Translation of quran

rcunning03

Why is the quran translated into old english, insead of modern english which would be easier to read ?

marco murphy

The Qu'ran pak was written in a old language.
The words arent found in modern english.
Its hard to find the words in english that are found in the Qu'ran.

Osman

Greetings,

I don't know the reasons why they are in old English but I know some people who find it completely pointless. Indeed, I also find it pointless. If you want an excellent translation that is in modern English then you will find that here

Peace

marco murphy

Salaams,

Nice find osman
Mash 'allah

Capt'n Midnight

Which translation ?
Don't forget that the bible is usually presented in the same language.
Also modern usage changes fairly fast whereas what you call "old english" will still it's meaning in the future.

Also that nasty word copyright means that any "modern" version may not be freely available. cf.the song "happy birthday"

And religous books have been subject to copyright law before Islam.

Diarmuid wrote:

'To every cow it's calf, and to every book it's copy'.

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/qmtintro.html

Warning!

Please keep in mind that ANY translation of the Qur'an will most definitely contain errors (e.g. see our online list of corrections). We have provided three translations here to emphasize this point. In its natural language (Arabic), the Qur'an is the direct Word of Allah (God) to mankind through the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Any translation of the Qur'an no longer retains that 'official' and perfect status, however it can be tremendously helpful to beginning students wanting to learn more about Islam.

We would strongly encourage those want to learn about Islam to purchase a hardcopy of the Qur'an but with the following conditions:

* get one with commentary (tafseer)
* make sure the tafseer is scholarly (e.g. references to reasons behind a verse, references to hadith and sunnah, etc.)

Unfortunately, the three translations presented here do NOT meet these simple conditions. To the best of our knowledge, an excellent English translation and commentary of the Qur'an is Maududi's recently published work "The Meaning of the Qur'an". This work took more than forty years to complete, and was published beginning in the mid to late 1980's. We have included Maududi's introduction to each chapter of the Qur'an, but the complete commentary is not online (yet!). Maududi's work is superior to the three works presented here, HOWEVER please note that we are not in any way decrying the tremendous efforts of Ali, Pickthal, or Shakir. May Allah reward them all.

Capt'n Midnight

Osman - just checked than link - that seems more up to date all right

Osman

Thank you Poblachtach and Capt'n Midnight. It is translated by Dr.Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al Hilali, and Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, usually abbreviated as Hilali-Khan. It's a very popular and well-known translation which includes tafsir (commentary) by Ibn Kathir, Tabari, and Qurtubi. Very reliable.

Peace

Suff

IMO... NO one can EVER ever produce an accurate translation of the Quraan.
it's diffecult to translate it in any form, it's beauty lies in it's arabic words and the way they complement each other.

honestly if any person would like to feel and experiance the beauty of the Quraan they should give arabic lessons ago.
that's what I think.

Osman

Salaam Suff,

I fully agree with you. Arabic is such a unique language in that it would take pages of English to explain what just a few words of arabic can. This is why there are variations in translating the words and the meaning of the Qur'an into other languages.

Verily, We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur'ân in order that you may understand.
~ Qur'an (012:002)

Peace,

Osman

Wibbs

Osman wrote:

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Verily, We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur'ân in order that you may understand.
~ Qur'an (012:002)

Why should it not be easy to understand for non Arabic speakers? Does God only speak Arabic? This is the bit that confuses me about all religions. If they come from God, surely they would be clear in instruction in all languages?

Frank Grimes

Wibbs wrote:

Why should it not be easy to understand for non Arabic speakers? Does God only speak Arabic? This is the bit that confuses me about all religions. If they come from God, surely they would be clear in instruction in all languages?

Muslims believe that prophets/messengers were sent to all people, the messages just became corrupt or lost.
To the OP, try Muhammad Asad's translation of the Qur'an. You'll probably have to buy it though, I've only seen it on one site and that was incomplete and there seemed to be lots of errors in it.

bonkey

rcunning03 wrote:

Why is the quran translated into old english, insead of modern english which would be easier to read ?

<pedant>
If you can read the translation then its not old english, unless you're a scholar of it.

Old English is more akin to old (and modern) Norwegian than to modern English.

You perhaps mean "an old form of modern english".

For clarity:

Old English - pre 1066
Middle English - 1066 to mid/late 15th century
Modern English - late 15th century onwards

Modern English can then be further broken down into other categories like Early Modern English, and so on and so forth, but they're less important distinctions.
</pedant>

bonkey

Wibbs wrote:

If they come from God, surely they would be clear in instruction in all languages?

They're rarely clear in the language they were written in.

Hobbes

A better way of putting it is..

Explain what colours are to a blind person, or what singing is to a deaf person.

There are concepts in various languages that simply cannot be translated or not easily. Maybe God picked the best language to best describe what s/he wanted to say?

zaksweb

I think its in Old English - My grandfather brought one of the first english translations of Al-Qur'an to the uk. Yusuf Ali in 1938 - so that's why its in old english - islam channel has new english translation on the tv if u read the translation when quran recitations are on.

Qadri

Thank you Poblachtach and Capt'n Midnight. It is translated by Dr.Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al Hilali, and Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, usually abbreviated as Hilali-Khan. It's a very popular and well-known translation which includes tafsir (commentary) by Ibn Kathir, Tabari, and Qurtubi. Very reliable.

I agree with this. The included tafsir are authentic and will make it more easy to understand.

Arabic can not be translated literally. The reason is that a word in arabic can have many meanings. Sometimes more than 50. It depends on the Siyaaq and Sabaaq (context), the time of revelation, the previous verses and next verses which exact word to use.

For example: The word Salaat.

Quran says : Wa Aqeemus Salaat ( And Offer your prayers)
You see the word Salaat has been translated here as praying.

Another Verse states: Innallaha Wamala ikatuhu Yusalluna Alan Nabi (Indeed Allah and all his angels send peace and salutations upon the Prophet)
The word Yusalluna comes from the root word Salaat. If someone translates this as worshipping or praying than this is Kufr. Because Allah and his angels do not worship or pray to the Prophet (pbuh).
So here it is translated as sending peace and salutaion. This is also one meaning of Salaat according to the Ulama al Lugha'h (the Masters of Arabic Grammar and Vocabulary). In Almufridat Imam Raghib has stated 58 meanings of the word salaat.

This is one of the reasons why Quran can not be translated literally and why no scholar or great Mufassir can everr translate Quran 100% right.

marco murphy

Why cant i get a Quran, a proper Quran, they are all for sale like its some childrens story book , as if the reader is unable to read.

Frank Grimes

Poblachtach wrote:

Why cant i get a Quran, a proper Quran, they are all for sale like its some childrens story book , as if the reader is unable to read.

Where are you looking? You can get most translations from amazon.co.uk. I'm sure the mosques here sell/give out proper translations too, Qadri or one of the other Muslim posters will be able to help you.

marco murphy

They cost 50 euro from where (My freind) and qudris freind gets em, at a mosque i think.
Too young for amazon.
Turns out a sheik in england will send one.

Osman

Peace,

Lookie what I found!

http://freequran.org/index.php

I'm not sure who the translator is though.

Regards,

Osman

Qadri

Originally Posted by Poblachtach
Why cant i get a Quran, a proper Quran, they are all for sale like its some childrens story book , as if the reader is unable to read.

I will give Jawwad a Quran for you. For free , next time I meet him I will give it to him insha Allah:)

marco murphy

I'll give you something in return now
Shukran brother
Salaam