sTs: As the Koran says in 54:17….. Do any of you (Muslims) wish to learn?

Submitted by Plato (India), Aug 24, 2008 at 10:58

sTs you wrote:

>>I sent you to check this verse (Quran 51:7)

Here is the verse - "(God swears by) the sky that is woven (full of paths)"<<

I have taken translations of 51: 7 from this site: http://www.quranix.net/PM/#?RTQ=1&TMG=1&MA=1&RK=1&TE=1&A=1&L=en&NA=10&S=51&SA=7

Edip Yuksel: By the sky with orbits

Monotheist Group: By the sky that is woven.

Muhammad Asad: Consider the firmament full of starry paths.

Rashad Khalifa: Despite the perfectly created sky

The first thing that you will notice about this verse is that in the first two translations, like yours, Allah is swearing by his own creation (if it can be considered a creation) the sky. The last two have avoided the spectacle of the Almighty reduced to swearing by his own lowly creation. I notice that they, especially Asad, have avoided Allah swearing on his created things in some other surahs too by using the word ‘consider' instead of ‘by'.

You have four different translated meanings for one simple sentence in Arabic. Have you asked yourself why Arabic scholars end up with such different translations of a simple sentence? One talks of a sky that is wowen (like your translation) another of orbits/starry paths and still another of a perfectly created sky.

This means that Arabic is such a confusing language that scholars are unable to give even a reasonably accurate translation of this verse into such a versatile language as English. This seems to falsify Allah's claim that the Koran is easy to understand which he reiterates in four verses in surah: 54:17 We made the Quran easy to learn. Do any of you wish to learn? (Repeated in 57: 22, 32 and 40.)

You claim to be Arab. What have you to say about these translations in the context of Allah's claim that his revelations are easy to understand?

Regards

Plato

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