Magnificent Translation of Quran!

I am not a religious person per se, but had taken keen interest in all religions, in order to understand their teachings, principles, common characteristics, and differences. As I was living in an Islamic country (UAE) for several years it was natural for me to find out more about the teachings of Islam. 

This made me pour through several English translations, commentaries, and interpretations of the Holy Quran. Initially I found the experience rather frustrating as none of the books and websites were up to my expectations. It was after a few years, after my retirement in 2014, that I found a source that was truly befitting and fulfilling. 

This post is a sequel to an earlier post of 25 Dec 2019 entitled On My Muslim Friends, wherein I had provided the background of this quest and concluded with the remark:

"My experience of a fascinating and fundamentally different approach that the author has advanced in translating the insightful ideas of the Holy Quran will be the subject of a future post."

To my utter surprise, the reference I found turned out to be the work of an illustrious son of India, namely Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad who produced the greatest work Tarjuman al-Quran, a translation of Quran from Arabic to Urdu. 

The Indian scholar Abul Kalam Azad was an independence activist, a senior leader of the Indian National Congress (INC), President of INC for 18 years, the first Education Minister of independent India, who passed away in 1958 aged 69, and who was posthumously awarded 'Bharath Ratna', India's highest civilian honor, in 1992. 

I do not know Urdu. What helped me is a further translation of this book into English - a superb translation by an equally well known scholar, Dr. Syed Abdul Latif.  My experience of a fascinating and fundamentally different approach that these two well-learned intellectuals has adopted in translating the insightful and profound concepts of the Holy Quran is the subject of this post.

Tarjuman al-Quran in Urdu

This translation from Arabic to Urdu is the outcome of Abul Kalam Azad's 27 years of rigorous study of the Quran during which he had studied most of the commentaries and books, published and unpublished. Maulana Azad, as he was known, was an exceptionally prolific writer and was endowed with a new vision for the Muslim community. 

Maulana Azad (1888-1958) was born in Makkah, Saudi Arabia of an Indian father of noble ancestry who had left India after the 1857 Mutiny. About two years later, when the family relocated to Calcutta, Azad received instruction in traditional Islamic learning at the feet of his father, a Muslim saint, and other teachers.

Azad's deep knowledge of other philosophies shaped his thinking and character. He imbibed varying foundational elements of several religions:

• Equality and brotherhood of Islam
• Love and service to humanity of Christianity
• Tolerance and humanism of Hinduism
• Patience and compassion of Buddhism
• Truth and non-violence of Jainism
• Balance and order of Confucianism

Maulana Azad was a staunch follower of Mahatma Gandhi and an uncompromising opponent of Partition of India. He saw that the root of Muslim communal problems in India after partition was basically an issue of Islamic theology. He wanted Muslims to accommodate changes in themselves and embrace pluralism and see the beauty in all faiths and cultures. He was keen to initiate a reform movement among Muslims. 

"He perceived that distance from the Quranic text and the fossilized curriculum of the madrasas stood in the way of the community’s progress and were causing inertia and stagnation. He considered these the greatest hindrances in progress towards reform".

India's Central Hall of Parliament House has portraits of 25 great legends of India who have been intimately associated with the Indian Independence movement. Only one of these panels bears the portrait of a Muslim, and it is not a coincidence that this portrait is of Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad, a stalwart of the freedom movement.

Maulana Azad's extended commentary on the first chapter of the Quran namely Surah-al-Fatiha, runs into 554 pages, and the Preface to the book takes up another 116 pages. It was first published, ten years after the passing away of Azad, by Sahitya Academy - Delhi in 1968 with a foreword by then President of India Dr. Zakir Hussain. 

Tarjuman al-Quran in Urdu is a humanistic interpretation of the Holy Quran penned by Azad between 1915 and 1945, during which he was jailed by the British administration many times for several years, which period he compares with a sabbatical leave. Azad had expressed a desire to bring out its Hindi and English translations soon in order that more people could access the meaning and significance of the Divine message.

Tarjuman al-Quran in English

Dr. Syed Abdul Latif edited and rendered into English the original Urdu text of Tarjuman al-Quran by Maulana Azad in 1962. Dr. Syed Abdul Latif, PhD (London), is an Indian writer of English literature and Retired Professor of English, Osmania University. He was the President of Institute of Indo Middle East Cultural Studies and Academy of Islamic Studies, Hyderabad and is the author of a number of books on Islamic culture and Urdu literature, among other topics. The Government of India awarded him Padma Bhushan, the third highest Indian civilian award, in 1970.

