trend can be opened in URL page
https://trends.google.co.id/trends. In this page,
visitors can write the topics they want to observe for
its trend. If visitors want to see more than a topic, they
can write it by clicking "compare". Comparisons can
be done up to 5 keywords. Fewer words have greater
result than detail keyword. For example, the trend of
the word “thematic” is greater than “thematic
commentary”. The same goes for the “thematic
commentary” trend greater than the "thematic
commentary research". This is because the fewer
words has wider probability.
Observation of the trend can be downloaded with
the extension .csv. Therefore, researcher can watch
more detailed data from that file. Researchers can also
share this file through several social media accounts.
These facilities make it easy for researchers to store
and share their observations with other research
colleagues.
In the section between topics and image data there
are several choices “country, time of observation,
category and type of search”. Researcher can use
these features to get the appropriate data he wishes.
So, when researcher wants to observe the trend of the
words “thematic commentary”, he can choose region
of the trend, for example: Indonesia or other regions
of the world. This is necessary thing because the
search for thematic commentary is possible not only
in Indonesia. Similarly, the search uses the keyword
“ ”. Researchers can compare the
search in Egypt, Saudi Arabia even in the world. This
feature can help researcher to observe which nation
does more searches using the keyword “
”.
Google trend is based on the trend data collected
from the searching data in Google search engine at a
particular time and region. This service can help
researcher to uncover the behavior of netters.
However, Google claims that this service can also
reveal people's behavior in the region through the data
presented by Google Trend. Therefore, it can be said
that research based on Google Trend is factual
research.
4 THEMATIC COMMENTARY
ON GOOGLE TREND
Data on Google Trend that is collected by the
researcher was started from January 1, 2008 to
December 31, 2017. Researcher determines ten
ICRI 2018 - International Conference Recent Innovation
2306
year—up to one decade—to obtain significant trend
because the number of searchers of this keyword are
limited. A long period of time is also expected to add
the validity of the research data.
Before entering the discussion on thematic
commentary specifically, researcher compared
“tafsirtematik” with other keywords related to
interpretive methods of Quran. (see Graph 1).
Worldwide data shows that the highest interest based
on the month was in November 2009. Google Trend
data shows the number of 100 for the interest in
searching the word "tafsirtematik". It means that the
word "tafsirtematik" has the highest trend in the range
of time than the other keywords. It was happened in
November 2009. However, "tafsirtahlili" is also quite
popular with the search number of 60. While the
average of that keywords based on the search interest
in one decade is occupied by "tafsirtematik" with total
number of 39, "tafsirtahlili" for 32, "tafsirijmali" for
18 and "tafsirmuqaran" for 0 total number. The
number of 0 shows that the interest in searching for
this keyword is far compared to the other keywords
(Google, 2018b). So, it is not comparable.
Comparisons among four methods can also be
seen in Indonesian region. However, the most
desirable method among those four methods is the
keyword “tafsirtematik”. In January 2010 the
keyword "tafsirtematik" gained 100 score. It means
that the keyword “tafsirtematik” is the top trend in a
decade period, in Indonesia. While, the peak interest
in the keyword of “tafsirtahlili” just reached 57 score
in April 2008 (Graph 2).Furthermore, this study
focuses on the keyword “tafsirtematik”. The interest
in keyword “tafsirtematik” has gradually increased.
The increase of this keyword from 2008 to 2017 is as
follow:
Year
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Trend 12 22 22 24 22 19 22 26 34 39
* Worlwide "tafsirtematik" data.
The development of keyword "tafsirtematik" in
the decade experienced a significant decline in 2013.
However, the interest of this keyword significantly
increased in 2017 with the highest score of 39.
The above data is gained from all over the world.
If the data region is changed to Indonesia, the
difference data is presented (Graphs 3 and 4). In
detail, the data can be seen in the following table:
Year
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Trend 15 20 30 12 9 9 6 7 8 9
* Data of keyword “tafsirtematik" in Indonesia.
The interest in keyword “tafsirtematik” in
Indonesia has no high trend. The climax trend
emerged in 2010 with the average trend of 30.
However, the trend of this keyword dropped. The
lowest trend occured in 2014 with the score of 6. Then
it increased uup to 9 in 2017. Of course, this score
was far than the trend of “tafsirtematik” in 2010.
5 TREND NUMBER
PREDICTION
Google Trend does not provide data on the total
number of searchers, but only provides score data on
a scale of 0-100. It is difficult for researchers who
want to know more about the total number of
searches. Therefore, Google provided a Google
Keyword Planner page which mentions the average
search volume per month of a keyword (Google,
2018a).
The average volume of “tafsirtematik” keyword
as mentioned in the Google Keyword Planner on
Friday, August 17, 2018 at 6:36 a.m. is between 100-
1000 searches per month. It can be concluded, that the
trend score of 100 is equal to 1000 searches, and trend
score of 50 is equal to 500 searches. Indeed, Google
does not provide more detail data about searchers of
some keywords. However, at least the researcher has
an initial description of the total search data for
keyword “tafsirtematik”.
