By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Aligarh: The Aligarh Muslim University’s Department of Islamic Studies organized an lecture program on ‘Difficulties in Translating Quran’ on 26th March.
Delivering his lecture on the topic, Prof. Syed Salman Nadvi, eminent scholar and ex-head of the Department of Islamic Studies at Durban University, said “Translating the spirit of Quran in English language has been a difficult task for Orientalists and expert Muslim Englishmen.” Acknowledging the sincerity and the valuable services rendered by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Muhammad Asad and Muhammad Dawood, Prof. Salman Nadvi articulated the view that these senior personages were indeed acclaimed in modern age but the first two translators could not put away with the influences of intellectualism, proximity with Zahiri School and opinions of Mutazila.
The translation by R. Berry Rowel revealed willful distortions in sequence of Quran arrangement and obvious lapses in communicating its true meanings but Abdul Majid Daryabadi’s English translation of Quran has been a sincere and academic effort in the twentieth century, Prof. Nadvi said and admitted that Dr. Zafar Ishaq Ansari presented an extremely good translation of Maulana Syed Abul Ala Maudoodi’s translation of Quran along with footnotes. He emphasized that besides being well-versed in Arabic, English and other languages, this is very necessary for a translator of Quran to be imbued with the sense of accountability before Allah.
Addressing the intellectuals, special guest Maulana Ateequr Rahman Sambhali said it was relatively easier to translate Quran in languages that have been adopted by Muslims but, it was rather difficult to translate the terminologies of Quran as given in Arabic language. A translator should not set his aims and objectives before working on translation because an attempt to translate in an objective way will get rid of sectarian and creed-based biases, he said. The program was chaired by ex-director of the Institute of Islamic Sciences Prof. Yaseen Nazhar Siddiqui.