Reading Quran in English

[Inait Ullah]

The idea of reading the Quran in English might not sound like a controversial notion. After all, there are a number of readily available translations of Quran. Why shouldn't someone who is interested in learning more about Islam just pick one of these up at their local bookstore or library, and read it.

 

[YmirGF]

The idea of reading the Quran in English might not sound like a controversial notion. After all, there are a number of readily available translations of Quran. Why shouldn't someone who is interested in learning more about Islam just pick one of these up at their local bookstore or library, and read it.

Reading a translation entails accepting the bias of the translator which may or may not be completely accurate. The only real remedy for this is to become fluent in both spoken and written Arabic.

To get around this foible one should consult several different translations to arrive at a clearer understanding of what the passages are talking about. Likewise Tasfir commentaries are extremely helpful in understanding the context of the various verses.

One place I check things online is:

Al Tafsir.com - Tafseer Holy Quran from all Tafseer Schools, Quran Translations, Quran Recitations, Quran Interpretation (Tafseer), Quran Sciences, and Love In Quran

Another very useful link is a line by line comparative study of 16 English translations of the Qur'an. It can be found at:
OMG. The site is now updated and they are currently displaying 33 English translations - line by line. WOW.

Compared Translations of the meaning of the Quran

 

[Tiapan]

One of the keys to the Qurans success is the built in CRC check. It can only be written in arabic as that is the language of the prose/poetry/rhythm of the verses. This means its integrity is maintained because, if it was change the rhyme would not rhyme, indicating a missed translation had occurred. So any translation to another language will by definition disrupt this built in check.

It does indicate to me that who ever wrote the quran must have assumed that all humans would speak arabic one day, so I guess the Chinese, Spanish and English speakers of this world must resign themselves to learning another language to embrace the Quran fully. Or it was written by men who forgot to make it more universal and missed an important mark.

Cheers

 

[K.Venugopal]

An authentic translation of the Quran in the language of the reader would be good enough for the reader to get the spirit of what the Quran is trying to say. Only those who wish to quibble over words would need to get to the original. In the Quran I have read in English God comes through as an extremely intolerant character who does not pass a page without warning, threatening and frightening people to subdue to His might or face dire consequences. Reading it said more eloquently in the original wouldn't make Allah a compassionate Buddha.

 

[DeitySlayer]

If Muslims want to claim that the Qur'an must be read in Arabic to be fully understood, Christianity could just as easily demand that the Bible be read in the original Aramic and Hebrew.

 

[Gaura Priya]

Knowing the context of the Prophet Muhammad, I do like the Qur'an, and my favoured translation is the Pickthall translation, as archaic as it may be. Unfortunately, it is the only English translation I know that is a) preserves the beauty of the Qur'anic language, b) translated by a faithful Muslim, c) is grammatically correct and comprehensible English, and d) uses the name Allah, which is a revealed Name of the Lord in the Qur'an.

Other translations lack from one of these four things I look for in translations.

Fi'aman'u'llah!

 

[England my lionheart]

IMO its pointless reading the Qur'an in English as it gets lost in translation,a bit like the challenge of the Qur'an its pointless unless you have a good degree of Arabic which isn't the easiest of languages to learn,so, as many Muslims have told me,the full beauty and comprehension of the Qur'an can only be experienced through Arabic

 

[geoexplorer]

I will begin reading the Qur'an soon... It will be nice to become more informed about this global religion.