How Do I Go About Studying the Qur'an as a Beginner?
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Salaam All!
I have read various translations of the Qur'an in English and in Urdu. However, I have not read the Qur'an in its entirety, deciphering the proper meanings. I would like to read the Qur'an in its entirety, but I don't want to waste my time reading completely inaccurate translations. I hope to take a stab at learning Arabic, but for now, where is the best place to start in terms of reading translations? Which are the better English translations?
Thanks.
Salaam.
Sajda.
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Salamun alaiki,
When you have already read various translation both in English and Urdu and are not satisfied, then what is the point in reading few more. Why not learn to undertake realtime translation? Atleast, you will not tomorrow feel to have wasted your time.
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peace,
Reading a translation is a good start if one does not know classical Arabic etc. I prefer Muhammad Asad's 'message of the quran' but most are ok.
Whatever translation you read, you must adopt an intelligent approach, e.g. use resources and a robust method to check what a translation is saying etc
Resources
http//www.studyquran.orgAn example of a methodology
http//www.quran434.com/study-method.html -
Peace es,
Good to see you posting! I find the there are positives and negatives of all translations, as you'd expect. The Abdel Haleem translation though is particularly readable. Although with all translations I find myself going back to the transliteration to check things in terms of the (small) parts of the Arabic I can identify. Laleh Bakhtiar translation is also recommended by some although I haven't read all of it, just what I've seen on Islam Awakened.com - http//www.islamawakened.com/quran/default.htm.
You could look at some of the translations on there as well if you wish. I recommend listening to the Quran during this process with the transliteration if possible. It's possible to pick up a small amount of Arabic this way or possible more. I hope this helps!
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Salaam peace/ war.
I love Abdel Haleem and he is my favourite out of all of the translations which I have read. HOWEVER, having said that, I do know that not all of his translations are spot on. I recall noticing something in surah Maryam recently-a word, which he didn't give an accurate translation for. I can't remember what it was now.
Anyway, thank you very much. It gives me something to start with.
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Peace es,
I agree. There are problems with his translation for example the wife beating verse and in one translation, like many translations, for one verse he translated Iblis to Satan which doesn't make sense to do since it isn't translated like that elsewhere. Not sure of the verse number for that one right now.
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Which are the better English translations?
Free-Minds translation.The translation withouth bracked words sectarian tafseer, and free from sectarian conspired fatwa based translation plus it's translated by Quranist.
Muhammad Asad translation also give moderate translation, but Muhammad Asad still a Sunni.
http//corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp
Corpus Quran is good for learn Quran Arabic grammar in simple ways.
But Sajda I also recommend you to open this good site http//www.kalamullah.com/learning-arabic.html
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Peace,
Welcome back Sajda.
God bless you
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Lately I've been reading the Abdel Haleem translation and it understandable like my other favorites (reformist, aev, and monotheist group)
It's minimal on the brackets and not too many footnotes and when there are they are brief. Oddly he doesn't even touch his traditional translation of 434 with a footnote, but everything else seems to be consistent with the other translations I mentioned. The paperback version is nice for holding while reading, which may sound shallow to some, but I really like how I can relax and hold it like someone reading a paperback novel would. -
It's a pleasure to "meet" you. handshake You've been posting a lot whilst I've been on my sojourn! I have enjoyed reading your posts!
Sorry Sajda, it looks like I'm too late for handshaking handshake hehehe
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Salaam,
Yes, this is precisely why I wanted suggestions for which translation to read. Having 7 Qur'ans open at the same time, cross-referencing in Arabic, Urdu and English gives me all sorts of different translations.
Salaam.
Sajda.
Salaam,
If you are following Urdu translations also... I would suggest Shah Rafi Uddin's translation. Best in the market compare to others.
May Allah bless you pr
mmKhan -
Salam,
One more bit of advise is to read the Qu'ran as a whole the first few times you read it. Read it in a high level way where you can grasp the major themes and tones in the text without delving into the intricate details. You won't understand everything in the book right away so don't try to over analyze the first few times reading it. Trust me, even after 20+ years reading Qu'ran, there are still things that are not 100% clear. You don't want to be bogged down and diverted by the complex things when first learning.
Once you grasp the majority of the text which is easy to understand (and you can use pretty much any translation), then I would suggest delving into the more intricate analysis. But always keep in mind the high level themes of the Qu'ran while doing your analysis of certain ayat.
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Salaam All!
I have read various translations of the Qur'an in English and in Urdu. However, I have not read the Qur'an in its entirety, deciphering the proper meanings. I would like to read the Qur'an in its entirety, but I don't want to waste my time reading completely inaccurate translations. I hope to take a stab at learning Arabic, but for now, where is the best place to start in terms of reading translations? Which are the better English translations?
Thanks.
Salaam.
Sajda.
Peace Es,
Whichever translation you read, consider Reply # 73, 75 given in the link below.
http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9604771.70
Gita
