The Quran & It's Translations  

It has become fashionable nowadays to insist that one must be an Arabic linguist if one seeks to translate the Quran.

This statement may be acceptable except that some individuals who are not Arabic language experts have indeed gone ahead and translated the Quran into different languages. And these translations are widely accepted and vouched for by comparing them with other existing translations and also with the original itself.

Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Othman Ali are two individuals who have translated the Quran into English and Malay respectively who are not Arabic linguists.

The biography of Abdullah Yusuf Ali by M.A. Sherif is quite revealing ("Searching for solace" - A biography of Abdullah Yusuf Ali - interpreter of the Quran by M.A. Sherif. Publisher: Islamic Book Trust, Kuala Lumpur).

When Abdullah Yusuf Ali was appointed the principal of the Islamia college in Lahore, among the criticisms levelled against him was that he did not know a word of Arabic (page 105). His translation of the Quran had been based on other English and Urdu translations.

An embarrassing incident is recorded when Abdullah Yusuf Ali had to get up and leave a meeting after it was pointed out that the English translation he was reading did not match the Arabic verses that had been recited (Footnote 66 page 118).

The author also presents evidence from professor Hamidullah who says that Abdullah Yusuf Ali could not speak Arabic though he could understand its grammar (page 178 and page 186).

And yet it is widely acknowledged that the translation of the Quran into English by Abdullah Yusuf Ali is indeed an excellent translation. It is the most widely read and widely quoted English translation available today.

Not only that but the Presidency of Islamic Research in Saudi Arabia has recently published their own translation of the Quran into English, based largely on the translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali "for its distinguishing characteristics, such as a highly elegant style, a choice of words close to the meaning of the original text.."

The Arabs have translated a Quran into English based on a translation by a non-Arab who did not know the Arabic language. But the important thing is the Quranic message comes across.

Similarly Othman Ali - a student of the Quran from Malaysia - has translated the Quran into the Malay language. It is an excellent work, which should be read and compared with other translations in other languages as well as the original.