"translating the Qur'an"

Submitted by Lactantius Jr. (United Kingdom), Jun 25, 2008 at 17:48

To Dhimmi no more

Thank you for this, I appreciate your comments because I am unable to comment on sTs' Arabic grammar, but will comment on what I believe to be an old trick he's using, that of attempting to avoid the unpleasant aspects of the Qur'an, by claiming "wrong translation," and in seeking to place a hedge around the Qur'an, it seems that no translation would be good enough for him.

I don't accept this, believing all languages are translatable such that the meaning of the original can be communicated, and don't believe that 7th.century Arabic is incapable of being adequately translated. Neither does M.A.S.Abdel-Haleem, an Egyptian born, al-Azhar educated hafiz Qur'an, Professor of Islamic studies and Director of the Centre of Islamic Studies, at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and who says of his translation, "The Qur'an, A New Translation," that he intends to "go further than previous works in accuracy, clarity , flow, and currency of language." A pity I can't find it online, otherwise I would be quoting him.

The "no translations good enough" folk like sTs are "hoist by their own petard" though aren't they, claiming fluency in Arabic is necessary to understand the Qur'an, and if that really is true, I ask about the more than 80% of Muslims who have to use translations, because they don't understand Arabic, Khaleel Mohammed saying fewer than 20% of Muslims understand Arabic, in the artcle titled "Assessing English Translations of the Qur'an," posted at http://www.meforum.org/article/717

In his posting, "sTs: Your claim proves that Islam is meant only the Arabs" at,

http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/132688

Plato also turned the tables on sTs, arguing persuasively that if we accepted sTs' claim for fluency in Arabic being necessary, because of "wrong translations," then Islam is not a universal message, and is only for Arabs, in line with Surah 14:4

With kind regards and best wishes

Lactantius Jr.

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