PRELUDE
"Acknowledging the holy text of the QURAN as a masterpiece of unparalleled literary excellence, a fact fully attested by eminent scholars of Arabic language and literature, and an attribute worthy of the Universal Majesty of its Divine Narrator, this humble writer feels utmost pleasure in initiating a series of short translation papers from this Scripture. Each installment of this series deals exclusively with a single major topic of the Scripture and its related sub-topics, if any. The purpose is to offer solutions of numerous ideological riddles confronting man in his day to day life in spite of the easy availability of full-fledged relative explanations appearing in the markets with the name of Tafaseer or Interpretations.
To lay emphasis on just the particular themes serves the purpose of reducing the magnitude of work undertaken. It helps sidetrack the long and frightening process of a complete or wholesome translation (or interpretation) of the entire Quran – a formidable task which would definitely entail lots of useless repetitions. It also helps target only those most controversial issues whose essence has been grossly corrupted by vested interests in the early age of Islam.
Hence, the translation series under study keeps in strict observance the frequent occurrence of allegories, similes, metaphors, idioms and symbolic expressions in the Quranic texts – a style that a classical literary writing essentially owns by virtue of its acknowledged attributes.
You will kindly note that every important word or term has, in the first instance, been marked with parenthesis, and in the end of the writing, such words and terms are defined in their full scope of meanings by utilizing the input from about one dozen most authentic Arabic lexicons.
This standard procedure not only introduces a most efficient and flawless system for producing strict and exact translation work, but assures that the final outcome is not going to be infiltrated or adulterated with a single word from external sources such as personal opinions, convictions, dogmas or from the translator’s own understanding reflecting his own particular mindset.
The standard yardstick of this work has been fixed upon knowledge, rationality, logic and intellect, along with the latest research techniques, with a view to keeping it pure from all additions, interpolations, redactions and biases. The hitherto prevalent literal translations of these themes, inherited from an unenviable past, are vehemently condemned, and it is recommended to discard those fabrications altogether in view of their proven vicious role in corrupting the original and pristine image of the Quran.
This humble writer is neither affiliated with a religious sect, nor believes in schism, split or sectarianism among humanity. His perspective is none other than the Creator and the underlying purpose behind His overall Creative act - starting from the cosmic stage, gradually expanding in successive steps and finally culminating into the launch of the yet most advanced stage of human life. He deliberates in Al-Quran with the said perspective in mind, exploring its ultimate Guidance for building the noblest of human character and conduct. It goes without saying that the pursuit of the Quran’s prescribed mode of conduct, in its true light, can keep the human caravan in motion, generation after generation, towards its appointed destination.
It may be added here, as an advance hint, that our religious clergy have memorized only a single definition of every word or term of the Quranic texts, which, beyond a fraction of variance, is indiscriminately applied in all contexts as a literal and most commonplace meaning prevalent among the street masses. A Higher style of intellectual and literary writing, like allegories, metaphors, symbolic or idiomatic expressions, always observed in the exalted texts of the Quran, have always been impossible for them to discern and follow, or they deliberately ignored these literary expressions in order to meet their vicious ends – those ends which could not be served by a qualified scholarly translation. They have been bereft of the ability of undertaking research for checking the veracity of the main propositions of a Quranic theme and, as a result, indulged in deriving blind deductions there from without giving a thought to the essence of the most literary vocabulary used."