On this day in 1888, Maulana Azad was born in Makkah. Azad is now remembered as freedom fighter and India’s first education minister, his literary contributions to Urdu also acknowledged. His incomplete commentary on Quran received critical acclaim during his life time. Here we present Foreword to the English translation of Maulana Azad’s Tarjuman al-Qur’an first published in 1960.— Editor
By Syed Mahmud
The name of Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad will be written indelibly across the pages of Indian history as one of those great stalwarts who struggled to win freedom for India. That is the reward of patriotism and of sacrifices made under its compulsive demands. But his name will be equally remembered by posterity as a fighter in the cause of man’s intellectual emancipation as well, fighting hard against the intellectual and religious obscurantism which had held mankind under its grip for ages together, particularly the mind of his co-religionists, the Muslims of India, and those who inhabited the huge belt which stretched itself along the Central and Western Asia and North Africa right up to the shores of the Atlantic on the one hand, and in its offshoot to the South- East covering in its onward march into the Pacific, the Malaya peninsula and Indonesia, – a form of obscurantism which had expressed itself in a rigid adherence to medievalism in thought and action styled Taqlid or unthinking allegiance to mere tradition. This struggle in its deeper reaches was at first a struggle against his own self, his very upbringing, a veritable Jehad, so to say, against his own personality as built up by medievalism in religion to which he was heir.
The manner in which Mawlana Azad endeavoured to free his mind from the clutches of his medieval past may be noticed in the pages of the Al-Hilal and the Al-Balagh, two weekly journals in Urdu which he himself edited oft and on between 1912 and 1930, and above all in the pages of his monumental work in Urdu, The Tarjuman al-Qur’an or the interpretation of the Qur’an, the first volume of which was issued in 1930, and the second in 1936. How hard was the struggle in his own soul to rise above his own self to seek fresh avenues of approach to the sources of his Faith, the Qur’an” and the example of the Prophet, may be gleaned from the agonised statement which he makes in the preface to his work.
The Tarjuman al-Qur’an is recognised on all hands as Mawlana’s magnum opus. Therein he has tried to give to the Qur’anic word the interpretation which it was originally meant to bear, or as was understood by the followers of the Prophet in his own lifetime. It is in the form of an explanatory translation of the Qur’anic text supported, wherever necessary, by foot-notes and comments. The work, as it came out, attracted the serious attention of scholars both in India and abroad, so much so, that when it was revised by him while he was in Ahmednagar Jail and the second edition of it issued, I suggested to him the need for an English version of his great work, a suggestion which he readily appreciated. In fact, when he came out of jail in 1946, several scholars, one after another, tried their hand at it, but the result did not satisfy him. The translators themselves had to admit that the work was not easy to translate. The idea had therefore to lie in abeyance. Indeed, Mawlana Azad had well-nigh given up the hope of ever seeing his work in an English translation.
It was when Mawlana and I had the opportunity to read that remarkable work, The Mind Al-Qur’an Builds, written by Dr. Syed Abdul Latif, the distinguished scholar of Hyderabad, that we felt that here was a scholar who could rise equal to the occasion and fulfil the wish not only of my own self but also of Mawlana Azad. Dr. Latif was personally known to us for several years as Professor of English at the Osmania University, and a keen student of Islamic thought. When I approached him in this regard, he at first felt hesitant to undertake the task. But when it was brought home to him that his personal talents demanded of him to enter upon the task as a matter of duty to the world of intellect, he yielded. He had, however, long talks with Mawlana in regard to the manner of presentation. Mawlana Azad had, as I know, set great store by his commentary of the opening chapter of the Qur’an wherein he had surveyed its entire ideology. Indeed he regarded his achievement as a distinct landmark in the field of Islamic thought. He was anxious to see at least this part of his commentary on the Qur’in – the Surat-ul-Fatiha – rendered into English. So, when Dr. Latif finished its translation, I found Mawlana Azad immensely delighted and even overjoyed at the result. May it be noted that Mawlana was a very hard man to deal with in the matter of literary expression.
At this stage, a thought came to Mawlana that before issuing the finished translation of the opening part of his Commentary which was a serious production, a resume of the views advanced therein might be issued by way of introduction to his great Commentary. This was also prepared by Dr. Latif, and received high encomiums from Mawlana. It was sent to the press a few weeks before the tragedy of his death in February 1958 and came out of it a couple of months thereafter under the title, “Basic Concepts of the Qur’an” in the series of publications issued by the Academy of Islamic Studies, Hyderabad, of which Dr. Latif was himself President.
Mawlana Azad had made a special request to Dr. Latif to pursue his task and complete the translation of the rest of the Tarjuman which covered the first eighteen parts of the Qur’an. But this undertaking was somewhat of a different nature. It was not a translation of a running commentary in the language of Mawlana, as in the commentary of the opening chapter of the Qur’an, which forms the subject of the present volume. On the other hand, it was to be a literal translation, verse by verse, of the original Arabic text of the Qur’an fitted into his explanation and commentary. The task on the face of it was arduous, and called for the display of consummate skill in its execution. Nearly a half of this additional work has been done by now and the rest will be completed in due course, and the entire translation issued in a series in continuation of the present volume.
By rendering into English The Tarjumim al-Qur’an of Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr. Syed Abdul Latif has rendered a great service to the cause of the Qur’anic interpretation. His work will also be regarded as a lasting memorial to Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad, the great savant of India, whose presence in our midst is so sorely missed at this hour.
In conclusion, as chairman of the Committee formed to organise preparation and publication of the Tarjuman al-Qur’an in its English translation I have to express thanks for the valuable help rendered to me by Professor Humayun Kabir, Minister for Scientific Research arid Cultural Affairs, Shri M. R Shervani of Allahabad, Shri Husainbhoy Laljee of Bombay, Shri Nazir Husain of Madras, Hakim Abdul Hamid of Delhi and Shri Mirza Mohammed Begg.
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Freedom fighter Syed Mahmud was Member of Parliament in the first and second Lok Sabha and Minister of External Affairs, Government of India (Dec. 1954—April 1957)