Ninety eight percent of current translations available today are copy-paste of Tafsir-e Tabari (838-923), 10th Century CE. Tabari's first complete translation of the Quran in Persian, along with its tafsir has survived till today and is easily available.
The base of all later translators in various languages is based on Tafsir-e-Tabari. Although translation and exegesis of the book Quran was done in Arabic, Greek, Sindhi, Kashmiri and Berber languages before Tafsir-e-Tabari but they are not so popular.
Now coming to 19th, 20th and 21st Century translators, among them the most noteworthy and respected by me is Ghulam Ahmad Parvez (1903-1985). He was a Senior Civil Servant, Department of Interior Ministry, Government of British India and later, Department of Home and Inter…
Ninety eight percent of current translations available today are copy-paste of Tafsir-e Tabari (838-923), 10th Century CE. Tabari's first complete translation of the Quran in Persian, along with its tafsir, which has survived till today.
The base of all later translators in various languages is based on Tafsir-e-Tabari. Although translation and exegesis of the book Quran was done in Arabic, Greek, Sindhi, Kashmiri and Berber languages before Tafsir-e-Tabari but they are not so popular.
Now coming to 19th, 20th and 21st Century unconventional translators of Quran, among them the most noteworthy and respected by me is Ghulam Ahmad Parvez (1903-1985). He was a Senior Civil Servant, Department of Interior Ministry, Government of British India and later, Department of Home and Interior Affairs, Karachi, Pakistan; with this political background Gulam Ahmed Parvez pushed for the adoption of Islamic socialism, a political philosophy that seeks to reorganize society in line with Islamic ideals.
Why I respect Janab Ghulam Ahmed Parvez above other Quranic translators is because he dared to think, speak boldly and differently. He opened a way for people like me to think courageously. Although I have not read him much but I know his thought process through studying Dr. Qamarzaman whom I admire and respect a lot. His understanding of Quran is an upgraded version of Allama Parvez exegesis on Quran.
After Respected Ghulam Ahmad Parvez's thought process a new breed of translators were born; copying or upgrading his thought process but keeping the same theme of "Islamic Socialism" in mind while translating the book Quran.
Inspite of their expertise in Arabic language they could not produce a pure honest translation or interpretation or contextual translation because they mainly depend of interpolation to justify their theme of political Islam in Quran. This way they drifted away from the organic message of the Quran of character building to nation building. Their unjustly insertion of socialist theme to suit their own view point, is the heinous thing ever done to an ancient scripture, although done innocently and with utter sincerity.
The reason this political theme of the book Quran appealed to so many people of Indian subcontinent is because of the political instability and wealth disparity in their own countries. So these noble souls saw fault in the old traditional translation of the book Quran, instead of upgrading the existing organic translation they introduce totally a new version to fill in the long due inner urge to regain the lost glory of Islamic Caliphate thus feeding the idea of establishing just and fair Islamic governance upon the entire world.
The idea of establishing an utopian model of government on "Madina Charter" attracted some modern Muslim mindset but this idea is against the natural soul of Quran. These new "transformers" became it's sincerest advocates, even ready to ignore the true essence of Quranic words in lieu for their dream for establishing "Just Islamic rule" on planet Earth on their line of thinking.
Blindly following someone's idea is biggest injustice done to one's own divine intellect and to impose that idea on the par excellent scripture like Quran is unforgivable sin.
Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parvez showed us the flaws in traditional translations, he even dare to challenge the scholars of his time, he did his job of awakening the community very sincerely. All credit of awakening the community to think boldly and differently goes to him but he never said to follow him blindly.
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