For once I agree with our dear Samer and translations of the Qur'an

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jun 22, 2008 at 17:29

Our dear Samer wrote

>I believe there is an urgency for Arabic native scholared in Islam to take the initiative and translate the Quran in the proper way.

Well I agree with you that the best translations would come from people whose mother tongue is Arabic and who have great command of the Arabic garmmar which your likes lack. You are what I call no more than a fahlawi but you do not really know your Arabic garmmar. It is just pathetic the way Arabic garmmar is now been taught to Arabs. It is also strange when some of the best Arabic dictionaries were written by Maronites and some of the worst ones were written by Muslims. What is more strange not too many Arabs know how to use an Arabic language dictionary and some like you are clueless about the Arabic language root system

But the problem with the Qur'an is a very basic problem: Which Qur'an should be translated? The 1923-1924 Cairo edition or the 1969 Tunisian edition and should a masora like activity (Mr. ignotrant the masora is a laon word from Hebrew and it means the examination of the language of the basic rasm of the Qur'an) be re-started where a modern reading of this opaque revelation is indeed lacking? As a matter of fact the best translations are by Arabs the likes of Rashad Khalifa (yes he was a nut case but he knew his Arabic) and an eaxmple here he is the only one that correctly translates Q9:30 or: wa qalat al-yahood where he translates the word qalat as: they said which is indeed the proper translation of the word. Now enter those that have no understanding of reading a text and now we have the garmmatical aspect and the word qalat becomes: They say in the present tense. Yes I realize that there is a difference between tarjamat al-ma3na wa tarjamat al-kilma but one must be true to what the text really says

I like Rashad Khalifa as well as Dawood's tanslation and dawood was an Iraqi Christian

>not according to the translation of the British or Pakistani people

Well said: the worst and most shameful translation is that by the Pakistani Yusuf Ali

But the best way to translate the Qur'an is what I do based on the old Arabic saying: al-tafseer lel sahaba wa al-ta'weel lel ulama/jamii3. I use the 1923-1924 Cairo edition and use books of grammar and Lisan al-3rab et voila

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