Noble Qur'an (Hilali-Khan)

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Part of a series on Translations of the Qur'an v • d • e
Sunni translations by
Hilali / Khan Marmaduke Pickthall — 1930 Kanzul Iman by Ahmed Raza Khan Mohammed Knut Bernström Ali Ünal
Shi'a translations by
Abdullah Yusuf Ali — 1934 Mir Ahmed Ali — ? Mohammed Habib Shakir — ?
Non-Muslim translations by
Robert of Ketton — 1110-1160 Sieur du Ryer — 1647 John Medows Rodwell — 1861 A. J. Arberry — 1955

The Noble Qur'an, also informally known as the Hilali-Khan translation, is a translation of the Qur'an by contemporary Afghan Pashtun Islamic scholar Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan (Arabic: محمد محسن خان, muḥammad muḥsin khān) and Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali (Arabic: محمد تقي الدين الهلالي, muḥammad taqiyyu-d-dīn al-hilālī).^[1]

1 Overview
2 Controversy
3 Editions
4 Derivative work
5 External links
6 See also
7 References

[edit] Overview

As with any translation of the original Arabic into another language, in this case English, this is an interpretation of the meanings of the Noble Qur'an (Word of God). The translation is heavily interspersed, with commentaries and notes from At-Tabari, Al-Qurtubi and Ibn Kathir^[1]. It could also be a summarized version of At-Tabari, Al-Qurtubi, and Ibn Kathir with comments from Sahih Al-Bukhari.

[edit] Controversy

The Hilali-Khan translation has been criticised by several prominent Western Muslims. Khaleel Mohammed has taken the translation to task for "[reading] more like a supremacist Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian polemic than a rendition of the Islamic scripture"^[2], while Sheila Musaji complains that it "is shocking in its distortions of the message of the Qur’an and amounts to a rewrite not a translation"^[3], and Khaled Abou El Fadl attacks what he calls "grotesque misogyny" in the translation.^[4]

As an example of contested passages, Khaleel Mohammed condemns the Hilali-Khan translation of the final two verses of the very first sura, Al-Fatiha:

⁶ Guide us to the Straight Way

⁷ The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger (such as the Jews), nor of those who went astray (such as the Christians).

These lines have drawn criticism, since mention of Jews and Christians is not present in the original Arabic; though there is a hadith in which Muhammad himself makes these connections.^[5]^[6]

[edit] Editions

Published by the King Fahd Printing Complex, Madinah, Saudi Arabia, 956 pages, HB. This special edition 5.5" x 8.5" HB Noble Qur'an is handy for everyday carrying and reference. This is the Qur'an often distributed to hajjis (Hajj pilgrims) in Saudi Arabia.^[7]

[edit] Derivative work

The translation of Umm Muhammad (published under the pseudonym name of Saheeh International) is a derivative work of the Hilali-Khan translation.^[8] The parenthetical remarks from the original Hilali-Khan translation are largely removed.