A Very Concerned Reader: Mr. Khattab's translation of سورة العديت (العاديات) or Surat al-'Adiyat Q100

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Apr 9, 2021 at 07:18

Now, if you have a paper copy of Pickthall's translation of the Qur'an, you will discover that he alerts his readers to the fact that سورة العديت (العاديات) or Surat al-'Adiyat or Q100 has no clear meaning. And indeed the whole chapter has no meaning and why would it be this way that by the time of al-Tabari was writing his Tafsir in the late second and early 3rd century of Islam the meaning of this chapter was lost.

However, recent scholarship and research are untangling the real meaning of this chapter. I urge you to check this old post of mine here at danielpipes.org about the work of Professor Mundhir Younes in explaining what this chapter really means. And spoiler alert: It is a Syro-Arabic Christian hymn.

http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/217626

For Arabic speaking readers you can watch Brother Rachid's interview of Prof Younes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjcO-LE_ZC8

Now, here are multiple translations of the chapter and as you might know by now, those that translate the Qur'an never admit that they are not sure about the meaning of what they are reading and the only exception in this case is Pickthall.

https://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter=100&verse=1

Here is a link to Mr. Khattab's translation as well as Sahih International

https://quran.com/al-adiyat?locale=th&font=v1&reading=false&translations=20%2C131

Let us check verse 1:

والعاديات ضبحا

This can be rendered as: And al-'Adiyat (this word has no clear meaning) Dabha (this word has no clear meaning)

And this is Mr. Khattab's translation:

"by the galloping panting horse"!

However, You will not find the words "Galloping, panting or horses" in the verse. So he is really repeating what we would find in other translations and he does not even alert the reader to the fact that the meaning of this chapter is very unclear.

I wonder if he is aware of Prof Younes' work!

Terrible translation

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