In his Commentary of the opening Chapter of the Quran - the Surah-al-Fatiha - Maulana Azad had surveyed Quran's entire ideology and it is considered as a distinct landmark in the field of Islamic thought. This is in a form that can easily serve as a natural introduction to the study of the Quran.

Dr. Latif, who undertook the challenging task of translating Azad's 'arabized-persianized' Urdu into English additionally came up with a resume of the views advanced therein by Maulana Azad and issued it by way of introduction to his great Commentary. This was published under the title "Basic Concepts of the Quran".

Dr. Latif prepared and published the three English volumes:

• The Translation of the Quran entitled Tarjuman al-Quran that aims to present what is universal in the Quranic teaching.
• The Commentary of the Quran entitled Tafsir-al-Bayan that is meant for a detailed study of the Quran.
• The Prolegomenon (a critical introduction) entitled Muqaddimah-i-Tafsir that presents the objects or purposes of the Quran and discusses the principles underlying them and enunciates the leading ideas advanced by the Quran. 

These three volumes were to meet the needs of three distinct sets of readers interested in the Quran:

• The Translation to serve the needs of the average reader.
• The Commentary for those who cared to make a detailed study of the Quran.
• The Prolegomenon to serve the needs of the advanced scholar.

In spite of all these voluminous supporting comments and interpretations, the most widely read English translation of the holy Quran in the world is the publication by Darussalam (1977), translated by Muhammad Muhsin Khan and the Moroccan Salafi scholar Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali.

Tarjuman al-Quran in Other Languages

It is a well known fact that the book of Holy Quran, originally in Arabic, is today available in 47 languages of the world, with selected verses translated into 114 languages. Therefore, it may look rather unusual and strange to make the suggestion that full work of Azad's Tarjuman al-Quran in Urdu, should be translated back into Arabic. 

This is because, during the translation (into Urdu) and interpretation of the original Holy Quran in Arabic, Maulana Azad, who was well versed in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, had produced a voluminous commentary in his graceful and vivid style on the first chapter of the Quran, Surah-al-Fatiha that runs into 554 pages. He had further contributed another 116 pages as Preface to his monumental translation work. Many scholars consider that this work undoubtedly stands among the foremost interpretations of Islamic philosophy.

It is also necessary that Azad's stupendous and prodigious interpretation and translation of Quran should be available in several non-Arabic languages to serve the needs of Muslims living in Indonesia and other African and European countries. It may be remembered that India alone houses 11% of the world's Muslim population and Azad, as an Indian Muslim, represents this vast religious and multi-cultural community. Arabic is a foreign language to them; though some of them speak Urdu, their mother tongue spans 21 other languages. 

Essence of Tarjuman al-Quran 

In the highly commendable English translation of Maulana Azad's Tarjuman al-Quran, Dr Latif has captured the full essence of Azad's work without losing the brilliance and expertise of Azad's verbal flourishes in Urdu. 

In the first volume of the Tarjuman al-Quran, a commentary of the Surah-ul-Fatiha is attempted in a form that can easily serve as a natural introduction to the study of the Quran. The seven brief verses of the Surah-al-Fatiha concentrates within its ambit the thought-content of the entire Qur'an. The commentary of the Surah-al-Fatiha has 7 sections: 

1. Surah-al-Fatiha  (Importance, Significance)
2. Hamd (Praise of God)
3. Rububiyat (Divine Providence)
4. Rahmat (Divine Benevolence)
5. Adalat (Divine Justice)
6. Tawhid (The Concept of God)
7. Hidayat (Divine Guidance)

About his earnest attempt at translation, Azad says: "I may say this with confidence that I have opened a new avenue for an intelligent approach to the Quran, and hope that men of understanding will notice that the method adopted by me is something fundamentally different from the method pursued in the past".

In order to reproduce the invocation of the Divine blessings, Azad delved deep into the depths of the Divine attributes contained in each and every term used in the chapter. Its message could be summarized as: 

"being good, doing good; living wisely, justly and generously; fearing retribution; seeking Divine assistance; developing devotion to God; following the path of those who were virtuous and eschewing the path of deviants and delinquents".

