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Quran: which translation?

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Quran: which translation?
Aadam
07/18/02 at 00:27:53
[slm]
brothers and sisters

I've had a couple of long conversations with a very devout Christian friend (he's really serious...he hosts bible study groups at home and really knows his stuff). Today he asked me for a copy of the Quran. I was planning to buy a Yusuf Ali translation for him. However, while reading some reviews on Amazon, some readers complained about Yusuf Ali's footnotes in which he is very biased against both Christians and Jewish scriptures and culture. I dont really know which translation to buy for him; in fact I've always read Yusuf Ali's.
If any of you has any suggestions or advice, I'd really appreciate it. Also, I dont have much time...if I asked him for a bible...it would get a brand new copy within hours for sure.

Thank you.

[wlm]

Aadam
Re: Quran: which translation?
bhaloo
07/18/02 at 01:03:17
[slm]

I think the Yusuf Ali and Khan & Hilali versions of the Quran are pretty good versions.

Here is a biography of every English translation of the Quran out there, and some of the things to watch for in each of them.

http://members.cox.net/ameer1/annota.html



Re: Quran: which translation?
Aadam
07/18/02 at 01:21:29
[slm]

Thanks Bro Bhaloo.

Still looking like crazy over the net. Dunno which one to choose?

[wlm]

Aadam
Re: Quran: which translation?
jannah
07/18/02 at 01:47:56
I still think Yusuf Ali's would be the best. The notes are very good, very "English" with a lot of references to Shakespear and the like...  Make sure to tell him to ask you any questions and definitely follow up with him periodically  to see what he's read...and what he thinks..
Re: Quran: which translation?
se7en
07/18/02 at 01:49:30
as salaamu alaykum,

Check out a previous discussion we've had on this here:
[url]http://www.jannah.org/cgi-bin/madina/YaBB.pl?board=madrasa;action=display;num=1015226633[/url]

bro abu_hamza's post (post #6) explains why a Hilali translation might not be the best idea.

Personally I think the translations by Muhammad Asad and Marmaduke Pickthall are the best for non-Muslims by far.

wasalaamu alaykum :-)
07/18/02 at 01:50:52
se7en
Re: Quran: which translation?
sabirah
07/18/02 at 04:18:38
[slm]
I totally agree Muhammad Asad's by far the best. Yusuf Ali according to my friend is an apologetic, and hilali and khan was approved by the saudi govt so it probably has wahhabi influence.  
:-)
ma salama
Emily
Re: Quran: which translation?
ibnasabil
07/18/02 at 05:26:22
Bismillah 'ir Rahman 'ir Rahim.

[slm]

A few words about M. Asad. Mash'Allah! Muhammad Asad was an Austrian Jew (who became Muslim) and a world-class journalist for a newspaper in Frankfurt, so his view of Islam and his commentary on the Qur'an (and his interpretation of it) comes out of a deep understanding of secular European culture which means he may have more points of reference in common with non-Muslim readers than other translators or translations do. He studied Arabic with the Beduins, and he was a very objective reporter while maintaining friendships with people as "influential" as Ibn Saud. Also, his English is impeccable, in my opinion. Still, I'm not an Arabic-speaker, so I can't really vouch for how good his translation is. Sh. Hamza Yusuf has in the past recommended Thomas Cleary's The Essential Koran, which he gave as a gift to President Bush.

Allah knows best. Make sure you say Bismillah before you give him the book or the recommendation.
07/18/02 at 15:39:10
ibnasabil
Re: Quran: which translation?
Aadam
07/18/02 at 08:50:35
[slm]

Jazaak'Allah for your suggestions. I'll probably get the Yusuf Ali version. Any more ideas still welcome.

[wlm]

Aadam
Re: Quran: which translation?
AyeshaZ
07/18/02 at 10:57:20
[quote author=ibnasabil link=board=madrasa;num=1026966473;start=0#6 date=07/18/02 at 05:26:22]Bismillah 'ir Rahman 'ir Rahim.

[slm]
Sh. Hamza Yusuf has in the past recommended Thomas Cleary's The Essential Koran, which he gave as a gift to President Bush.

Allah knows best. Make sure you say Bismillah before you give him the book or the recommendation.[/quote]


Yeah you should definitely look into The Essential Koran.  Also, I got a translation by Umm Muhammad this year and MashaAllah she did an excellent job . She is also an american convert who studied in syria mashaAllah some of her other books include " A brief introduction to tajweed".  However, Yusuf Ali's notes are more detalied.

Wallahu A'lam
07/18/02 at 12:19:08
AyeshaZ
Re: Quran: which translation?
Shamila
07/18/02 at 15:15:17
[slm]

The translation by Ghulam Ahmed Parwez is definately the best one in my opinion. The full translation is available on: http://www.tolueislam.com/

[wlm]
Re: Quran: which translation?
ibnasabil
07/18/02 at 15:22:37
Bismillah 'ir Rahman 'ir Rahim.

