Topic: Question about Al-Qur'an

[Ali]

Assalu'alaikum fellow muslims  :bro1

I have a simple question.

I do not understand Arabic, I only understand the VERY important words. I can read it though.

I understand the English language best, even better than Urdu etc.

My question is, should I get a English translation of the Al-Qur'an and are the English translations accurate?

Also are there any specific translations I should get?

Is the Al-Qur'an translated only in Old English or in Modern English too?

Thank you in advance for answering my questions  :grin

[Sami Yusuf Islam]

Assalu'alaikum fellow muslims  :bro1

wa ^alaykom essalam wa rahmatu Allah wa barakaatuhu dear

welcome to our forums on http://www.TalkAboutIslam.com

I have a simple question.

I do not understand Arabic, I only understand the VERY important words. I can read it though.

I understand the English language best, even better than Urdu etc.

Good, you will get your answer in English then…

My question is, should I get a English translation of the Al-Qur'an and are the English translations accurate?

Also are there any specific translations I should get?

Is the Al-Qur'an translated only in Old English or in Modern English too?

Thank you in advance for answering my questions  :grin

Brother of Islam Ali

I am sorry to tell you that unfortunately most of the translations that I have read so far were disappointing.

The problem is that most of those who translated Koran so far have based their translations on controversial explanations of the Koran or on the work of controversial authors..

I have checked many many translations, and sometimes I found stuff more than contradicting the essence of Islam.

Take this example: I recently received as a gift a French translation of the Koran by a certain Tunisian called Salah Khorshid.  I started reading through and I was suddenly shocked by some VERY VERY devious stuff in there: Doctrine that strongly contradicts the Koran and the Hadith of the prophet.

I kept on reading and was more than surprised to see how confused and lost the author of that translation was. According to his translation, the Koran contradicts itself many times…

This is so because most probably that person has no idea whatsoever about the meaning of the verses, and when the Arabic wording is too hard for him to understand, he simply gets the explanation from different resources of contradicting and controversial views…

The final work is truly disappointing…

I advise you to be careful and in any case, to keep consulting with true scholars of Islam….  If you have any questions in Islam, I would be more than happy to help.

[Orthopreacher]

Abdullah,
What is it then?  Is it that the translators cannot get the meaning of the verses correct?  Are there no scholars that would translate the Qur'an into languages for the people?  I have heard that you cannot translate the Qur'an only that you can translate the MEANING of the verses, Why?

ciao
paul

[Sami Yusuf Islam]

Abdullah,
What is it then?  Is it that the translators cannot get the meaning of the verses correct?  Are there no scholars that would translate the Qur'an into languages for the people?  I have heard that you cannot translate the Qur'an only that you can translate the MEANING of the verses, Why?

ciao
paul

Because God says :
ÓæÑÉ ÇáÃÍÞÇÝ - ÓæÑÉ 46 - ÂíÉ 12
 
æãä ÞÈáå ßÊÇÈ ãæÓì ÅãÇãÇ æÑÍãÉ æåÐÇ ßÊÇÈ ãÕÏÞ áÓÇäÇ ÚÑÈíÇ áíäÐÑ ÇáÐíä ÙáãæÇ æÈÔÑì ááãÍÓäíä
 
When before it there was the Scripture of Moses, an example and a mercy; and this is a confirming Scripture in the Arabic language, that it may warn those who do wrong and bring good tidings for the righteous.  


Thus the scripture is Arabic, and must remain as such.
It can not be translated. Yet yes, there is no problem in translating the meaning of the verses for non-Arabs. This even would be a very important thing and I ask Allah to facilitate to our great Muslim scholars in dar al masharee^ this project.

[EVE]

Abdullah,
What is it then?  Is it that the translators cannot get the meaning of the verses correct?  Are there no scholars that would translate the Qur'an into languages for the people?

Excuse me Abdullah, let me answer paul's question ..
sure Paul there are many Qor'an transaltions to almost all languages.

 I have heard that you cannot translate the Qur'an only that you can translate the MEANING of the verses, Why?

ciao
paul

It is true but not only the Qor'an if you want to translate anything from langauge to another language you SHOULD translate the meaning  .. why? because each language has its own vocab and grammar and all these stuff ... suppose I translate what I am writing now word by word to arabic it will sound ridiculous .

in any language there are expressions if you translate them to another language word by word they would not understand the intended meaning.

for example there are metaphors or proverbs in english that require a lot of explanation in english so if someone translate them to arabic word by word they would sound meaningless but in fact he should translate the meaning.

Another example there is a word in arabic that has 15 different meanings so the person who is translating should pick the appropriate meaning for translation in the extract he is working on .

but the meaning he chooses for words in Qor'an is the one set by islamic scholars.

i hope that i was able to explicitly answer your question

see you later  :wave2

[EVE]

oops, ABDULLAH, I didn't see your reply until I submitted mine

[Orthopreacher]

Excuse me Abdullah, let me answer paul's question ..
sure Paul there are many Qor'an transaltions to almost all languages.

 I know this but Abdullah has said and did again say that it isn't the true Qur'an if it is translated from Arabic to some other language.

It is true but not only the Qor'an if you want to translate anything from langauge to another language you SHOULD translate the meaning  .. why? because each language has its own vocab and grammar and all these stuff ... suppose I translate what I am writing now word by word to arabic it will sound ridiculous .

I agree, however, it would seem that is less than adequate for your brother Abdullah, which has been the discussion of late.

in any language there are expressions if you translate them to another language word by word they would not understand the intended meaning.

for example there are metaphors or proverbs in english that require a lot of explanation in english so if someone translate them to arabic word by word they would sound meaningless but in fact he should translate the meaning.

Another example there is a word in arabic that has 15 different meanings so the person who is translating should pick the appropriate meaning for translation in the extract he is working on .

but the meaning he chooses for words in Qor'an is the one set by islamic scholars.

That is why I asked about it.  I have been discussing subjects such as this with Abdullah for days and it seemed that one of his contentions was that unless it is Arabic then it cannot be scripture.  If that is true, then I was wondering why?  If there is no way to have scripture and translate it into a language of the people then many are at a disadvantage at seeking the truth.

In my religion, our scriptures have been translated into every known language.  One of the difficulties that people have is that languages change and in English especially the language is growing and changing all the time.  So a translation of our scriptures made 400 years ago,even though people still like to use it will use different words than one made 30 years ago.  They do not contradict, simply put they are from different eras and as such sound different.

Dealing with that difference many think that proves they are not scripture and are not valid.  Many say that because of that difference the Book is not valid.  

And to his credit, Abdullah has stated that if there is a translation of the Qur'an into English, even if scholars publish it, then it is not REALLY the Qur'an because the only language that Qur'an can be in is Arabic.  I have found that quite interesting that it would be limited in such a way as that, and I wonder about the majority of muslims who could never get scripture in their own languages because if it isn't Arabic it isn't the Qur'an.

ciao
paul

[Sami Yusuf Islam]

oops, ABDULLAH, I didn't see your reply until I submitted mine

es claro mi amiga, pero te digo realmente "No Problem"

[albert_18499]

Greetings Ali,
     I received an english translation Quran from the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington and it is written both in arabic and english. It does have a little bit of commentary and cross references in it. I am not an arabic reader or speaker but if the administrators here have any comments on the Saudi printing, maybe they can be of assistance on the clearness and accuracy of the translation from arabic to english. :grin

[EVE]

es claro mi amiga, pero te digo realmente "No Problem"

ok thanks amigo :$