Good translations of the Qur'an

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), May 20, 2007 at 17:25

Hi Plato

Good translations of the Qur'an? They really do not exist. The worst of the lot is Yusuf Ali as he makes many mistakes and his translation is really tendentious. I think that his command of the Arabic language was not the best and he was trying to put a positive spin for islam in his translation but this is not what a good translation is all about.

Just avoid any translation by a Pakistani . They are all bad.

I like Dawood and Rashad Khalifa (compare Rashad Khalifa's translation of the word Qalat in Q9:30 and it drives Muslims crazy as he uses the past tense "said" which is the correct Quranic word and not the grammatical aspect and the word "say." And you know what? I believe that he is correct) and they are both Arabic speakers and their command of the Arabic grammar is really good.

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