Microsoft Word Al Jalalain Eng with introduction docx

The Science and Art of Translation 
Translation — and 
a fortiori translation of sacred texts which are all-important for man — should, 
above all, convey ‘the 
meaning, the whole meaning and nothing but the meaning’ of the original text. This 
means that in general the translation should be as literal as possible. It should try to keep the word order as 
close to that of the Arabic as possible and, more important perhaps, try to consistently use the same 
translation for the same word in different places in order to convey something of the system of inner 
architecture and allusions of the Arabic text. However, when the literal meaning in the translated language 
does not convey the exact sense of the original, it should depart from the literal words and give 
as precise a 
translation of the 
meaning 
as possible. Indeed, this is perhaps the most common mistake of translation, as 
most people do not realize that the meaning of words, when used in idiom, is often slightly different from 
their literal meaning, and conversely that an idiom may be used to translate something whose literal 
meaning does not suggest it. Obviously, however, literal translations should also beware of not quite making 
sense in the language into which the text is translated, and of being grammatically incorrect. On the other 
hand, even worse are translations which, in the attempt to use ‘good English’ (or whatever the translated 
language is) or ‘poetic language’ take license with the literal text or its meaning. Thus translation must, as it 
were, steer a ‘middle course’ between meaning and language — between, in a sense, ‘science’ and ‘art’— 
but leaning always on the side of meaning when the two diverge.
This requires three major qualities in a translator: that (1) he or she knows the language of the 
original text perfectly; that (2) he or she knows the language into which the text is being translated 
perfectly, and (3) that he or she fully understands at least the literal meaning of the text they are 
translating. 
With the Holy Qur’an, which is the Word of God who is Omniscient, fully understanding the sacred 
text — and consequently understanding all its meanings — is humanly impossible. Translation is thus with 
the Holy Qur’an itself always only a question of interpretation of the Qur’an’s immediate, ‘surface’ meaning 
with little if any of its linguistic beauty, mystery, holiness, miraculous nature, depth, symbolic resonances 
and layers of meaning. Nevertheless this interpretation is a vital endeavour since the majority of Muslims in 
the world do not know Arabic. Moreover, 
Tafs
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r itself — having human authors who are not omniscient and 
who therefore mean a finite amount of things with their words — is much easier to translate (when it is not 
actually quoting the Holy Qur’an) than the sacred text itself and therefore can be accurately if not rendered 
into another language. 

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