The Qur'an Translation (English only) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Mohammedali H. Shakir (Author) "1. In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful..." (more)
Key Phrases: rumbling overtook, abasing chastisement, transgressing people, Beneficent God, Sacred Mosque, Alif Lam Mim (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

An English-only translation of the Qur'an, by M. H. Shakir. Great for da'wah and free mass distribution.

Language Notes

Text: English, Arabic (translation)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 467 pages
• Publisher: Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an; 10th edition (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940368188
• ISBN-13: 978-0940368187
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #91,846 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A simple no-frills translation, September 15, 2002

By	daniel frankovitch (Alabama) - See all my reviews

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.

37 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read!, December 11, 1999

By	Jehan (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay translation; authorship questionable, August 8, 2008

By	Paul Stevenson "Linguist" (Silver Spring, Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.