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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Commentary On the Holy Qur'an Translations of the Holy Qur'an Into English The Holy Qur'an has been translated into the English language by many scholars of repute, and some of these have provided detailed notes of commentary. They include: George Sale, J.N. Rodwell, E.H. Palmer, M. Pickthal, Hafiz Ghulam Sarwar, N.i Dawood and M.H. Shakir. Translation of the text alone is not sufficient unless each revelation is put into its true context.

The most recent translation, by M.H. Shakir, contains some brief and useful notes on selected verses, but these are too few and too brief Had he lived longer, he might have provided a fuller commentary. Earlier, Badhsa Husain of Lucknow attempted a detailed work which was published in two volumes. But he too died before completing his work However, he used the translation of J.N.

Rodwell, not his own, and his notes are based on the sermons of some maulvi and lack any reference to modern-day problems and do not attempt to answer anti-Islamic criticism. This fact the author openly acknowledged in his introduction The translations by Christian scholars such as Rodwell, Sale and Palmer, etc. are clearly prejudiced.

Any Islamic scholar can easily see that these translators betray either a faulty knowledge of Arabic or an intention to distort the truths of the Holy Qur'an to serve their own purposes. Their purpose seems, clearly, to prejudice the reader against the Qur'an rather than help him to understand it. To expose these translations, particularly those by Christian scholars, would require more time and space than this work can provide.

The following quotations offer the opinions of some who were impartial in their attitude to the Holy Qur'an. The great Christian scholar, Sir E. Dennison Ross, in referring to the translation by Mr Sale, shows the full extent of the ingenuity and the lies that those prejudiced against Islam have resorted to.

It must, however be borne in mind that the Koran plays a far greater role among the Muhammadans than does the Bible in Christianity, in that it provides not only the canon of their faith, but also the text-book of their ritual and the principles of their civil law. For many centuries the acquaintance which the majority of Europeans possessed of Muhammadanism was based almost entirely on distorted reports of fanatical Christians which led to the dissemination of a multitude of gross calumnies.