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From: bro@eunomia.rice.edu (Douglas Monk)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Translating Qur'an ( Was Re: Questions regarding Israel)
Summary: Beware reading too much into fallible translations...
Message-ID: <1990Nov8.014434.27292@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 8 Nov 90 01:44:34 GMT
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Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
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In article <1990Nov3.210105.11983@nntp-server.caltech.edu> gordon@cssun.tamu.edu (Dan Gordon) writes:
[...]
#This is very interesting. I have also found the following (from the 
#translation by N. J. Dawood, Penguin Books) Surah 17, verse 103:
#
#"He [Pharaoh - mentioned in the previous verse] sought to scare them out
#of the land: but We drowned him, together with all who were with him. 
#Then We said to the Israelites: 'Dwell in this land. When the promise of
#                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#the hereafter comes to be fulfilled, We shall assemble you all together.'"
#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#
#This definitely reads as a promise by God to the Israelites that in the
#times shortly preceding the "hereafter", He will gather them all together.
#It is entirely in agreement with the other above-mentioned prophecies in
#the Bible.

As a lesson concerning reading too much into a particular translation,
and relying on translations in the first place, consider the following
differing translations of Surah 17 v.104:

N.J. Dawood: "Then We said to the Israelites: `Dwell in this land.
When the promise of the hereafter comes to be fulfilled, We shall
assemble you all together.'"

Yusuf `Ali: "And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, `Dwell
securely in the land (of promise)': but when the second of the warnings
came to pass, We gathered you together in a mingled crowd."

Muhammad Pickthall: "And We said unto the Children of Israel after
him: Dwell in the land; but when the promise of the Hereafter cometh
to pass We shall bring you as a crowd gathered out of various
nations."

A.J. Arberry: "And We said to the Children of Israel after him, `Dwell
in the land; and when the promise of the world to come comes to pass,
We shall bring you a rabble."

How do they reach these variations? Let's turn to the original and build
from there:

In transliteration (adapted from "The Holy Qur'aan: Transliteration in Roman 
Script" by M.A. H_aleem Eliasii. Note that this is a *pronunciation*
transliteration, so the word by word transliteration/translation below
will vary slightly as I convert to a *spelling* transliteration.):

"Wa qulnaa mim-ba`-dihii li-Baniii-'Israaa-'iilas-kunul-'ard_a
fa-'idhaa jaaa-'a wa`-dul-'aakhirati ji'-naa bikum lafii-faa."

On a word-by-word basis with translations:

"Wa"
	"And". Many sequences of sentences in Arabic begin with	"Wa", so
	not always translated literally.
"qulnaa"
	"We said". First person plural capitalized in English because Allah
	is original speaker.
"min"
	"of". "n" followed by "b" in next word pronounced "m".
"ba`-dihii"
	"after him". "-ihii" is a suffix for "him" etc.
"li"
	"to"
"Baniii 'Israaa-'iil"
	"Children of Israel". Often "banii" translates as "tribe".
"as-kunuu"
	"dwell (in)". (imperative second person plural)
"ul-'ard_a"
	"the earth". Compare with "balad" = "country".
"fa"
	"then".
"'idhaa"
	"when".
"jaaa-'a"
	"comes". (Root is j-y-', perfect active): to come, to do, commit.
"wa`-du"
	"promise" (verbal noun of w-`-d: to promise, threaten)
"ul-'aakhirati"
	"the Hereafter". (also: "the Next World", "the World to Come" etc.).
"ji'-naa"
	"We will bring" (Root is j-y-', perfect active second person plural
	with preposition "bi-"): to bring, produce.
"bikum"
	"by means of you" ("bi-" = "with", etc. and "-ikum" = "you")
"lafii-faan."
	"an assembly".

Put it all together:
(First line: transliteration from above)
(Second line: translation from above)
(Third line: "smoothed" translation)

"Wa  qulnaa  min ba`-dihii li     Baniii 'Israaa-'iil as-kunuu"...	a)
"And We said of  after him to     Children of Israel  dwell (in)"...	a)
"And We said     after him to the Children of Israel: `Dwell in"...	a)

"ul-'ard_a fa   'idhaa jaaa-'a Wa`du   ul-'aakhirati ji'-naa"...	    b)
"the earth then when   comes   promise the Hereafter We will bring"...	    b)
"the earth;     when [the promise of the Hereafter comes] We will bring"... b)

"bikum           lafii-faan".	c)
"by means of you an assembly".	c)
"by means of you an assembly'".	c)

Turning back to those previously quoted translations with added (notes)
of my own:

N.J. Dawood: "Then We said to the Israelites: `Dwell in this land.
							^^^^(a)
When the promise of the hereafter comes to be fulfilled, We shall
assemble you all together.'"

Note (a): "this" would seem to be unjustified here.

Yusuf `Ali: "And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, `Dwell
securely in the land (of promise)': but when the second of the warnings
^^^^^^^^(b)          ^^^^^^^^^^^^(c)         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^(d)
came to pass, We gathered you together in a mingled crowd."

Note (b): "Securely" is probably not needed, if reflecting a connotation of
"rest" or "repose", the verb would be translated as "become tranquil (in)"
rather than "dwell securely (in)".

Note (c): "(of promise)" is *not* a translator's interpolation, but rather
a *commentator*'s interpolation, and properly belongs in a footnote, *not*
in an interpolatory comment in the translation (in my opinion). It seems
unjustified here in any event.

Note (d): Completely unjustified in the original Arabic. In the commentary,
there is a remark that "Some Commentators understand the second warning to
be the Day of Judgment, the Promise of the Hereafter.", so this may be a
major typographical error, where the commentary and the actual translation
were switched somehow.

Muhammad Pickthall: "And We said unto the Children of Israel after
him: Dwell in the land; but when the promise of the Hereafter cometh
to pass We shall bring you as a crowd gathered out of various
				      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^...
nations."
^^^^^^^(e)

Note (e): This is probably intended as interpolation, but to me borders on
commentary. Of course, "assembly" implies gathering from other places, but
"out of various nations" is a little too explicit for my taste.

A.J. Arberry: "And We said to the Children of Israel after him, `Dwell
in the land; and when the promise of the world to come comes to pass,
We shall bring you a rabble."
		   ^^^^^^^^(f)

Note (f): "mob, rabble, riffraff" in modern Arabic is "lafiif-an-naas".
"al-naas" pronounced "an-naas", = "the people", thus an "assembly of
people" is a "mob", "rabble", etc. If "lafiif" by itself has this
more perjorative connotation in Qur'anic Arabic, I cannot tell.

Closing comments: 

No existing translation of the Qur'an is satisfactory to me: Too many
errors, too much unfortunate interpolation, too many personal agendas
of translators intruding.

Of the ones I list here, I would put Pickthall at the top, then Yusuf
`Ali (especially the new Saudi edition that corrects some of the
errors), then maybe Arberry. Each has problems, though.  I don't really
recommend Dawood (he scrambles the order of the surahs and I often
don't trust his translation: just look at what inserting "this" in the
above does to create spurious implications).

Doug Monk (bro@rice.edu)

Disclaimer: These views are mine, not necessarily my organization's.