Should We Translate The Quran ? Yes, Urgently !

[ghulam muhammed]

Should We Translate the Quran? Yes, Urgently!

A Pakistani Muslim family in Britain killed their daughter for her “Western” lifestyle. Saudi Arabia is planning to legalise nuptials of baby girls. The Taliban in Afghanistan abducted and later hanged an eight-year-old boy over unpaid ransom. New hideouts of Islamist terrorists continue to be discovered in India. Meanwhile, scores are being killed every week, on occasions every day, by Islamists in Syria, Yemen and other parts of the Middle East.

These are some recent headlines from around the Muslim world. None of these heinous acts has anything to do with Islam―except that they are all carried out in the name of the faith. A woman’s consent must be solicited, and received, for a marriage to be Islamic: an edict that should automatically bar child marriage among god-fearing Muslims. But it doesn’t! Why? Killing a single human being without just cause is akin to killing the entire humankind, according to the Quran. Just this verse should make suicide bombings and other forms of mindless mass violence a travesty of Islam. Only, it doesn’t! Why?

The answer is simple: it’s written in a language most Muslims don’t understand. Arabic speakers form only a small percentage of Muslims. And even Arabic is so diverse that Arabs from different parts of their region―the Peninsula, the Levant and North Africa―struggle to comprehend one another. That leaves very very few people in the world who can read and understand the Quran as it is.

The solution is obvious: translate the Quran. It’s not a novel solution by any means; the Quran has been getting translated for more than a millennium. The first complete translation was carried out in the late ninth century in Sindh, Pakistan, on the request of a Hindu king. Since then, the Quran has been translated in a number of languages a number of times.

And yet, these translations count for little as they are not commonly accepted by Muslims as “the real thing”. There is a deep-seated belief that the Quran is untranslatable, and that as it was revealed in Arabic, so Muslims must also read it in Arabic. It’s considered a religious duty to do so, never mind the minor matter that most don’t understand a word of what they are reading.

The result: Muslim children around the world are brought up to read the Arabic script and spend some time every day reading the Quran―without making any sense of it. As they grow up, many of them limit themselves to reciting Quranic verses in daily or weekly prayers and reading the whole book at least once during Ramzan. Comprehension, however, continues to elude them, and they remain at the mercy of the local maulana (and, increasingly, of tele-Tablighis such as Zakir Naik) to tell them what it all means.

Lack of intellectual and cultural legitimacy for Quran’s translations hurts the Muslim milieu in many ways. First and most obviously, most Muslims never really know for themselves what the Quran is saying: their understanding of Islam therefore remains blindfolded in perpetuity. This is not how Islam, a religion rooted in reason and choice rather than superstition and compulsion, was meant to be.

Second, those who claim they can guide Muslims along―the mullahs―not only gain illegitimate authority on Muslims’ thoughts and beliefs, but often handhold them down unIslamic pathways. The Quran is presented in ahistorical and out-of-context ways, sometimes intentionally and sometimes because of their own ignorance. No wonder it is these “vanguards of the faith” who are most hostile to translating the Quran and allowing Muslims to read it fully for themselves.

Third, Muslims’ inability to understand the Quran gives undue leverage to non-Quranic literature, including weak and baseless Hadees, as repositories of the Islamic message. These sources are much easier to manipulate, and mullahs who already have authority on Muslims’ thoughts and beliefs use them as instruments to propagate unIslamic ideas and ideals as “Islam”. The history of a thousand years, not to mention a number of recent headlines, bear out this travesty.

READ MORE :-

http://www.newageislam.com/ijtihad,-ret ... ly!/d/7413

[anajmi]

First of all, let us stop blaming mullahs for each and everything that is wrong with muslims today. I have come across many mullahs and not one of them told me that it was ok to hang eight year old boys for unpaid ransoms.

Meanwhile, scores are being killed every week, on occasions every day, by Islamists in Syria, Yemen and other parts of the Middle East.

What is an "Islamist"? What is the proof that these are "Islamists"? Did Assaad say that he is killing people because the Quran says so? Stop talking about Islam and Quran everytime a muslim commits a crime. He is a criminal. Catch him and punish him. Period!!

[Fatwa Banker]

First of all, let us stop blaming mullahs for each and everything that is wrong with muslims today.

I agree with Anajmi, blame the Muslims for what is wrong with Muslims today, especially the "true" ones, like Anajmi.

[anajmi]

If anyone was ever confused about about which end is used for farting, it would be our fart. He agrees with anajmi to do the exact opposite.

By the way, the only thing wrong with anajmi is that he has managed to wipe out fart's stink from this forum. Well, almost.

[Hanif]

What is an "Islamist"? What is the proof that these are "Islamists"? Did Assaad say that he is killing people because the Quran says so? Stop talking about Islam and Quran everytime a muslim commits a crime. He is a criminal. Catch him and punish him. Period!!
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Everytime a Muslim commits a crime! A Muslim is one who follows Islam and Qur'an. Now everytime a Muslim commits a crime, you suggest we catch him and punish him. Good proposal. You are asking 75% of muslims to be incarcerated. Look around you. In every corner of the world, a so-called Muslim is committing hideous crimes. Suicide bombings in the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Women and girls being poisoned in Afghanistan for going to school. Sunnis killing Shias and vice versa. Honor killings, even in America and Canada. The list goes on and on.

Instead, why not educated them? Teach them what the Qur'an says, and not what the Mulla says. Teach them ethics of Islam, respect for human lives, tolerance, benefits of charity, helping each other and unprivileged people, etc. etc. Teach them the jihad of nafs and not this stupid jihad they are conducting against innocent human beings in every part of the world.

Just shouting "read Qur'an"! does not solve the problems we have with our people.They read the Qur'an and majority of them do not understand what they are reading.Come up with a better solution.

[anajmi]

Well, you should consider joining the US Army. They are trying to spread freedom and democracy to the places you mention. They are there to teach them the value of life and love and all that.