Quraish Shihab’s role in modern Quranic interpretation in Indonesia is the backdrop explanation for the choice of this article’s major object of research. His work was often studied in academics in the field of Quranic interpretation and Indonesian Islam in the early stages of the development of theme interpretation in this country. This article aims to provide a solution to the research question: is the substance orientation of the thematic interpretation in books by Quraish Shihab regarding sociologists, in accordance with the theory of thematic interpretation? Content analysis and comparative methodologies are employed. Al-lawn wa al-ittijâh, the style or approach and direction of interpretation, serve as the foundation for content analysis. According to the research presented in this article, Quraish Shihab’s theme interpretation analysis in the field of sociology may be divided into three categories: internal analysis, extrinsic analysis, and study of the findings of earlier researchers. There are 18 types of analysis, with the following details: 12 of them (67%) include internal analysis, 2 (11%) extrinsic analysis, and 4 (22%) analysis based on the opinions of prior researchers. Quraish Shihab prioritizes interpretations that are implications of the themes discussed in order to be a workable solution in the contemporary context, based on the spirit of the Quran, while Dawam Rahardjo and Nur Kholis Setiawan prioritize interpretations that are implications of the themes discussed. Quraish Shihab also explains more about the ontological aspects of the themes he discusses and relates them to various internal aspects of the themes. The sociological interpretation of the Qur’an represents a method of fusing scientific and religious literature. The concern with the process of the relationship between the Qur’an and science, according to a number of experts in the field of science integration in the Indonesian Islamic community, is that science is justified by verses from the Quran even though scientists were the ones who discovered it. Even “possibly” a scientific theory cannot “read” the text of the Quran. Even if science and the Qur’an were on equal footing, neither could adequately explain how the Qur’an and nature are comprehended. In light of this, it is unnecessary to emphasize that the Quran is a source of knowledge.
Keywords: contextualization of comparative interpretation in a holistic manner, implications of thematic interpretation