I learned Qur’aanic Arabic (as a foreign language–at the local mosque) when I was eight years old. But then decades had to pass when, after learning a great deal of worldly things, I am now feeling ready to truly study our Noble Book, and while I am brushing up on my classical Arabic, in the meantime, I wanted to find an English translation that was not deviating from the original in any sense.

Unfortunately, although the intentions were all good, most of the translations I found were not acceptable. Some had added extra phrases which were not in the original or even implied in any way, others had written the English in such a style that somehow lost the essence.

I wanted an English translation whose style was loyal to the Prestige of the original, even though, of course, the Style cannot be imitated. I also did not want to read translations by those who had their own agendas (agendas that deviate from true Islam), nor did I want the simplified translations, or ones where the language had been either archaic or ‘modernized’.

I know it’s asking a great deal because such a translation is not easy to produce, at least in English, mainly because many translators could not render it into English idiom without causing translation loss. For instance, if you visit https://quran.com/87 and go to the 12th Verse, you will see these translations:

ٱلَّذِي يَصۡلَى ٱلنَّارَ ٱلۡكُبۡرَىٰ

he who will roast in the Gigantic Fire,
— Fadel Soliman, Bridges’ translation

He who will be flung to the great Fire
— English Translation (Pickthall)

Who will enter the Great Fire,
— English Translation (Yusuf Ali)

the one who will roast in the greatest Fire, shunts it aside;
— Dr. T. B. Irving

Who will enter the great Fire (and will be made to taste its burning).
— Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali & Muhammad Muhsin Khan

The original has ’naar-al-kobraa’ where ’naar’ means fire but ‘kobraa’ is a derivative of ‘kabeer’ meaning big and/or great. So, while ‘kabeer’ can be translated to English, there is no equivalent English word for ‘kobraa’. All except Bridges’ translation are inaccurate: great, Great, greatest are not exact translations and some feeling is lost in translation. Bridges’ ‘gigantic’ comes close although it’s not perfect. However, the original does not mention nor imply ‘roast’.

Google does a slightly better version with “who burns in the great fire” in the first part, but the use of ‘great’ is, as I mentioned, problematic. N.J Dawood’s ‘acclaimed’ translation, specifically the 1997 edition reads:

He shall burn in the gigantic Fire,

N.J Dawood’s translation somewhat problematic in that he has replaced the term Allah with God which reflects his bias (he is not Muslim). I believe no non-Muslim can properly translate the Noble Qur’aan simply because–if they are still non-Muslim, then–they are not intelligent enough to undertake such a task: having translated the Noble Qur’aan and still remained non-Muslim? That is lack of intelligence in my opinion, and this of course means the person is not qualified to undertake such an important task.

Indeed, others have found numerous issues with his biased translation:

He rearranged the chapters (surahs) into more-or-less chronological order in his first edition, which deviated from the traditional sequence of the Quran.

He presented the Quran as a patriarchal, sexist text, using terms such as “Men” and “Mankind” instead of “People” or “Humanity”.

He translated the word “houris” as “virgins” in verse 2:25, which gave the impression that Muslim paradise is full of carnal pleasures, contrary to the Quran’s explicit denial of such pleasures.

He used an archaic, literal style that failed to capture the poetic and rhetorical features of the original Arabic text.

He distorted the Quran’s meanings or omitted some verses or phrases that he deemed irrelevant or redundant.

Please see references for the sources of these points.

A good translator should be a practicing Muslim, who is also a scholar in the Islamic traditions and knowledge. N.J. Dawood is none of these, so if he makes mistakes in translation, he will not know he has made those mistakes.

Luckily, because I had also learned classical Persian since I was a teenager, I was able to eventually find a Persian translation by Abdur-Rauf Herawi (A Sunni translation) that adds additional commentaries from the Hadith (Spoken Tradition of our Prophet SAW) providing a context for the meanings.

In this Persian translation, the word ‘Kobraa’ is given in classical Persian ‘Kobraa’ because Persian has inherited many words from Arabic and the meaning is somewhat apparent to a Persian-speaking reader, but it’s not a word in common usage so additional comment explains the difference between a ‘Soghraa’ (minor) and a ‘Kobraa’ (major) fire, by which is meant that the fire of Hell is Kobraa–thus more painful and dreadful than the Soghraa (minor) fire of this world.

In short, most English translations of the Noble Qur’aan fall short of the minimum standards for a good translation, even if the intentions are good in most cases; just so the gentle reader doesn’t leave empty-handed, the next best English translation that I find acceptable-ish enough is by Dr. Khattab’s The Clear Quran. This translation has been approved by al-Azhar university in Cairo.

May you succeed in your journey of self-purification, amen.

REFERENCES