Customer Reviews

The Qur'an: A New Translation

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Thomas Cleary has done a remarkable job of translating the Qur'an and retaining its lyrical sense. Although no translation can compare to the power and poetry of the original in Arabic, Cleary's effort is one of those that comes close. The one major flaw in this edition is the lack of commentary to place the verses in context. The Qur'an is not linear and jumps back and forth in time and space, which can be confusing to readers unfamiliar with its references. But still a commendable job and a fine translation!

The reviewer from Morocco below who writes a massive diatribe against the Qur'an, and faith in God in general, is clearly a frustrated pseudo-intellectual who thinks he can explain away the wonder and power of faith through a rambling dissertation on cognitive psychology. Considering he has posted EXACTLY the same review, word for word, about every edition of the Qur'an available on Amazon, it is apparent that he is not interested in reviewing individual works, just spewing emotional bile disguised as scholarship.

Contrary to the publishers and other reviewers, I don't feel that this translation -- though often beautiful -- captures the beauty and richness of the language of the original in any significantly unusual way; rather, it works hard at communicating its meaning in contemporary terms. The result, for me, is a highly readable text which occasionally appears a little too casual. As far as translations go, however, given a choice between this clarity and the difficult and stylized majestic speech reminiscent of many other english religious translations, I'd recommend this. The complete lack of commentary, however, is a tremendous deficit -- while this may not be important to someone familiar with the Qur'an, its structure, and in particular the context of its more controversial verses, for those who are seeking to introduce themselves to the text or to learn about Islam an annotated translation would be more appropriate (those of Ahmed Ali, M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, etc). Or, alternately, this could be read with a companion book such as "Understanding the Qur'an: Themes and Styles" or "Approaching the Qur'an."

I would just like to add something to the other comments, that is, when they say no annotations, or commentary, they mean NONE. It is the Qu'ran translated into English. No index, footnotes, table of contents, nothing. Not complaining, mind you, and not commenting on the quality of the translation. But be prepared to find additional sources for explanations and commentary.

For those that read 'The Essential Koran' and wished Thomas Cleary would translate the entire Qur'an, it has taken him 10 years but he has done it! The beauty and subtlety of the Arabic original shines through in this amazing book. It is extremely easy to read and understand. Although, a commentary would've completed the package, I highly recommend this translation over any other!

If you'd like a basic though brilliant commentary to use in conjunction with this translation may I suggest the beautifully hardbound, 'THE MAJESTIC QUR'AN- An English Rendition of its Meanings," published by the Nawawi Foundation (CHICAGO) and its sister organization the Ibn Khaldun Foundation (LONDON). Although it has a translation, the commentary is what makes this book magnificent in its practicality. Put together in modern English for the English-speaker, it doesn't offer long-winded explanations. Instead, it has simple easy to understand commentary, particularly for those unfamiliar with the Qur'an, that is extremely valuable in helping to understand and and reflect.

I would say that this is one of the better translations of the Qur'an for modern readers. The reason I did not give it 5 stars is because 1) There is no tafsir whatsoever, and 2) Cleary's dislike of the pronouns He, We, I, when used by God results in a sometimes redundant and silly-sounding translation: "God commands such and such for you because God knows what you do not know so believe in God, says God, etc...". That is not from the Qur'an, but you can understand what I'm getting at.

Until they do another edition with some tafsir, better word choices in some places and a hardback printing, I will leave my review at 4 stars.

Unlike the translations that were previously available , this one is by a native english speaker , & free from biases that were present in previous translations made by orientialists . People should also try Martin Lings' translation . To answer the accusation made by "See The Truth!!!" , Quran never mentions Alexender , neither does it say anything about the Earth being flat . Muslims were the first ones who used spherical trignometry . Not even the earliest scholars considered this verse as a reference to flat earth ( see ibn kathir ). These accusations were created in recent years by missionaries .

Thomas Cleary's long-awaited translation of the Qur'an certainly exceeds all expectations. His usage and sentence structure is striking and very much contemporary, leaving behind the obscurities found in most mainstream translations of the Muslim scripture, such as those by Abdullah Y. Ali and Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall.

Cleary uses English very compactly and he has designed the text on the page to resemble a poem, instead of long paragraphed blocks of prose. This feature is certainly more in keeping with the original transmission of the Qur'an - through vocal recitation art.

However, Cleary's work is ultimately for the intermediate and advanced student of the Qur'an. He provides no introduction or footnotes--only a table of contents that leads immediately into the text itself. On a high note, Cleary leaves out the excessive parenthetical entries found in such translations as the "Riyadh" and Muhammad Asad offerings.

This work is an excellent attempt to reproduce the Qur'an's original power and striking poetry. The addition in some future edition of footnotes, introductory material, etc., would make this an even better edition of the Islamic scripture--possibly even the best. For now, Cleary's work will satisfy anyone--Islamic or not--with a desire to dig deeper into the Qur'anic text.

This is probably the best modern English translation I've ever come across; The only problem lies in one word--"atheist." I wish he would've used "nonbeliever" instead, because in modern English "atheists" are those who believe in no god, whereas the Quran refers to those who do not believe in One God--most or all of whom were polytheists, not atheists.
I hope that a study edition comes out and hopefully another edition with revisions, but other than that I'm sure this will go down as a classic...

I started to read this translation with some other Muslims and we didn't get far before we abandoned it. For example, on page 8 it says "They say God has begotten a son. Glory be to Him!" The negation of the blasphemy is missing from the translation. Also on page 10, it says "Here is baptism from God; and who is better at baptism than God?" The original Arabic talks about "color" - "And surely Allah is the best of Colorers". This translation seems to have been prepared with the aim of misleading. There is no baptism in Islam. Don't buy it if you are Muslim or if you want to know about Islam. Intellectually dishonest book, not the Qur'an at all

this translation is missing the timeline, the context and is very misleading. It appears to be written with a Christian leaning. If you are looking to understand Islam or are new to Islam, this book is not correct.