Inviting Others to Understand the Quran Is an Unshakable Principle of Human Rights

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Inviting Others to Understand the Quran Is an Unshakable Principle of Human Rights

One of the most important principles of human rights in today’s world resides in the fact that all human beings have the right to understand the Holy Quran, and this will be attainable only through translation of the Sacred Scripture into different living languages.

This is according to Dr Husain Mollanazar, holding PhD degree in the field of translation studies from the University of Warwick, England, speaking at a forum titled “Investigating English Translations of the Holy Quran”, which was held at Iranian Quran News Agency (IQNA) on May 3.

“According to the quality of mercifulness attributed to the Creator, all men and women in the world should be entitled to have access to the Divine Book and be aware of its content so as to find the right path of guidance; that is why Shia senior clerics advocate translating of the Holy Quran into other languages,” he said.

Referring to the Holy Quran (85:21-22 and 15:9), scholar of Allameh Tabatabai’s Faculty of Foreign Languages stressed that translation of the Holy Book, however imperfect it may be, can not harm or undermine the original text since the Quran has been guaranteed by the Author.

“Such an exceptional quality differentiates the Muslim sacred book from that belonging to Christians, i.e. the Bible,” he went on to say, explaining that unlike the latter, which was originally subject to translation into Latin and Greek, the Quran today is the same as the one revealed to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) with the same language, a sign proving its inalterability.

“While Quran versions in non-Arabic languages vary from one another, the Quran itself remains unchangeable, and this is not the case for the New Testament.”

Putting a great deal of emphasis on the readership in the target language, manager of “Translation Studies” scientific-research quarterly called on translators of religious texts, especially the Quran, to take conditions of readership into account and learn about their way of life, world vision, social and cultural milieu, etc, before embarking on the delicate matter of translation.

“Given the fact that translation by nature brings about certain loss, almost all experts specializing in this regard unanimously agree that Quran translations can merely, though partially, render the semantic aspect of the source text and that no translated version of the Holy Book can never be comparable with the original one, which is written in Arabic,” Mr. Mollanazar remarked, adding that a considerable number of factors such as divine presence, extraordinary style, and literal as well as semantic sacredness remains totally untranslatable.

Jointly organized by Iranian Quran News Agency in partnership with the University of Quranic Sciences and Teachings on May 3, the first session of the chain forum on “Investigating English translations of Holy Quran” was also attended by Salar Manafi Anari, specialist of English translation having academic tenure in Allameh Tabatabai University, and Mohammad Javad Gohari, Oxford University scholar and translator of the Quran into English, each sharing their own viewpoints on the issue.

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