The miracle of the Quran lies in its inimitable language, its beauty and eloquence of style. It was revealed to  Prophet Muhammad, , (may Allah exalt his mention) in the 7th century CE for all nations, people and races. Therefore, there has always been the need for translating its meanings into other languages. In this paper, I will present a brief review of some English translations of the Quran that exist upto the present day.

The first translation  was carried out by Robertus Rotensis and Hermannus Dalmata in 1143 CE,  when the Quran was translated into Latin in the interest of the convents during the time of the Crusades. This Latin translation was then translated into other languages like German, Italian and Hindi. In 1647 CE, it was translated into French by the French Consul in Egypt, Andre du Ryer. The first English translation was from the French version in 1688 CE by Alexander Ross, which was described, “as despicably unsavory and a very bad one and no better than its French origin by Sale”.

In 1689 CE another Latin translation was presented by  Maracci, that included the Arabic text as well as extracts from different commentaries of the Quran. According to Mehana (1978) these commentaries were chosen in such a way so as to give a bad impression about Islam to Europeans. The translator, who was a priest and one of the leading church members, started with an introduction which was entitled ‘Refutation of the Quran.'

It was in 1734 CE, that George Sale presented an English translation of the Quran from Latin, which was then considered the original English source for the translation of the Quran and was republished several times in Europe. From then onwards, there followed many English and other European translations of the Quran, through which the translators expressed what they believed about Islam. This was sometimes done within the core of the translated text or in the form of footnotes or comments.This led some Muslims such as Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall to translate the meanings of the Quran into English, in an attempt to give the reader, as far as possible the most adequate rendering of the Quran into English.

The first Muslim who tried to translate the Quran into English was Dr. Muhammad Abdel Hakeem Khan in 1905 CE. However, the first published English translation was presented in 1861 CE by Reverend J.M. Rodwell and reprinted several times, entitled The Koran: Translation from the Arabic.

In 1930 CE, there appeared another translation by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall entitled The Meanings of the Glorious Quran. He was a Christian Englishman who converted to Islam. In his view, the Quran cannot be translated and his work was merely an attempt to present the meanings of the Quran into English. This translation was followed in 1934 CE by that presented by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, which is most commonly used now, entitled The Holy Quran. Yusuf Ali was a Muslim scholar who had a good command of both Arabic and English languages. His translation was free from the grave misinterpretations found in other translations like those presented by the Qaadiyaani sect. Yusuf Ali also added some comments at the bottom of each page, helping the reader to comprehend the text correctly.

In 1956, another translation into English appeared entitled The Koran: A New Translation, presented by N.J. Daawood, which was published under The Penguin Classics series In his introduction, Daawood  says that the reason he presented this work was to supply the reader with a version of the Quran translated into modern English.

The translation presented by Arthur J.Arberry in 1955, entitled The Koran Interpreted was published by Oxford University Press. Arberry was a Christian professor in a British University who died recently. He was of the opinion that the Quran being a great work should not be translated. Hence he chose to name his work an "interpretation" rather than a translation. Despite the fact that Arberry was a non-Arab, non-Muslim, yet he had moderate views about Islam and the Quran.

Then there were the three translations of the Quran presented by  the deviated Qaadiyaani sect. These three translations were done by the followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmed El Qaadiyaani who is known to this sect as the “Expected Christ”. The members of this sect have beliefs of their own and are so proud of them that they declare and admit to them publicly. These translations are The Holy Quran by Mawlana Mohammed Ali, first published 1918 CE; The Holy Quran by Malik Ghulam Fareid, first published in 1969 CE; The Quran by Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, first published in 1971 CE.

The last and most recent translation is presented by M.M. Khatib entitled The Bounteous Koran, authorized by Al-Azhar in 1984 and first published in 1986. Khatib is an Egyptian Muslim who has a good command of both languages and has acquired a good deal of knowledge about Islamic culture.

The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the pitfalls of these translators of the Quran, namely Reverend J. Rodwell, Arthur J. Arberryand M.M. Khatib. However, as this is just a short paper, therefore, I will select no more than two or three examples from each translation. The reason for choosing these translations lies in the fact that Rodwell’s was the first translation done from the Arabic text and being a member of Church, he was affected by Christian teachings and was against Islam. His aim was to falsify Islam as a revealed religion. On the other hand, Arberry had moderate views about Islam. He disagreed with Rodwell on many of his views, especially the belief that the Quran is not the “word of God” revealed to Muhammad, . The third translator, Khatib is a Muslim whose translation is the most recent one and authorized by Al-Azhar.

In the preface to his book entitled The Koran: Translation from the Arabic, Rodwell commented on the gathering of the Quran and arrangement of the chapters (Soorahs), during the time of both Caliphs Abu Bakr al-Siddeeq and ’Uthmaan bin ‘Affaan, may Allah be pleased with them. He mentioned that the Soorahs revealed in Al-Madeenah were placed in the middle of Soorahs revealed in Makkah and vice versa. Thus, to him the Quran appeared to be an “almost unreadable and incongruous patchwork”.

Rodwell is definitely mistaken here, as it is well known and documented that the Quran was dictated and written during the life of the Prophet Muhammad, , under his supervision.

As Khalifa states in his The Sublime Quran and Orientalism (1983 pp 38):

“Islamic history bears ample witness to the fact that Quranic revelations were recorded in writing under the Prophet’s personal supervision. His scribes, who were often with him and to whom he dictated the heavenly message, were well known to their fellow Muslims”.

“It so happens that there is ample evidence proving the Prophet, , had set a textual order for the Soorahs, both in the form of instructions to his companions and in his recitations of successive Soorahs”.

However, Rodwell carries on saying:


“…and convey no idea whatever of the development and growth of any plan in the mind of the founder of Islam, or of the circumstances by which he was surrounded and influenced”.

In the above quotation, he doubts the prophethood of Muhammad,  and considers him the “founder of Islam”. This main idea prevails as he carries on saying on page 8.

“The sources whence Muhammad derived the material of his Koran are, over and above the more poetical parts, which are his own creation, the legends of his time and country, Jewish traditions based upon Talmud or perverted to suit his own purposes and the floating Christian traditions of Arabia and Syria.”

Then on page 10 of his preface he contradicts himself by saying:

“We have no evidence that Muhammad had access to the Christian Scripture.”

He carries on saying:

“There is but one direct quotation (Soorah 21:105) in the whole Koran from the Scriptures and though there are a few passages, as where “alms” are said to be given to be seen of men, and as none forgives the sins but God only, which might seen to be identical with texts of the New Testament, yet this similarity is probably merely accidental.”

From the above quotation, it is clear that Rodwell is contradicting himself all the time. He first states that Muhammad,  has said the words of the Quran in a poetic version of his own or it could have been taken from either the Old or New Testament. Then later, he said that there is no evidence that he, , could have access to these texts, but adds that it might "seem to be identical with the text of the New Testament". The use of this expression means that he is not sure and could not confirm the similarity.

Moreover, Rodwell could not comprehend the discourse of the Quran which is full of great meaning. This can easily be illustrated by the many mistakes, misinterpretations and misunderstandings which he has fallen into in his translations of the different verses of which examples are given below:

In Rodwell’s translation of Chapter Al-Ma’oon verse 5:

Which means: “But in their prayers are careless”. [Quran 107:5]