Mustafa Khattab – Commonly Mistranslated Verses Of The Quran Introduction
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My name is Mustafa Khattab. I'm the imam
of the Anatolia Masjid in, Mississauga, Canada.
And, Alhamdulillah Allah has blessed us in the
last, few years. Over the last 3, 4
years we have done a, good translation of
the Quran. It's called the clear Quran.
And, this is the Dao edition in the
US. It's all only in English.
Then we also have the Arabic English, the
home edition, the hardcover one, and it's in
Arabic and in English.
So it's published in Canada by Siraj Publications
and it is also available in the US
through a Al Farqhan Foundation,
and we'll put the links, below this, you
know, the title in the description
insha'Allah, so you can,
find the translation.
There are so many translations out there, and
for you inshallah to,
to know about why we decided to do
this translation, and the style of translation, and
why our team is qualified to, to translate
the Quran. Check out the couple of interviews
that I have done recently, and you will
find the links in the, in the description.
But generally, for anyone to translate the Quran,
they have to have some qualifications.
If someone, for example, needs to go for
a surgery,
they just can't go to anyone, they pick
a guy off the street to operate on
them. We don't trust that person.
You have to trust a doctor
or someone to to be able to operate
on you. They have to have some certain
qualifications.
They have to be
qualified
in terms of their academic background. They have
to be
experts
on Arabic,
on Islamic studies, Quranic studies, translation,
and they have to understand the historical background
of the, of the Quran and why certain
passages were revealed to be able to produce,
a good translation of the Quran. And Alhamdulillah,
we had a big team of over 75
people who were involved,
writers, editors,
and, proofreaders,
and scholars from Al Azhar, and Imams from
North America.
All of them were involved in this work
for 3, 4 years to be able to
produce something like this.
They have this,
good statement in, in Urdu they say, and
it basically means half a doctor is dangerous
to your life and health, and half a
scholar is dangerous to your iman, your faith.
So you have to pick someone who's qualified
to translate the Quran. But if someone is
not qualified,
then they will, their translation will not be
authentic and reliable.
When you pick a translation
to be able to understand the Quran, we
have to keep in mind that,
85%
of Muslims are not Arab. So many of
them rely on translation,
and there are so many non Muslims out
there who are interested in reading the Quran.
So, how can you pick a good translation?
Number 1,
before you read the translation, read a short
bio of the translator
to see if he's actually he or she
is actually qualified to translate or not.
Number 2, I really don't prefer a translation
from any other language other than Arabic. So,
if someone translated the Quran from Urdu, from
French, from Latin, from English or actually, anything
else German, the translation
should not be trusted
because,
you have to translate directly from the Arabic
unless for example someone translated the Quran from
Urdu,
but they, their Arabic is perfect. In this
case, I can trust, the translation.
I don't really
trust translations
by someone who's not Muslim.
Even if they have the best intentions,
they need to understand there are so many
things involved,
the history of revelation, they have to understand
Islam and the rulings of Islam to be
able to, to translate.
So, there are many translations out there by
non Muslims and they have serious issues in
the theology, in the understanding
of the, of the text of the Quran.
So if I, for example, get the chance
or the choice to choose between a translation
of the Bible by a Muslim and a
translation
of the Bible by a priest or a
minister or someone who is qualified, someone who
is,
scholarly in the Christian faith, I would choose
a translation by an expert in the field,
the Christian in this case.
So, if there's a translation of the Quran
by a reliable Muslim, someone who has the
experience and the knowledge to translate, and a
non Muslim, personally,
I would choose a translation by a Muslim.
Someone from the faith, even if a translation
is done by a non Muslim, no matter
how good their intention is, it's not gonna
be as good as a translation by a
Muslim. I also don't trust sectarian translations.
And, they say for example,
there are some sects in Islam. They have
their own beliefs
which are not compatible with
the mainstream
understanding of the Quran. And, they say for
example
if there is a certain group in Islam
and
they have their own limited understanding of the
religion or there is a feminist
translation
of the Quran and they try to do
a plastic surgery
to the Quran to,
to suit their belief. Or say for example,
there is a translation,
it doesn't exist, but I'm just giving you
an example,
a translation by a vegetarian who translates the
Quran to prove that meat is not permissible
for you to eat.
So, I have to be true
to the translation
and I have to be true to the
literal word of the Quran to be able
to translate the Quran correctly.
Some of the translators, they like to use
a very old archaic
style of translation
and they choose their words.
When they translate the Quran, they make them
very difficult. They still use
thou,
thine. We don't speak like that anymore. Maybe
400 years ago during the time of Shakespeare,
but not anymore. Our youth, the people of
our time, they don't speak like this. So,
if I give the,
to choose between, for the word for example,
to choose between retribution
and the word punishment, I'll choose punishment because
everyone knows this word. We don't use corn
anymore
to refer to grain like in surah 12
of the Quran in the story of Joseph.
We don't refer to a donkey as an
* anymore. This we don't use it this
way now. It it has a different connotation
sometimes
in an offensive way. So English is,
is is, evolving all the time and English
is changing all the time, so we have
to keep up with the modern style.
Inshallah, in the next
short episodes, I'm gonna give
some examples about 30 of them or more,
about some of the most common translations,
mistranslations
in the Quran.
So, most of the translations in the Quran
happened because
the translator was not able to understand the
Arabic word. They were not able to understand
the context of the word and they were
not able to understand the
grammar issue
and the and
the the rhetoric of the Quran and this
why their translation
is not perfect. And also,
sometimes they understand the word in Arabic, but
they break their head to be able to
find a suitable word in English, a good
equivalent, but they couldn't.
And, finally,
when they understand the meaning, but they use
a very difficult language to show their muscle,
a complicated structure,
and difficult words that in that no one
uses anymore, and this makes their translation inaccessible.
Finally,
when I evaluate a translation,
I look at 4 things. I look at
accuracy, how they understood the Arabic. I look
at the clarity after they translate how clear
the text is
and eloquence
if they try to reflect the beauty and
the power of the Arabic text of the
Quran.
And finally, the flow.
Does it flow? Is it very smooth or
not? So, because this is very important and
we made sure that the clear Quran covers
all these 4,
areas.
And generally, if I ask if you ask
me my opinion,
what are the best translations out there based
on clarity,
accuracy,
eloquence, and flow? There are 3 of them
that I recommend.
Number 1, and I'm biased. I recommend the
clear Quran. This is number 1. Number 2,
I recommend the translation by doctor Mohammed Abdelkhalim
from Oxford. And number 3, I recommend the
translation,
of doctor Ahmed Zak Ahmed from Al Azhar.
So again, I'm gonna give you about 30,
mistranslations
in the Quran, and if you'd like to
check the translations,
go to this website. They have about 40,
45 different translations for the same verse.
Check them out and see how the Clear
Quran did as compared to other translations. The
website is Islam Awakened
slash Quran.
Islam Awakened slash Quran and check out, the
different translations and see how we did in
the translation of the Quran. So Insha'Allah,
stay tuned,
and see how, you know, the examples we'll
give in regards to the mistranslations
of the Quran. Salam Alaikum. Thank you.