Is the translation of the Qur’an by a non-Muslim justifiable? And what authority do non-Muslims have to translate the Qur’an? These are the kind of debates that arose in the Netherlands following the publication of the first edition of Fred Leemhuis’s Dutch translation of the Qur’an in 1989. Leemhuis chose the word ‘weergave’ (‘rendering’/‘representation’) for …
In celebration of the one-year anniversary of ‘Qur’an Translation of the Week’, the GloQur team today jointly looks at modern translations of a contested verse. We will discuss Q 5:51, a verse that pertains to the relations between Muslims, on the one hand, and Christians and Jews, on the other hand. How is it rendered in …
The first Dutch Qur’an translation of the 20th century was authored by a young Javanese Muslim, Soedewo (1906–1971), and printed in Batavia in 1934 for an Indonesian audience. While criticized by some ulama for being an Ahmadiyya translation, it was enthusiastically hailed by Indonesian Sunni intellectuals. For several decades, it was probably the most widely …
Qur’an translation of the week #21: Soedewo and the Dutch Qur’an in Indonesia Read More »
“Al-Quräan dan terdjemahnja”, a hugely successful project of the newly-independent Republic of Indonesia, was the first Qur’an translation ever to be commissioned by a government and produced by a committee of scholars. The first volume was published in 1965. President Sukarno’s “Old Order” regime wanted it to represent the revolutionary “fire of Islam”. Sukarno was …
Qur’an translation of the week #01: Al-Qur’an dan terjemahnya Read More »
