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From: pur-ee!bdirai@rhino.ecn.purdue.edu (Ilyess B Bdira)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Good and bad English translations/interpretations of the Qur'an
Message-ID: <1990Nov6.183754.25876@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Date: 6 Nov 90 18:37:54 GMT
References: <1990Nov5.070333.18285@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
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In article <1990Nov5.070333.18285@nntp-server.caltech.edu> eederavi@pyramid.swansea.ac.uk (Farzin Deravi) writes:
>For Inclusion in soc.cutlture.islam
>
>In article <1990Nov1.205630.13179@nntp-server.caltech.edu> Dave Bakken writes:
>>
>>I second this question.  I have heard bits and pieces here and there
>>of how some Muslims don't like this translation and do like this one.
>>I (and probably many others) would appreciate it if some knowledgable
>>Muslims would help enlighten us on this.  Specifically, could you list
>>2--3 translations that are among the best, and maybe a few of the
>>more popular (in terms of printed copies) versions that are considered
>>poor translations.  

The only good translation is one that is written by a NATIVE ARAB SCHOLAR
who knows Arabic extremely well, knows the language and the CULTURE of the
people he is translating to (In our case English and Western culture), and
knows Islam to the degree of Ijtihad (Scholarship).
So far there is NO GOOD TRANSLATION of the meaning of the Quoran.
I hope thare will be one soon.
Yusef Ali's Problem was that he was not a big Islamic scholar nor an 
expert on Arabic litterature. But his translation is correct about 90%
of the time, which beats most other translations, but still that 10%
really hurts.
My opinion is that a good translation will be available when there will
be enough Islamic scholars who really understand Islam fully. There are
not many of them so far.

The reason I included culture in the requirements above is that if you use
English, for example, and think in Arabic then you will convey an entirely
different meaning. You have to know the cultural context of the words you
are using.