Reading the Qur"an in English
To many people, the idea of reading the Qur'an in English might not sound like a controversial notion.
After all, there are a number of readily available translations of the Islamic scripture.
Why shouldn't someone who is interested in learning more about Islam just pick one of these up at their local bookstore or library, and read it? Well, there are two important lines of argument against such an approach, one that is internal to Islam, and the other that is more external in its orientation.
The internal argument reflects a fundamental theological tenet of Islam, that the Qur'an is only the Qur'an in its original Arabic form.
As the word of God, not only is any translation of the Qur'an seen to be an imperfect interpretation of the text, it is also considered in some sense to be a desecration of a sacred object.
At the same time, however, it is important to point out that the Arabic of the Qur'an is an old classical form of the language that even modern speakers of contemporary Arabic dialects can have difficulty understanding.
The external argument is associated with the objective of differentiating Islam from its related Abrahamic faiths of Judaism and Christianity, both of which condone the reading of their respective scriptures in vernacular languages.
The original language of Jewish scripture, what Christians refer to as the Old Testament, was primarily ancient Hebrew, with a few passages in Aramaic.
More than two thousand years ago, the use of Hebrew among the Jews had declined to such a degree that scholars prepared a Greek version known as the Septuagint, and from that point on there has been a continuous tradition of making scripture available to the Jewish people in a language they can understand.
Similarly, the books that constitute the New Testament were originally written in Greek, and by the time the Christian Church was a few centuries old the use of Greek had declined and a Latin translation of the Bible was recognized by the Church as the official version.
About five hundred years ago, several members of the clergy and many devout Christians were advocating for translations of the Bible into vernacular languages so that lay people throughout Christian countries could read and study the scripture for themselves.
The struggle to extricate control of the reading and interpretation of the Bible away from the hierarchical priesthood became one of the signature features of what we now refer to as the Protestant Reformation.
From an Islamic perspective, while the Qur'an has remained in its true original Arabic form since it was revealed, through the processes of translation, the Jewish and Christian scriptures have become corrupt forms of what God had originally revealed to the prophets.
Notwithstanding these arguments, I think there is a very strong justification for Muslims and non-Muslims to read the Qur'an in English, or any other modern language, and it is simply this.
Without in any way passing judgment on the sacred status of the Arabic original, by reading a translation, people can familiarize themselves with the structure and content of the Qur'an, and thereby gain a much more comprehensive and sophisticated view of what Islam is and what Muslims stand for.
After all, there are a number of readily available translations of the Islamic scripture.
Why shouldn't someone who is interested in learning more about Islam just pick one of these up at their local bookstore or library, and read it? Well, there are two important lines of argument against such an approach, one that is internal to Islam, and the other that is more external in its orientation.
The internal argument reflects a fundamental theological tenet of Islam, that the Qur'an is only the Qur'an in its original Arabic form.
As the word of God, not only is any translation of the Qur'an seen to be an imperfect interpretation of the text, it is also considered in some sense to be a desecration of a sacred object.
At the same time, however, it is important to point out that the Arabic of the Qur'an is an old classical form of the language that even modern speakers of contemporary Arabic dialects can have difficulty understanding.
The external argument is associated with the objective of differentiating Islam from its related Abrahamic faiths of Judaism and Christianity, both of which condone the reading of their respective scriptures in vernacular languages.
The original language of Jewish scripture, what Christians refer to as the Old Testament, was primarily ancient Hebrew, with a few passages in Aramaic.
More than two thousand years ago, the use of Hebrew among the Jews had declined to such a degree that scholars prepared a Greek version known as the Septuagint, and from that point on there has been a continuous tradition of making scripture available to the Jewish people in a language they can understand.
Similarly, the books that constitute the New Testament were originally written in Greek, and by the time the Christian Church was a few centuries old the use of Greek had declined and a Latin translation of the Bible was recognized by the Church as the official version.
About five hundred years ago, several members of the clergy and many devout Christians were advocating for translations of the Bible into vernacular languages so that lay people throughout Christian countries could read and study the scripture for themselves.
The struggle to extricate control of the reading and interpretation of the Bible away from the hierarchical priesthood became one of the signature features of what we now refer to as the Protestant Reformation.
From an Islamic perspective, while the Qur'an has remained in its true original Arabic form since it was revealed, through the processes of translation, the Jewish and Christian scriptures have become corrupt forms of what God had originally revealed to the prophets.
Notwithstanding these arguments, I think there is a very strong justification for Muslims and non-Muslims to read the Qur'an in English, or any other modern language, and it is simply this.
Without in any way passing judgment on the sacred status of the Arabic original, by reading a translation, people can familiarize themselves with the structure and content of the Qur'an, and thereby gain a much more comprehensive and sophisticated view of what Islam is and what Muslims stand for.
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