Acknowledgements – 4th – To Scholars

Acknowledgements – 4th – To Scholars

 

By 1999 I had started writing in American English what I believed was conveyed in the Holy Qor-aan as distinguished from what its various translations projected and promoted advancing their own views and sectarian biases as the Shia, Sunny or other schools.  A few years later a chapter-President and some other so-called notables appalled me with their personal ignorance coupled with their officialdom titles to insist that their ignorance was the correct interpretation of the Holy Qor-aan because their clerics had told them so.  For example, a clergyman in teaching the congregation taught that the Prohibition ‘foohsh‘ was a ‘forbidden’ act and ‘no-haa’ was a ‘wicked’ act.  The fact is that the ‘foohsh‘ is an inherently wicked thing like spitting on the face of someone, and ‘no-haa‘ (See our Commentary Commandments and Prohibitions) is a prohibition such as the law against spitting on a policeman when discharging duty in public.  I asked the speaker to repeat what he had said to ensure that we heard what he intended.  But the local President intervened by arguing that I had no right to put the Reverend on the spot (and highlight his ignorance).  Another example has been my asking many English-speaking persons to explain to me what they understood from “Hurrying on in fright, raising up their heads, their gaze not returning to them, and their minds utterly void” [One printed translation of 014:044]; but few of those could ever do that.

Around 2008, a congregation collectively prayed during a Friday prayer that may Allah enable me to bring to them the best translation by comparing various others and the additions, subtractions or intricacies seeded in furtherance of their authors’ respective sectarian views. Bell’s Introduction of the quran QurŸån into Latin translated by an Englishman, Robert of Ketton (often deformed into Robertus Retenensis) was completed by July 1143. I believe all those who have ever ventured the noble task of translating the Holy Qor-aan had good intentions even when they had translated it differently as shown in our commentary titled as The Holy Qor-aan and Different Translations.  The background from which they came had inadvertently found place in their well-intentioned toils.  With the passage of time my collection of numerous translations has kept growing.  As of today I acknowledge to use dictionaries, on-line tools and compare the views expressed, the English vocabulary used and other languages I know in the following publications.

  1. The Glorious Qur’an by Mermaduke Pickthall (1930).
  2. The Holy Qur’an by Maulvi Sher’ Ali. 1st Edition published in Holland (1955).
  3. The Koran by N. J. Dawood (1956).
  4. Urdu publication Tufseer Sagheer by Mirza B. D. Mahmood Ahmad (1957).
  5. The Holy Quran by Imam A. Yusuf Ali (USA 1977).
  6. The Quran by Muhammad Zafrulla Khan (England 1971).
  7. Holy Qur’an by Maulana Muhammad Ali (Lahore 1985)
  8. The Holy Qur’an by Malik Ghulam Farid (1988)
  9. Urdu publication Tufheem-ul-Qor-aan by Maulana A. A. Maodoodi (Lahore 1989)
  10. The Glorious Qur’an by Dr. Ahmad Zindan (London 1989)
  11. The Noble Qur’an by Dr T.D. Alhilali & Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan (Riyadh 1996)
  12. The Holy Qur’an by Amatul Rahman Omar and Abdul Mannan Omar (2000)
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