The Ahmadiyya movement, a messianic reform movement founded in British India in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (d. 1908), was the first Islamic group to actively undertake a project to translate the Qur’an into various European languages in the early twentieth century. Their primary motivation was to make the Qur’anic text accessible to a broader audience in the West as part of their proselytizing efforts. The first Ahmadiyya translation to appear was in English, and was followed by German and Dutch versions.
In 1914, the movement split into two branches: the Jamaat-i Ahmadiyya and the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-e-Islam Lahore. In a previous post, we have already explored the English translation by Muhammad Ali, published in 1917, a work spearheaded by the Lahore branch. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the Lahore branch was particularly active in distributing Qur’an translations across Europe. However, after World War II, the influence of the Lahore branch waned as the Jamaat-i Ahmadiyya intensified its own efforts to lead the field of Qur’an translation. A key factor in their rise was the publication of Sher Ali’s English translation in 1955, which became a template for many subsequent Ahmadi translations.
Sher Ali was born in a small village near Sargodha, in the Punjab province of Pakistan. He studied at the Forman Christian College in Lahore and joined the Ahmadiyya movement in 1897. Over the years, he served in various capacities within the movement, eventually becoming the assistant editor of The Review of Religions in 1909. At that time, Muhammad Ali was beginning work on his English translation of the Qur’an, and Sher Ali contributed to this project by proofreading drafts until 1914.
In 1915, Sher Ali helped produce a partial English translation of the Qur’an, but after its publication nearly two decades passed before efforts to complete a full translation were resumed. In 1936, Sher Ali traveled to England to access essential literature for his translation work. Three years later, he returned to Qadian, where he continued his translation efforts alongside the renowned Ahmadi scholars Mirza Bashir Ahmad and Malik Ghulam Farid. Together, they formed a board dedicated to translating the Qur’an into English and developing an extensive commentary to accompany this.
Sher Ali’s translation appeared in two formats. The first was a comprehensive, annotated commentary titled The Holy Qur’an with English Translation and Commentary, published in three volumes between 1947 and 1963. This work spans more than 2,900 pages and includes approximately 5,000 footnotes. The second, concise version was first published in 1955 and is a straightforward translation without annotations.
The preface to the first volume explains the purpose behind the publication of this extensive commentary, highlighting its focus on addressing ‘the principal objections raised against Islam by Christian writers’. Although Sher Ali’s translation appeared several decades after Muhammad Ali’s, its goal apparently remained the same: to offer a strong response to Christian criticisms of Islam.
One notable feature it shared with Muhammad Ali’s translation is the use of a two-column layout, a distinctive format that continues to characterize translations published by the Jamaat-i Ahmadiyya. The footnotes are generally divided into two sections. The first part examines the various meanings of key words in the verses, while the second part provides an interpretation.
Sher Ali’s translation played a pivotal role in the Jamaat-i Ahmadiyya’s emergence as a global publisher. Once the draft of the English translation was completed in the 1940s, the Jamaat-i Ahmadiyya consulted Berlitz in England to translate it into eight additional languages. Their primary goal was to intensify their missionary activities following the end of World War II. While the war was ongoing, it made it impossible for the Jamaat-i Ahmadiyya to effectively carry out any da’wa activities. This pause was in some ways fortuitous, as it allowed the community time to save funds and strategize for post-war proselytization.
Anticipating the end of the war, Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad (d. 1965), then the head of the Ahmadiyya, advised focusing on nine widely spoken languages. By distributing literature in Arabic, English, Russian, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese, the Jamaat-i Ahmadiyya aimed to extend its message globally, beyond the boundaries of any one country. To support this effort, the caliph directed his followers to publish the Qur’an in these languages, believing it would captivate readers and spark their interest in Islam.
In 1953, the Jamaat-i Ahmadiyya published their Dutch translation of the Qur’an, followed by the German translation in 1954. Over the next four decades, the number of published translations grew to over 60. In this way, the Jamaat-i Ahmadiyya became the first Islamic publisher with a global agenda. Today, the community has published more than 70 translations, many of which draw inspiration from Sher Ali’s work. Although other Ahmadis have produced their own English translations, Sher Ali’s remains the standard within the Ahmadiyya community, with the most recent edition published in 2021.
Kamran Khan