[slm]

Wa jazakh:

http://www.soundvision.com/info/quran/english.asp

Another suggestion re: giving a Qur'an to a non-Muslim. There was a time when a non-Muslim former aquaintance of mine expressed interest in the Qur'an and I wasn't sure what to do, so I asked a shaykh and he said that it's important to approach the Qur'an with adab; he also noted that many people get confused by just reading the Qur'an, although he admitted that reading an English translation had led to his conversion. His suggestion to me (among others) was to prepare the reader for the Qur'an by recommending to him a biography of Prophet Muhammad  [saw].

Also, to clarify my earlier post, M. Asad *was* an Austrian Jew, who converted to Islam.  
07/18/02 at 16:17:37
ibnasabil
Re: Quran: which translation?
mwishka
07/18/02 at 17:47:48
(mods could you put this in al-manar or kabob?  it just took me 15 minutes to find it again, because i didn't think of this category....)

bro aadam,

as a non-muslim let me give you my opinion on qur'ans that i've read.....

first, there used to be a nice five-way comparison of english versions of the qur'an here,

http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Union/IslamicSoc/The%20Holy%20Qur'an.htm#Qur'antext

but something happened to it and only three work now.  (anyone know about this?)


the version i read is yusuf ali's, though i like al-hilali and khan better in certain places, but have been chastised (severely!  ;)) for reading it.

through this islamic society link, above, i found another version, which i have only been able to read the sections of that are at this site, but it seems to have a better feeling to it, more fluency with arabic, as the language being expressed.

perhaps someone else here who has had more exposure to a greater number of versions, and is fluent in arabic, can shed some light on this.
this "translation" is by dr. zohurul hogue, and below are links to comparisons of hogue's work with ali's and with al-hilali and khan's.


dr. zohurul hogue
http://www.qurantoday.com/translation.htm
http://www.qurantoday.com/comparison.htm

dr. zohurul hogue vs. yusuf ali  al-baqarah
http://www.qurantoday.com/yali_baq1_5.htm

hogue vs. al-hilali and khan  as-saba
http://www.qurantoday.com/hilali34_1_9.htm

m. asad's version sounds promising, but seems to only be available in a very expensive edition.  (if anyone knows of any reasonably priced  editions, or even "pocket" editions, please let me know...)

mwishka
 
 
Re: Quran: which translation?
Aadam
07/19/02 at 07:34:54
[slm]

Thank you all. I ordered the  2001 edition of Yusuf Ali's translation. Insha'Allah I'll receive it sometime soon.

Aadam
Re: Quran: which translation?
ascetic
07/20/02 at 08:36:15
Assalam Aleikum,

Just wanted to add that right now, you can get a free copy of the Abdullah
Yusuf Ali translation at www.halalco.com on ordering any other item.

I just received this free copy and although the print quality is a little low, it is really good to carry around since it's light (it only has the english translation, no Arabic).

Wassalam.
Re: Quran: which translation?
imaazh
08/03/02 at 08:11:03
[slm]

does anyone have any info about  the Dawood translation of the quran?


I was in a bookshop recently and came across a penguin paperback version.  

Is this translation sound?  How about recommending it to non-muslims?


Re: Quran: which translation?
bhaloo
08/03/02 at 12:00:21
[slm]

This Dawood translation of the Quran is pathetic, I have it, its written by a Jew who has taken many verses and combined them into one or two sentences.  It loses a lot of meaning and I found some things offensive in this translation.  Its best not to give it to a non-Muslim.
Re: Quran: which translation?
Traveler
08/03/02 at 12:07:19
[slm]

Mwishka, I thoroughly went through the Dr. zohurul hogue's Quran on his website. In my opinion it is a very good translation. In fact I am so impressed that I am willing to buy a copy. It's cheap too, just 15 dollars. The feature I liked best was the word to word translation of the arabic quran with the same arabic grammatical syntax. I am not aware of any english translation which translates in such a manner.
Once I get my copy I'll give a more detailed review.
Re: Quran: which translation?
mwishka
08/04/02 at 12:31:48
bro traveler,

i am glad to hear that!  it sounded linguistically like a more emotionally and conceptually clear or appropriate application of english to arabic than any other version i've read.  i've read literal translations in my "learn arabic" books to show me how to associate the sentence parts one to the other not only grammatically but temporally, since arabic uses only the present tense, and completion of actions or future nature of their completion are all to be interpreted contextually.  (yeah yeah i know everyone who speaks arabic knows this, but i'm just a little mouse, so go easy on me, ok?)  it SOUNDED to me like the best ever accomplishment of this time/emotional content sense....and it didn't substitute english concepts for things it shouldn't have, which reduces or eliminates their true meaning.  (that's NOT a nice thing to do to a language! >:(  )

i think i might go ahead and buy one also, but i will look forward to your more complete review when you're able to put that up here....

mwishka (who will be happy if this version turns out to be more um "arabic" than the ones she's read so far, which sound mighty "english" to her..)
08/04/02 at 12:33:38
mwishka


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