Having been influenced by the Muslim reformist ideas championed by Muhammad 'Abduh and his colleagues, Hamka attempted to disseminate and ameliorate the reform ideas in his country, Indonesia, through the means available to him; that is by preaching and writing. He was among the most prolific contemporary authors, having written 113 books including his monumental Tafsir al-Azhar. In this commentary, Hamka has probably included the sum of his ideas particularly those pertaining to religious aspects. With regards to the religious aspects, he mostly discusses the problems of theology, sufism and law. Hamka's conception of the law portrays his challenge and struggle towards the abolishment of taqlid (uncritical acceptance of the decisions made by the predecessors) and the implementation of ijtihad (personal opinion). In addition, his legal comments and interpretations are quite different from many of the comments made by sectarian commentators, who saw in tafsir a forum for defending their schools of thought. However, Hamka steered away from any school of thought and tried to be as objective as possible in his work, an attempt reflected in his method of interpreting the problematic legal verses. Moreover, he did not limit himself to a single method of interpretation. On the contrary, he availed himself of both the tafsir bi al-ma'thur method (interpretation derived from the Prophet, the Companions and the Successors) and the tafsir bi al-ra'y method (interpretation based on reason).

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