Customer Reviews

The Qur'an Translation (English only)

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

 

 

Like many non-Muslims, I picked up the Qur'an in an effort to better understand Islam after the events of September 11th.
This translation satisfied my curiosity and gave me a better appreciation of Islam and it's followers.

This particular translation reads very much like a King James Bible. Repetitious entries, odd wordings, and strange terms permeate this translation. This makes sense as the author (M. H. Shakir 1866-1939 CE) was translating this for a 19th century English reader in mind. And while, at times, this makes for difficult read, it in no way detracts from the central message of Islam. The lack of any footnotes or commentary is the greatest flaw of this translation.

This isn't the translation I would recommend to the casual reader, I would suggest Pickthall's translation, but it is more than adequate for the study of basic Islamic ideas. The included index, while short, covers most of the topics a non-Muslim would be looking for in the Qur'an.

I bought this version of the Qur'an because it is the one on which the Concordance of the Qur'an: Extracted from the M.H. Shakir Translation of the Qur'an is based. I will be taking a graduate course on the Christian reaction to early Islam, and I thought a concordance of the Qur'an would be helpful. Since the only affordable concordance is based on the Shakir translation, I got a copy of this translation.

The quality of the English is reasonable, though it is not as smooth as Haleem's The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics). It is certainly far better than the extremely archaizing English of Pickthall's The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'an : Explanatory Translation. The Shakir translation has the peculiarity of retaining the Arabic forms of many names more familiar in other forms to English speakers (e.g., "Isa" for "Jesus" and "Nuh" for "Noah"). There is a list of correspondences on p. vi, but one wonders why they were not simply incorporated into the translation. This is a perfectly legitimate translation practice.

The issue of authorship is rather vexing. Dr. Zahid Aziz has a link in his review (a one-star review) to an article on the question. He concludes that this translation has been plagiarized from the one by Maulana Muhammad Ali, The Holy Qur'an with English Translation and Commentary, published in 1917. In a follow-up article, Aziz asserts that was finally able to identify the mysterious M. H. Shakir as not an Egyptian judge, but a Pakistani financier named Mohammedali Habib, through correspondence with a descendant of Mr. Habib. It seems this gentleman sponsored a revision of the Muhammad Ali translation, apparently to bring certain details of it into line with more "traditional" Muslim thought. The revision also involved changing Muhammad Ali's anglicized names back to their Arabic form.

It seems that some Muslims reject the Muhammad Ali translation because he belonged to a sect of Islam called Ahmadiyya, to which Aziz also belongs. Amazon reviews of the Muhammad Ali translation show that some Muslims regard the Ahmadiyya movement as heretical. I have no personal knowledge of the issues so I cannot comment on them. However, it seems likely that the revision of Muhammad Ali's translation was intended to rid it of features that displease non-Ahmadiyya Muslims.

One final curiosity: According to Aziz, there was an Egyptian scholar named Sheykh Muhammad Shakir, the dates of whose life correspond to the dates of the alleged translator of the Shakir version. However, this scholar vehemently opposed translating the Qur'an into any language. He gave Pickthall some grief for having produced a translation, and he had also opposed Muhammad Ali's earlier translation. It seems strange indeed to have chosen the name of an opponent of translation as a pseudonym for a translation revision committee.

The Holy Quran is without a doubt, the greatest single literay work ever written. It is simply a must read for every singe person on this planet.

I really can not say wether this translation by Shakir is the best or not. But I do think it is adequate, and I do not see any huge difference between this and Yusuf Ali's or Pickthall's. This is true when it comes only to the translation and not the commentary (I especially like Yusuf Ali's commentary)

But unlike the others, this book comes at an extremely fair price and it is also in a small size which means you can take it anywhere you go. That is why it is perfect for almost anyone; those who have never read the Book before or for those who are simply looking for a handy version of it they can take to work or school.

I have read many books, and I did not exaggerate in my initial comment. If you doubt what I say, get this book and find out for yourself.

This book is useful for understanding the ideologies of Islam, and it's definitely a classic.

Whatever version one reads, it is very important that all infidels read the entire Quran. Otherwise, we can be easily lead to believe that nothing here condones the murder of infidels--as fictional TV shows, political leaders and far too many journalists frequently claim--and that's simply not true. There's plenty.

Pay particular attention to Sura 8, The Spoils of War. The entire chapter discusses how Muslim jihadists are to divide the belongings of their victims. Then there are the choice passages suggesting that Jews and Christians, in the Old and New Testaments, intentionally corrupted and falsified the word of God.

As another reviewer suggests, other translations are probably better, not least because this print edition is missing some of the Suras and verses. In addition, some of the most offensive language and passages are toned down substantially here.

However, this translation is widely accepted by Muslims. At least one Islamist California student website offers it online, for example, in conjunction with the Pickthall and Yusufali translations.

I bought this particular translation of the Qur'an because it was available so inexpensively, and I wasn't anxious to send big bucks to a Saudi publisher. Unfortunately, apart from any weaknesses in the translation, this edition is so poorly made that the pages fall out.

The Shakir translation is very largely a word-for-word copy of the 1917 (first) edition of Maulana Muhammad Ali's English translation of the Quran. For details please read this article:
www.ahmadiyya.org/movement/shakir.htm

The name Shakir is most probably fictitious. He is supposed to have been an "Egyptian judge" (d. 1939) but that person could not have translated the Quran, as is shown in the above article.

It cannot be imagined that its publishers are unaware that it is a work of plagiarism.

my purchas was very nicely wraped and dilivered on time, i really appreciate this courtesy and prompt sensitive response to my order. thanx for all this effort.

-No footnotes
-No commentary
-Odd wording
-Practically useless

Try The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics Hardcovers) instead.

People who did not grow up in a muslim environment will find a large quantity of Qur'anic material--whether in the original Ancient Arabic or in modern-language translation--that is objectionable from a theological and/or moral point of view. Nevertheless, students of comparative religions may wish to consult this translation in order to compare with other English-language translations.

Better translations are:

1) M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (Oxford University Press)
2) N.J. Dawood (Penguin Classics)

This review will not tackle the subject of authorship of the Koran, but will answer the question, "What is the value of the Koran as a spiritual resource to Western (non-moslem) readers?" If one does not come from a background where the value of the Koran is taken for granted and highly prized, is the Koran something a seeker should buy to read for spiritual growth? My answer is that it probably is not. Much of the book consists of very authoritarian pronouncements that are meant to be accepted simply because they are said. This is the "believe me or else!" school of religion - not my favorite way of having a diety interact with me, on even my best day. There are many, many sections of this volume devoted to praising God and this got tiresome quickly. There are some curious variant readings on stories found in the Old Testament and New Testament which I found neither enlightening nor inspiring. As I had to read this in English, rather than the original Persian, I cannot tell if it is as poetic as is claimed by some. I can say, however, that this translation does not give any sense of the poetry that may or may not be in the original as it is simply servicable english. There are many very long and dry passages contained here that I could find nothing of interest in and which seemed repetitious and pointless. I finished this book with an empty feeling and some disappointment that a book with such a great reputation could leave me so unmoved or impressed. I do not know who the author of the Koran was, but it does not matter to me a bit as I will not be returning to it as a spiritual resource.