Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1872-1853) is one of the modern Indian thinkers whose work The Holy Qur'an, Text, Translation and Commentary has been published many times and is widely used in the English speaking world. His phenomenal work occupies a high position in the Qur'anic commentary world. The work is very famous and most highly respected. People learn it a lot and make it as a reference.
The writer makes the work of Abdullah Yusuf Ali as a research study that focuses on first, the methods he employed in interpreting the Qur’an and second, the critic of these methods. This study is library research and the method of analysis is a descriptive-analysis which is not limited in collecting and arranging the data, but also classifying, analyzing and interpreting data dealing with the research questions. To analyze the thoughts of Yusuf Ali, the writer uses the historical-sociological approach. This pattern sees the influences of socio-cultural environment in forming his mode of thought. To see the power of the methods, the writer uses the hermeneutic concept of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, a well structured concept of contemporary ‘ulûm al-qur’ân.
The writer draws several conclusions related to the focus of study; among those are poetic translation and commentary. A rhythmic prose running along his commentary and many quotes of well known poets of the world spread over the commentary. the interpretation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali is a very partial. He does not use a complete and consistent method in looking every part of the Qur’an. Referring to the Abu Zayd’s concept, Yusuf Ali’s tendency towards philosophy and sufism which tasted so strong in his work, a lack of citing prophet’s traditions and the adoption of data from many sources of Jews and Christians indicate that Yusuf Ali involves his own ideology in the process of interpretation, the reading is a form of talwîn as the result of tendentious readings. This kind of reading supported by a not powerful method, and thus, it tends to be misleading.