Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs

Qur’an translation of the week #162: Translating the Qur’an into Sundanese: The first Indonesian Qur’an translation to be authored by a woman

A guest contribution by Jajang A Rohmana, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati, Bandung, Indonesia Anugerah Al-Quranul-Karim Tarjamah Basa Sunda (‘A Gift from God: A Sundanese Qur’an Translation’) is the only complete translation of the Qur’an to be written by an Indonesian woman to date. Indonesia is a Muslim-majority country with the largest Muslim population in the world, …

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Qur’an translation of the week #99: The State-sponsored Translation of the Qur’an into Palembang, Religious Moderation, and Language Dilemma

by Tri Handayani, Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Al Qur’an (STIQ) Al-Lathifiyyah Palembang The Indonesian state has only recently, in 2018, initiated an official project to translate the Qur’an into local languages, even though the first state-authorised translation of the Qur’an into Indonesian was published in 1965 and has since been reissued in various different editions. However, …

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Qur’an translation of the week #95: The New Order, the Armed Forces and the Republic of Indonesia- Bakri Syahid’s Javanese Qur’an translation Al-Huda

Qur’an translation as propaganda: war alliances and nation-building (3/3) On the cover of Al-Huda, a Javanese Qur’an translation first published in 1979, the author, Bakri Syahid (1918–1994), is presented as both a retired brigadier general and a former rector of the State Islamic Institute Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta. As this description shows, army and state …

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Qur’an translation of the week #55: Qur’an Karim dan Terjemahan Artinya: the UII Qur’an Translation and the Rise of a Youtuber Ulema

Qur’an Karim dan Terjemahan Artinya, a Qur’an translation published by the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII) is an interesting case study of how a translation can be seen to reflect different ideological outlooks at different times in history. One of the oldest universities in Indonesia, UII is an Islamic university and has required new students …

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Qur’an translation of the week #42: The Bhâsa Madhurâ Translation of the Qur’an

A guest contribution by Ulya Fikriyati, Institut Ilmu Keislaman Annuqayah (INSTIKA) Guluk-Guluk Sumenep, Indonesia The “Bhâsa Madhurâ” (Madurese) translation of the Qur’an is one of many vernacular translations of the Qur’an available in Indonesia. The Madurese (after whom the Madurese language is named) hail from the island of Madura, which is located immediately to the …

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Qur’an translation of the week #33: A translation or not a translation? Muhammad Quraish Shihab’s “Al-Qur’an & Maknanya”

“This work”, says the publisher, Lentera Hati, “was not named ‘The Qur’an and its Translation’, because its author, M. Quraish Shihab, was acutely aware that the Qur’an is a holy book that cannot possibly be translated into any other language. All that the exegetes can do is to reveal the meaning, not translate it!”Despite these …

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Qur’an translation of the week #25: Indonesian Qur’an translation for women

An Indonesian Qur’an translation for women – does this mean a feminist translation? No. It means that, in a country with a market economy and a large urban Muslim middle class, publishers have discovered women as a lucrative target group of bilingual Qur’an editions, just as there is a substantial market for children’s books teaching …

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Qur’an translation of the week #17: Muhammad Thalib’s “tarjamah tafsiriyah”, an Islamist counter-translation

Muhammad Thalib’s “exegetical translation”, first published in 2011, is not so much a translation as it is a counter-translation. It constitutes a direct attack on the religious legitimacy of the Indonesian government, which publishes its own Qur’an translation. That translation, much to Thalib’s discontent, dominates the Indonesian market (see https://gloqur.de/quran-translation-of-the-week-01-al-quran-dan-terjemahnya/). Consequently, criticizing the government translation …

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Qur’an translation of the week #01: Al-Qur’an dan terjemahnya

“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 …

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