Translations of the Qur'án are versions of the most holy book of Islam in languages other than Arabic.

For Muslims, the Qur'án is an Arabic revelation, and so they always recite it in the original language during ritual prayers (salah). Translations of its divine speech into other languages are necessarily the work of humans, and so no longer possess the uniquely sacred character of the Arabic original. Translations are considered only attempts to convey the meaning of the sacred text.

The task of translation is not an easy one; and though some native Arab-speakers may disagree, the more objective ones will confirm that some Qur'anic passages are difficult to understand even in the original Arabic. Part of this is the innate difficulty of any translation; in Arabic, as in other languages, a single word can have a variety of meanings. There is thus always an element of human judgement involved in understanding and translating a text. This is made more complex by the fact that the usage of words has changed a great deal between classical and modern Arabic. As a result, even Qur'anic verses which seem perfectly clear to native speakers accustomed to modern vocabulary and usage may not represent the original meaning of the verse.

The original meaning of a Qur'anic passage will also be dependent on the historical circumstances of Muhammad's life and early community in which it originated. Investigating that context usually requires a detailed knowledge of Hadith and Sirah, which are themselves vast and complex texts. This introduces an additional element of uncertainty which can not be eliminated by any linguistic rules of translation.

All the prominent translations of the Qur'an have each been the product of a single individual, so there is no translation which truly reflects the collective and opposing thoughts of a range of scholars. Such a large-scale collaborative effort would most likely be required to establish any one translation as most authoritative. Since this has not yet happened, there is no translation of the Qur'an as widely accepted (for example) as the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

As a result, individual English-speaking Muslims tend to have their own personal favourites. Indeed, those who read more than one translation often develop a fondness for different aspects of each. For example, the renowned scholar Annemarie Schimmel, author of dozens of books on Islam and formerly professor of Islam at Harvard University, favoured the translation of Arthur John Arberry for beauty of expression, and that of Marmaduke Pickthall for literal rendering of Arabic phrases.

Translators of the Qur'an[1]

English

• Abdullah Yusuf Ali
• M. H. Shakir
• Marmaduke Pickthall

Less Well-Known English Translators

• Arthur John Arberry
• Maulvi Sher Ali
• Dr. Muhsin Khan and Dr. M. Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali
• Dr. T. B. Irving
• Dr. Zohurul Hoque
• Fazlolla Nikayin
• E.H. Palmer
• Muhammad Sarwar
• Muhammad Asad

Urdu

• Shah Raft al-Din
• Shah 'Abd al-Qadir

Mande

• Souleymane Kante

Balochi

• Moulana Huzoor Bakhsh

External links to translations

• Multilingual Qur'an Project: Searchable Qur'an with the original Arabic, 4 English Translations and 1 English Commentary
• Sure Guidance: Searchable Translation, Transliteration and Commentary of the Qur·ān by Abdullah Yusuf `Ali
• The Noble Qur'an (with three translations in unison) by the University of Southern California
• Translations of Qur'an by Islamicity
• Four English Translations of the Qur'an
• The Holy Qur'an on Wikisource
• English Translation by Mohammad Ali
• Urdu Translation by Mohammad Ali
• Dutch Translation
• French Translation
• German translations
• Spanish Translation
• A bilingual Arabic-aljamiado Quran from the fifteenth century

References

• The Koran Interpreted : A Translation by A. J. Arberry, Touchstone, 1996. ISBN 0684825074
• The Meaning of The Glorious Koran: an Explanatory Translation by Marmaduke Pickthall, Everyman's Library, 1992. ISBN 0679417362