Zakir Naik – Recommended English Translations of the Quran
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The speaker recommends several English translations, including Desai International, based on the title of the Quran. They caution against errors and caution against overestimating the accuracy of the translation. The speaker also recommends several other English translations, including the holy grail, the holy grail of the Bible, the holy grail of the Bible, and the holy grail of the Bible.
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Which of the English translations or meanings
of the Arabic,
Quran
would you recommend to the viewers
as being the best?
There are many English translations of the Quran.
As a machine Quran has been translated in
most of the major languages of the world.
As far as the English is concerned, in
our foundation Islamic Research Foundation,
we have more than 50 50 different translations
of the Quran only in English language.
The best
overall
amongst all the English translations,
there are a few, one of them is
Desai International,
this is the copy.
Desai International,
it is translated
just a few years ago.
It was translated
by
3 American ladies,
these 3 accepted Islam and Alhamdulillah,
they have referred to various previous translations and
this is authentic translation.
But one thing I would like to mention
that no translation of the Quran
is exactly
as the original word of Allah
because the translation is a human handiwork. So
no translation would be free from errors,
no translation. It can come closer
to the meaning of the Quran, but because
the translation is a work of a human
being, it can come no way
exactly the same
as the Arabic Quran, but amongst the one
that we have in English language, sir international
is one of the good ones.
The translation is authentic
but naturally as I mentioned that there is
bound to be a few errors.
The other one
which is overall good
and which I recommend
is the translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali.
Abdullah Yusuf Ali spent more than 40 years
only in translating the Quran
and overall I say that if you want
to give to a non Muslim, the translation
overall is good. It has commentary, it has
good footnotes
and
the English is a bit archaic,
you know the old English,
which most of the people do not like,
but actually it is closer to Arabic.
Because Arabic is a language
in which you have 2 genders male and
female
and
numbers we have 3, singular,
dual and plural.
So in English language if I have to
say you,
whether it's a male or a female, I
use you, whether it's a single person
or 2 persons
or more than 2, I use the same
you. For 6 different people,
whether single, dual
or plural, whether male or female I use
the same you, but in Arabic,
for a male single person, there is a
different you, anta,
for a female
single person it's anti, similarly dual for male
female is separate, plural more than 2 male
female is separate, that's 6 different yous.
So in this archaic
English,
it's the you, dev, e, di, dhow, which
is closer
to the Arabic, but it is difficult for
those who are not used to distinguish English,
difficult, but there are people who have simplified
the singing shop that likes to follow and
they have taken out this e and dhow
and made it into
you etcetera.
But overall, this translation is very good, but
again has some errors which are cross errors,
you should be aware of it.
These errors are cross,
but barring these errors which are there as
I mentioned that, this is one of the
old translations
and it is one of the most popular
translations.
There have
been tens or maybe 100 of millions of
copies
of the race of Ali which has been
distributed throughout the world
Because it's a popular translation, there are books
written against this Quran also maximum,
but alhamdulillah,
it is a good handiwork. We have to
be careful of the errors. The other good
translation
is noble Quran
by Taqwydin
Hilali
and Musen Khan.
This translation I especially recommend for the Muslims.
I don't recommend for the non Muslims because
it has too many brackets.
And
it's good for the Muslims because in the
footnotes, very often,
they give references from, say, Bukhari,
say, Muslim. So it's helpful for the Muslim
to understand the Quran better. But for non
Muslim, because of the brackets and too many
explanation,
it may not be very much feasible for
Dawah work according to me.
The other translation which is good
is by Abdul Mujid Dariyabadi,
it's in 4 volumes.
Its main specialty is, it's good for comparative
religion
and it gives quotation from the bible and
the other scriptures besides the Psalms scriptures.
Another English translation which is good is by
Muhammad Asad.
It is a very logical translation. He very
often
quotes Samok Shari, it's Kashaf, but if you
be careful, sometimes he goes overboard, He tries
to prove everything logically,
even the miracles, etcetera, so he has to
be careful. Otherwise,
its argument is very sound.
We have to be careful. As I said,
no translation is free from error. Then the
other translation that we have is by Mohammad
Quttaal,
you know, the British, But it's only translation,
there's no commentary, there's no footnotes.
We have the translation
of T. B. Irving, which is the American
translation.
If you're American English, that's a good translation,
TB Irving.
If you want a poetic translation,
then Arthur Arbery is there.
He is a non Muslim, but it's a
poetic translation.
These are mainly the translations
which are translated directly from Arabic to English
and the famous one. There are many other,
several.
There are some translations which have been translated
from Arabic
to another language Urdu and then to English.
For example,
by Maulana Abu Allah Maududi
and that is called as the FEM Lu
Quran,
that is a good
translation, it is in 6 volumes. The new
one is in more volumes and especially
the new translation from Urdu to English, Zafarishat
Ansari
is Sabat in English,
and it's a different view.
You know, it's there's a different view, a
different angle
of the Quran.
I would like to mention one more, the
other one which translated from Arabic
to Urdu to English
is by Morana Shamsbih Sadha. It is in
3 volume Daud al Quran.
So these are some of the important translations,
I think it is approximately 10 that I
have mentioned.
There are more than 50
that are available and
in the market may be more.
Just a sample for the viewers if they
want, they can differ with this translation.