When data from Google Trends are combined
with data from Google Keyword Planner, the most
searched data was obtained in January 2010 with
1000 searches. On the other hand, the average
searches from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2017
(10 years) were only 126 searches. The highest search
average happened in 2010 with the value of 301
searchers. The search average per year can be seen as
follows:
Year
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Avg. 153 204 301 115 85 91 63 70 83 93
6 CONCLUSION
The research discovers that average trend of keyword
“tafsirtematik” in Indonesia is not really great. That
statement is based on the average search using this
keyword which only reaches 126 searches in 10 years.
Furthermore, maximum search reaches 1000, that
occured once in January 2010.
Google Trend Analysis on the Discussion of Thematic Commentary in Indonesia
2307
Although the average trend of keyword
“tafsirtematik” is not so great, it does not eliminate its
urgency because this keyword has greater trend than
the other three methods (tahlili, ijmali and muqaran)
based on Google Trend data spanning for 10 years, 1
January 2008 to 31 December 2017. The keyword
“tafsirtematik” become the most desirable method
than the other three methods with the average number
of interests up to 13. The second order is occupied by
keyword “tafsirtahlili” with the average number of
interest 6. While, the keywords “tafsirijmali” and
“tafsirmuqaran” do not get score from Google.
REFERENCES
Farmawi, A. al-Hay. (1996). MetodeTafsirMawdhu’iy
(SuatuPengantar). (S. A. Jamrah, Trans.) (2nd
ed.). Jakarta: RajaGrafindoPersada.
Google, G. (2018a). About Keyword Planner. Retrieved
August 17, 2018, from
https://support.google.com/google-
ads/answer/7337243?hl=en
Google, G. (2018b, August 12). How Trends data is
adjusted [Help]. Retrieved December 8, 2018,
from
https://support.google.com/trends/answer/43655
33?hl=en&ref_topic=6248052
Hidayatulloh, M. K. (2017). Al-JihdwaTathbqtuhu Al-
Mutanawwi’ahfHayh Al-Shahbah
(DirsahQur’niyahMawdh’iyyah). In Reviving
Islamic Values in Response to Human Crisis
(Vol. 1, pp. 207–220). Yogyakarta: UAD Press.
Kumi, A. A.-S. A., &Qasim, M. A. Y. A. (1982). Al-Tafsr
al-Mawdh’ li Al-Qur’an Al-Karm (1st ed.).
Cairo.
Muslim, M. (2000). Mabhitsf Al-Tafsr Al-Mawdh’
(3rd ed., Vols. 1–1). Damaskus: Dar Al-Qalam.
Qattan, M. bin K. (2000). MabhitsFUlm Al-Qur’n (3rd
ed.). Maktabah Al-Ma’arif.
Qays, I. I. A. A.-L. A. (1428). TafsrSyaikh Al-
IslmIbnTaimiyah Al-Jmi’ li Kalm Al-
ImmIbnTaimiyahf Al-Tafsr (2nd ed.). damam:
Dar Ibn Al-Jawzi.
Sa’id, A. A.-S. F. (1981). Al-MadkhalIl Al-Tafsr Al-
Mawdh’
(2nd ed.). Cairo: Dar Al-Tawziwa Al-
Nasr Al-Islami.
Thayyar, M. I. S. A. (1428). SyarhMuqaddimahfUshl Al-
Tafsr (2nd ed., Vols. 1–7). Damam: Dar Ibn Al-
Jawzi.
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APPENDIX
Appendix 1 : GRAPH 1
Keyword Average Monthly Highest Search Yearly Highest Search
TafsirTematik 24 Nopember 2009 (100) 2017 (39)
TafsirTahlili 18 Oktober 2017 (60) 2017 (32)
TafsirIjmali 11 September 2014 (39) 2017 (18)
TafsirMuqaran Not-
available
Not-available Not-available
*Range January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2017 with worldwide data taken August 12, 2018 At 14.00 West Indonesia Time
Appendix 2: GRAPH 2
Keyword Average Monthly Highest Search Yearly Highest Search
TafsirTematik 13 Januari 2010 (100) 2010 (30)
TafsirTahlili 6 April 2008 (57) 2009 (11)
TafsirIjmali Not-available Not-available Not-available
TafsirMuqaran Not-available Not-available Not-available
*Range January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2017 with worldwide data taken August 12, 2018 At 14.05 West Indonesia Time
Google Trend Analysis on the Discussion of Thematic Commentary in Indonesia
2309
Appendix 3: GRAPH 3
*Range January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2017 with worldwide data taken August 12, 2018 At 14.10 West Indonesia Time
Appendix 4 : GRAPH 4
*Range January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2017 with Indonesian data taken August 12, 2018 At 14.15 West Indonesia Time
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