Qur'anic studies play an important role in building sensitivity to the issues facing society. By reading the intellectual legacy of Kiai Saleh Darat, students are invited to understand the relationship between interpretation, culture, and social change, while exploring its relevance to life today.

This spirit emerged at the 2026 National Seminar and Public Lecture of the Qur'anic Sciences and Exegesis (IAT) Festival, organized by the IAT Study Program of the Faculty of Ushuluddin and Islamic Thought (FUPI) at UIN Sunan Kalijaga. The event was held in the Theatrical Room of FUPI on Monday (10/12/2026). The IAT Festival runs for four days, through October 15, 2026.

Under the theme "Reading Qur'anic-Exegesis from Java: Kyai Saleh Darat, Fayd al-Rahman, and the Intellectual World of the 19th Century," the seminar featured academic Nur Ahmad, Ph.D., and cultural figure and Langgar.co founder Irfan Afifi. The forum brought together the study of exegesis with a reading of Javanese intellectual and cultural history.

Dr. Ahmad Salehuddin, Vice Dean for Student Affairs and Cooperation at FUPI, stressed the importance of broadening the horizons of IAT students. In his view, the ability to memorize the Qur'an should be accompanied by the skill to understand how society develops and to make meaningful contributions.

"Those who memorize the Qur'an should have a strong power to transform, not just focus on their memorization," he said.

He also encouraged students to use their knowledge of the Qur'an as a resource for inspiring change. One path is to explore the traditions and intellectual legacy of Java and then read them reflectively to meet the needs of society.

This message positions the study of exegesis as a space for connecting knowledge with life. Students are expected to see the legacy of past thought as a source of ideas that can continue to be studied and developed.

The national seminar also opened the series of events for the 2026 IAT Festival, marked by the striking of a gong by Ahmad Salehuddin, accompanied by IAT Study Program Head Subkhani Kusuma Dewi and IAT Study Program Secretary Aida Hidayah.

As a speaker, Nur Ahmad, Ph.D., discussed the work of Kiai Saleh Darat through the framework of Akbarian hermeneutics, an interpretive approach related to the thought of Ibn 'Arabi. He described the relationship among the Sufi tradition, Qur'anic interpretation, and the intellectual world of Java.

He also explained several key themes in his research: the hermeneutics of being, the science of letters, and visual hermeneutics. Together, these provide a framework for reading the relationship among being, script, and the visual dimension in the interpretive tradition he studies.

In this reading, script holds a status that goes beyond its function as a written sign. Nur Ahmad linked it to how Sufi texts in Java understand Qur'anic knowledge and the reality of being through the thought of Ibn 'Arabi.

Meanwhile, Irfan Afifi invited participants to understand Javanese culture through the processes by which knowledge is formed and passed down. According to him, the worldview and customs inherited by Javanese society are closely tied to the role of the wali (Muslim saints) in shaping religious and cultural life.

Irfan presented the work of Kiai Saleh Darat as one entry point for reading this relationship. Through a discussion of the Sufi and isyari (allusive) styles of exegesis, he invited participants to consider how religious understanding relates to the cultural environment in which a work is born.

The meeting of these two perspectives opened a space for students to read exegesis with attention to its historical, intellectual, and cultural context. Understanding that context equips them to discuss the relevance of this intellectual legacy for the problems of modern society.

For the IAT Study Program at FUPI UIN Sunan Kalijaga, this forum is a space for developing Qur'anic studies that bring Islamic scholarship together with history and culture. Through the IAT Festival, students are encouraged to build breadth of knowledge as well as social sensitivity, so that what they learn can guide their contributions to society. (humassk)