تِلْكَ آيَاتُ الْكِتَابِ وَقُرْآنٍ مُّبِينٍ)

15: 1 سورة الحِجْر، آية

[These are the verses of the Book; the Clear Quran.] 15:1

Why a new translation of the Quran is needed.

The first translation of the Quran into English was done in 1649 by Alexander Ross. Since that first translation, many more attempts have been made to penetrate the work from an outside, academic point of view, but it wasn’t until the early 20^th century that the Quran was first translated by Muslims. In 1934, Abdullah Yusuf Ali published one of the most widely circulated translations to date.

Aside from concerns about academia and orientalism, translating the Quran can be an enormous task even for the sincere of heart. Arabic, as a Semitic language, has words that have meanings and shades of meanings which do not easily move over into English, and total mastery of both languages is needed before any truly satisfactory translation can be put forward. Translators also struggle to render what they believe to be the right meaning into a foreign language—knowing that it is almost impossible to reflect the Arabic style, rhythms, and figures of speech, while also struggling with different interpretations of the original Arabic words.

The development of linguistics, current events, and the gradual drift of the English language puts us in an important time to move forward in Quranic translations. For the most part, a lack of understanding Arabic can be seen in older, less popular works from European scholars, however mistakes and errors are persistent in more modern copies, and blunders can even be found in the likes of Yusuf Ali when he writes, “those who believe not in the hereafter name the angels with female names.” (53:27) A brief survey of names such as Gabriel, Michael, and Mâlik offers no female names whatsoever. Keeping in mind that some pagan Arabs believed that the angels were Allah’s daughters, the true translation can be rendered, “those who do not believe in the Hereafter label the angels as female.”

The failure to understand the complex forms of Classical Arabic found in the Quran, and sometimes found only in the Quran, can be a stumbling block for many scholars, but even those with a strong understanding of Arabic need to have their intelligence backed with the wisdom found in a sound theological background. Without understanding the religious context of the Quran, such mistakes can be made as when Muhsin Khan & Muhammad al-Hilali write, “Allah will never lead a people astray after He has guided them until He makes clear to them as to what they should avoid.” (9:115). In context, the verse is instructing the Prophet (ﷺ) and his companions that they should no longer pray to Allah for the forgiveness of polytheists after their death. As pointed out by Ibn Kathîr, drawing on the understanding of Aṭ-Ṭabari, the meaning is clearly “Allah would never consider a people deviant after He has guided them, until He makes clear to them what they must avoid.”

For these reasons it is clear that any translation of the Quran must be led by scholars with a profound understanding of the theological context of the Quran, as well as a native understanding of Arabic, but also considerable training in the meaning of the Classical Arabic particular to the Quran. These three things enable a scholar to truly understand the Quran, and a profound understanding is the first step towards a good translation.

Of course, a firm understanding of Arabic is not all that is needed in order to translate the Quran effectively. The Quran states repeatedly that it is accessible, clear, and easy to understand, so it would be an error to translate it into dense or inaccessible language. Naturally, the academic traditions that first dealt with translating the Quran value language density, and the religious and scholarly traditions of the English language assume a correlation between complexity of language and truth. This correlation has been carried over into translations of the Quran despite complexity, density, and inaccessibility being tenets far from Islamic scholarly tradition. What we are left with are translations that, though they may be technically correct, miss the simplicity, vigour, or eloquence of the original in favour of a contrived sense of divinity.

Two striking examples of overinflated, though accurate, English translations come to mind. First, M.M. Pickthall writes, “Be modest in thy bearing and subdue thy voice. Lo! the harshest of all voices is the voice of the ass.” (31:19) In today’s English, this can only be read as a rather vulgar statement, especially by non-academic readers and should instead be rendered, “Be moderate in your pace and lower your voice, for the ugliest of all voices is certainly the braying of donkeys.” Second, T.B. Irving writes of 44:16, “Some day We will kidnap everyone in the greatest operation; We shall be Avenged!” Giving Allah a distinctly immature, vindictive, and even rueful voice where a more appropriate translation is, “˹On˺ the Day We will deal ˹you˺ the fiercest blow, We will surely inflict punishment.”

