There has been a dynamic development of Islam in contemporary Indonesia
as seen from the approaches to interpreting the Quran. One of the trends of thought is
traditionalism, which is commonly perceived as a broad category of the school of thought.
There is no single entity called traditionalism since it takes on different faces. With specific
references to M. Quraish Shihab, Abd Muin Salim and Nashruddin Baidan, this article
aims to study all these traditional Muslim thinkers’ views on Quran interpretation by
employing a historical approach. The study mainly focuses on, first, the continuity and
changes concerning elements initially derived from some sources and elements developed
originally and secondly, on response to modern Western legacies of social sciences and
humanities approaches. This article will argue that critical traditionalism constitutes
many faces. This trend of a mode of thought is viewed from its followers’ insisting on
the sufficiency of traditional sources of interpretation, based on argumentations set up
primarily by classical Muslim scholars, rationalising traditional argumentations and critical
response and clarification to Western approaches in interpreting the Quran