Contextual interpretation is an effort to interpret Al-Qur'an contextually, offered by Abdullah Saeed, a Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies. He is a director of the Centre for the study of Contemporary Islam at Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia. This contextual interpretation is a theory of understanding Al-Qur'an today to be understood in order to meet the needs of these societies. He formulated this theory under the influence of the Muslims in Australia, mostly the minority of Muslim in that country. He proposed his ideas based on his finding that there is a gap between texts which have been understood literally by majority of ulama' and socio-historical context of the Qur'an at the time of revelation in the first seventh century and the contemporary concerns and needs of Muslims today. He doesn't say explicitly that he apply the hermeneutic theory in his approach, but he agrees that in the modern period, the piecemeal treatment of the Qur'an has worsened ad the formulation of an adequate hermeneutical method is imperative. Based on this, he proposes four stages in interpreting the Qur'an: encounter with the world of texts, critical analysis, meaning for the first recipients and meaning for the present.