Translating the Qurʾān: Towards A New Approach

Abstract

The Maghreb Review, Vol. 46, 3, 2021 © The Maghreb Review 2021 This publication is printed on FSC Mix paper from responsible sources TRANSLATING THE QURʾĀN: TOWARDS A NEW APPROACH M.A.R. HABIB* In the cave of Hira on the outskirts of Mecca the Prophet Muhammad is said to have received his first revelation. The cave is so small that only one person can enter it; it overlooks a rocky landscape, craggy, rich with bright bronzecoloured sand. From this height the Prophet looked down – and meditated on what was right and wrong in the beliefs and practices of his people. He came down from the mountain, ablaze with language that was neither verse nor prose, language that we have ever since been struggling to understand; struggling to render into our own idiom. It has been my dream, ever since I started writing poetry at the age of twelve, to translate the Qurʾān into English verse. Looking around the horizon from the cave of Hira – where the Prophet saw the archangel in whichever direction he turned – I could only imagine, looking into the depths of inwardness, a spectacle that Kant might have characterised as sublime. The task of translating the Qurʾān must inevitably be approached with humility. We must surely acknowledge that translation can never be an individualistic endeavour. The only option open to us, it seems, is collaboration. Expertise in Arabic/Islamic studies must be brought into intersection with expertise in English language and literature and knowledge of Western traditions of philosophy and aesthetics. It was my good fortune that Bruce Lawrence agreed to collaborate with me in rendering the Qurʾān into English verse. Our aim is to produce a translation that is not only accessible and readable but one that might be considered poetic, at least in parts. As the Qurʾānic scholar Abdel Haleem said to me, the translation of the Qurʾān might be seen as a collective enterprise, where each translation contributes something new or different to the overall endeavour. Hence, Bruce Lawrence and I draw upon the history of Qurʾān translation and its various styles and approaches as well as the tradition of tafsir. In addition, we have consulted Western professors of Arabic, and the foremost Qurʾān scholars such as Abdel Haleem and Shawkat Toorawa. We have also sought help from a variety of Englishlanguage poets and scholars, as well as Qurʾān scholars in Arab countries, not to mention a large range of students, both Western and Arabic-speaking, to whom we often give assignments involving the detailed comparison of various translations. Bruce Lawrence and I concur in seeing the Qurʾān as an inclusive text, aware of its own position in history, its own theological precedents, and its own status as a confirmation of previous scriptures. The Qurʾān projects itself as the culmination of a long process of divine self-disclosure. It affirms a continuity * Rutgers University, USA TRANSLATING THE QURʾĀN: TOWARDS A NEW APPROACH 315 between ‘Islam’ and the earlier religions of Judaism and Christianity, stating on several occasions (e.g. Q2: 136, Q3: 84) that there is ‘no distinction’ between any of the prophets in these traditions. The point here is that this continuity rests on a broad definition of ‘Islam’ as ‘submission’ to the will of God, and of ‘Muslim’ as ‘one who submits’. In this sense, Abraham is a ‘Muslim’ (Q2: 128). So, our translation of Q2: 136 reads: Say, ‘We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us, and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the tribes, and in [the Books] given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord; we make no distinction between one and another among them, and to God we submit [our will].’ But if we translate the last clause naḥnu lahu muslimūn as ‘We are Muslims’ (or, more literally, ‘We are Muslims to Him’ – which makes little sense in English), we are contradicting the spirit of the entire passage by suggesting that ‘Islam’ is an exclusive religion. What follows is our attempt to identify some of the central challenges of translating the Qurʾān. While we...