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.
- The Glorious Qur’an by Mermaduke Pickthall (1930).
- The Holy Qur’an by Maulvi Sher’ Ali. 1st Edition published in Holland (1955).
- The Koran by N. J. Dawood (1956).
- Urdu publication Tufseer Sagheer by Mirza B. D. Mahmood Ahmad (1957).
- The Holy Quran by Imam A. Yusuf Ali (USA 1977).
- The Quran by Muhammad Zafrulla Khan (England 1971).
- Holy Qur’an by Maulana Muhammad Ali (Lahore 1985)
- The Holy Qur’an by Malik Ghulam Farid (1988)
- Urdu publication Tufheem-ul-Qor-aan by Maulana A. A. Maodoodi (Lahore 1989)
- The Glorious Qur’an by Dr. Ahmad Zindan (London 1989)
- The Noble Qur’an by Dr T.D. Alhilali & Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan (Riyadh 1996)
- The Holy Qur’an by Amatul Rahman Omar and Abdul Mannan Omar (2000)
Acknowledgements – 5th – To Others
Acknowledgements – 5th – To Others
All my nearly 80 years of life I have been a student learning languages, literature and law by studying articles, books, essays, judgments, magazines, opinions, stories, and translations in Arabic, English, Punjabi and Urdu. I have used the Encyclopedias, Mulla’s “Mahomedan Law” and even visited Wikipedia. I admit that most of what I read and the source is forgotten or buried deep in my memory. I can’t always recall what, when, where, why and how I learnt any fact, figure or fallacy. I acknowledge, however, that all my acquired knowledge is learnt.
Islamic Jurisprudence is one example I read in several books and recall only some of it. Initially it developed in the Arabic in which are the Holy Qor-aan and Ahadeeth – the reports of the acts and sayings of the Holy Prophet s.a.w. As jurisprudence flourished in Arabic in Arab states like Syria, Egypt, Morocco and Spain, it was also translated in Persian (farsi) presenting the Shiite view. The medieval ages saw its translations in the European languages including the French, Latin and Spanish. When the British Empire came to rule India and parts of the Southeast Asia where Moslems applied Moslem Law to all personal and family affairs, the Brits needed to know what was that law. Thus translations from French to English grew. It was further extrapolated under the dominance of the British-India courts and their judgments that in some cases went up to the Privy Council in England.
Transliterating Arabic terms is another example of how the European languages used apostrophe coma in doing so, such as the word Qur’aan. This type of use in the British English is not common and has no place at all in the phonetically spelled American English. I did not need a Persian or French conduit using apostrophes to write for accurate pronunciation of Arabic words or terms. I have transliterated the Arabic into American English phonetically and spelled the words as Arabs speak — like Qor-aan and Isslaam — even when the likes of Google have universalized different transliterations.
Literature is expressing in unique combination of words and phrases the known ideas and concepts. Its expansion rests upon continually adding, subtracting, enlarging or building upon prior info. It is done in all cultures, in academic writings, religious decrees and judicial pronouncements. That is why I have admitted upfront that I can’t always recall a source when I read of a fact first. That is why I reproduced a quotation in original if I could recall who was my first time source. That is why I state that I present facts I learnt sometime in the past which got stuck in memory. That is why I verbalize in my own choice of words the accumulations percolating in my mind. That is why I have drawn the simplest possible conclusions from the facts as stored in memory. Time could have fogged my memory, and others could differently see them today than before. That is why I put on this site words I choose as were found legal, logical, ethical and reasonable. That is why I take full responsibility for the accuracy of facts I have stated with maximum care.