The tone of the Quran, as a revelation for all humanity, relies heavily on a number of emotions as well, and a poor understanding of English can lead even great scholars of Arabic into error with translation. There are numerous instances in the Quran of sarcasm and wit, which are often lost entirely in complicated and fragile grammar structures. Elegance and prose are also usually cast out of translations, especially when scholars use a rigid word-for-word replacement technique to encode Arabic into a mock-English cypher that sometimes gives the opposite meaning of what is intended in the verse. The problem with undervaluing the subtleties and intricacies of human language can be underlined by examining the work of Dr. M. Mahmoud Ghali. He translates 4:105, “and do not be a constant adversary of the treacherous.” The true translation of this verse is, “so do not be an advocate for the deceitful.” Another example is his English translation of the Arabic word ‘khair’ to ‘charity’. The Arabic term ‘khair’ has multiple meanings and often has nothing to do with charitable giving. Instances of such inaccuracy transform the meaning of Quranic verses. For example, 100:8 reads “And surely he is indeed constantly (passionate) in his love for charity,” where “love for charity” in fact refers to “greed for ˹worldly˺ gains.” Likewise, 33:25, which speaks of the enemy alliance that laid a siege around Muslims in Medina, reads “they attained no charity,” whereas the verse actually talks about “war gains.”

In respecting the order and particulars of the Arabic words being used, the meaning of dozens of idioms are lost in translation, hundreds of sentences become a tangled mess of improper grammar, and the flow and ease of reading is entirely lost. It is better to respect the meaning and power of the Quran than the language it happened to be revealed in, otherwise one might end up with the near blasphemous statement found in the Ṣaḥeeḥ International translation, “They have forgotten Allah, so He has forgotten them.” (9:67) Surely Allah does not ‘forget’ anything or anyone (see 20:52). Google Translate might give up a similar translation, but the meaning is poetic, it is much closer to ‘neglect.’ Both parties are aware of each other, but when humans neglect their duties to Allah, He neglects them in the Fire: “They neglected Allah, so He neglected them.”

Aside from these more theologically problematic translation issues, there are dozens of simple grammar structures in the Quran that are easy, clear, or beautiful in Arabic, but entirely untranslatable. Rather than try to fit the English structures and words into a foreign context, it is much better to accept English for what it has to offer and use its own native poetry and balance to create a translation that carries the real meaning and power of the Perfect Book.

With grammar and the particularities of translating aside, a considerable understanding of the context of the Quranic revelation itself as well as the stories found within is needed in order to render a proper English translation. For example, the word ‘corn’ is no longer used to describe all forms of grain, yet many translations still use this word to describe the fields in the dream of the King in the story of Joseph (12:43 and 46). When Yusuf Ali first wrote this in 1934, it may have been acceptable to refer to wheat as a kind of corn, but in modern vocabulary this is totally unheard of, yet many translations simply erroneously copy that word into their own works.

It is clear that the modern age demands not only a great scholar of Arabic and the Quran to come to the table, but also a modern, adaptable scholar of the English language, as well as someone with native fluency who knows how the translation will be received.

The reception of the Quran by English audiences now indicates a third stage in the historical development of Quran translation. At first it was an academic exercise, a curious study of the ‘other.’ Next, Muslims translated the Quran as a matter of love or pride, and they shared it among themselves. With this long history and background, and a team of experts in the Quran and in the English language, the struggle we now face is transmitting the real beauty and message of the Quran to Muslims and non-Muslims alike who are interested in it and who also know and love English.

The Alcoran of Ross was the first small step forward, and Yusuf Ali’s The Holy Qur’an was a turning point in the history of the Quran in English. The next step is to overcome the obstacles outlined here and to deliver Allah’s Final Testament to English speaking audiences like never before. The next step is THE CLEAR QURAN™ Series.