بِسْــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِالرَّحْمَنِ اارَّحِيم
The sentence you saw above is the first verse of Quran. ‘’ In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful’’. We today, will talk about the Quran’s Translations and its history.
In 11th century Quran was first translated into Persian by Selman-i Farisi. Muhammed (May peace be upon him) sent a letter to Byzantine Emperor and Ethiopian Emperor including verses of Quran. In His lifetime Quran wasn’t translated to any languages including Greek, Latin and Ethiopian. However until 20th century 102 translations of Quran were known.
However, Quran’s translations were always a matter of debate. Quran is a book that has been written to mankind no matter the age or place. Quran is the words of Allah. Thus it makes it very difficult to translate it into modern languages like Turkish.
On the other hand, Quran has very specific Islamic terms that makes it almost impossible to translate.
I want you to pay attention here ‘’almost impossible’’. I chose these words because it is not impossible. Quran cannot be interpreted 100% to any other languages excluding the dialects of Arabic, including Turkish and Persian. Its not only Quran, but also the other sacred books like the Bible and old Testament. Quran’s translations are to express the
Quran’s main idea and the sermon of Allah. Rest assured that translators always should bear this in mind the audience they shall face. Not to mention that even in sacred texts the author always shows his/her background.
So, as we already mentioned the difficulties translator shall face when translating the Quran. Let’s talk about the solution Clergy found and still practices. The Hermeneutics…
The hermeneutics are to interpret the idea Allah wants to say. It may seem as a blasphemous, but It is practised and still written. Some Muslim intellectuals considered the Hermeneutics as a disbelief but If its me to comment I don’t find them disbelief because authors of Hermeneutics just want to help people, nothing more.
As long as they don’t associate themselves with Allah or do they say that they are the people to be worshipped.
Still it is debated and forbidden in some cults…
Deniz Selçuk, Ankara