Here are some of the passages from the Preface of the magnum opus that displays the majesty and grandeur of Prophet's thoughts contained in holy Quran:

"The expression 'Praise is for God, only' is a definite affirmation of the fact that the beauty and benevolence which subsist in a variety of forms in every field of existence are but manifestations of the attributes of God. Whatever the esteem in which we may hold beauty, perfection or goodness, the credit should go not to the phenomenal object which displays these qualities, but to the artist who fashioned it into a thing of beauty." 

Further in the Preface, Azad asks on behalf of the Prophet, if God is to be given a proper name, what other term is there except Allah to designate a being which inspires nothing but wonder?

"The term Allah came to be used as the proper name for the Creator of the universe in respect of whom man can express nothing except his sense of wonder which increases in intensity, the more he thinks of him, only to admit eventually that the road to the knowledge of God begins and ends in wonder and humility."

Maulana Azad's exquisite, well crafted, and expansive explanations, translated by Dr. Latif from Urdu into scholarly English, are a magnificent delight to the reader. Here is another sample extract from his Preface:

"The term Rahmat in Arabic is used to denote the type of tenderness which stimulates in one the urge to show kindness to others. Its connotation is wide enough to cover the qualities of love, compassion, benevolence, and generosity. The two terms Al-Rahman and Al-Rahim, though both are derived from the same root of Rahmat, denote two separate aspects of it. Al-Rahman means the being who possess Rahmat, and Al-Rahim means the being who not merely possesses Rahmat but gives perennial expression to it, and from whom everything in the universe derives goodness every moment. The purpose of Quran in bringing to mind the two aspects together is to emphasize the all-embracing character of the Rahmat of God."

 

Life After Death

The Surat-ul-Fatiha indicates further that death is not the end of life and that it opens out a new life where one has to account for what he has wrought before and which will determine his subsequent forward course in existence. The suggestion is that man should bear in mind that a law of requital (compensation or retaliation) is at work in every sphere of life, and that he has but to keep it in view, if he has to avoid the pitfalls of life and live at peace with his own self and at peace with his world of external relations.

At the close of the first chapter in verse 6 there is an elaborate discussion on "Life After Death". It contains these words: 

"The life Hereafter, therefore, is to be regarded as an aspect of our present life itself, which lay hidden or latent therein, or the life present till it is to be revived after the stage commonly styled death. It is why, the Quran calls the life Hereafter as another stage of life or bath. It is only a passing into another stage of life even as we have passed through successive stages in our present term itself. The stages mark only a change in form and not in the life it contains."

Though Islam largely denies reincarnation, it can be seen that Quran's concept of "Life After Death" has some similarities with the concepts of karma and rebirth advanced in the Vedic religion that was established 5,000 years ago by the rishis (sages) of ancient India. 

Karma in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. The concept of karma is closely associated with the idea of rebirth. The present deeds (karma) of a man affect his destiny in the current life, as well as in the future lives. 

By closely observing the nature, the Indian rishis noticed the various types of  rhythmic cycles, some long, some short - the daily rising and setting of the sun and stars, the monthly phases of the moon, the annual passing of the seasons. They also observed the cyclic nature of creation and destruction of living beings around them, not only in the births and deaths of humans but also those of animals and plants - their birth, sustenance over a period of time, and then death. 

The rishis also observed, within themselves, the daily cycles of the humans - active (awake) and resting (sleep) patterns. They extended this pattern to the lives and deaths of humans, and theorized that death is nothing but a much longer sleep (hibernation), between two lives. In this sense, death is a prelude to a new life - rebirth. In this continuous process we carry forward our past life experiences (latent tendencies) into the present life, manifested in some persons as inborn talents like music, art, math, etc. 

Conclusion

Azad's interpretation of the holy Quran is a blueprint for developing the character of today's youth. This book, Tarjuman al-Quran, is a guide to a meaningful life and only after repeatedly reading the  book can one fully comprehend the immense wisdom it encapsulates. 

It is rather ironic that this monumental work in Urdu, carried out by an Indian within its shores, is not available to the whole Indian Muslims today in their mother tongues. To make it widely available to the Indian Muslim community, Tarjuman al-Quran in Urdu, in its entirety, needs to be translated to all the Indian languages. Also, since more than 80% of Muslims in the world do not speak Arabic, the translation of Tarjuman al-Quran into their native languages is also a pressing need.