Advice of Scholars - TRANSLATIONS OF THE QUR’ÂN AL-KERÎM

Translations of the Qur’ân in other languages are not called the Qur’ân. They are called ma’âl or explanations of the Qur’ân. If they have been prepared by devout Muslims who are experts and who have good intentions towards the subject, they can be read in order to understand the meaning of the Qur’ân. There is nothing wrong in this. They cannot be read as the Qur’ân itself. It does not yield thawâb to read them as the Qur’ân. On the contrary, it is a sinful act to do so. Muslims should read the Qur’ân as Allâhu ta’âlâ revealed it. It yields thawâb also to read it without understanding the meaning. Certainly it is all the more blessed and better to read it and to understand the meaning. 

Different dialects of Arabic are spoken in Egypt, in Iraq, in Hijâz and in Morocco. In which of these dialects of Arabic will the Qur’ân be explained? For understanding the Qur’ân, it is necessary to know Quraish Arabic, not today’s Arabic. For understanding the Qur’ân, it is necessary to wear out the elbows with studying for years. We should understand it by reading the tafsîrs, the explanations written by Islamic savants who have understood it by studying so. Youngsters who read the jerry-made translations will consider the Qur’ân as a book consisting of mythological stories, unnecessary and useless thoughts, or only ordinary words. Taking a dislike to the Qur’ân, to Islam, they will become disbelievers. That seems to be a new stratagem, a new trick of Islam’s enemies in their efforts to misguide Muslims’ and martyrs’ children towards an irreligious education by duping them into reading translations of the Qur’ân al-kerîm, and for that end they exploit all sorts of causistry, such as: “Read the Qur’ân in pure Turkish. Do not read the Arabic Qur’ân, which is in a foreign language.”