The Noble Quran : A New Rendering in English

At last, here is a translation into English of the Qur'an which is easy to read and which gives easy access to the meanings of the original Arabic without compromising or obscuring them in any way. 

In short, it is a new rendering of its meaning which is not only trustworthy but also a pleasure to read. This is not to belittle or denigrate the classical works of Mohammed Pickthall or Yusuf Ali, but it is clear to anyone remotely conversant with the English language that these earlier translators' English usage and vocabulary is now outdated and not always intelligible, belonging as it does more to the last century than to the one which lies ahead. 

Most of those English speaking people who have embraced Islam during the last 25 years, as well as many English speaking Muslims whose mother tongue is not English, will confirm that it is often necessary to 'translate' this outmoded English into a more modern equivalent, perhaps with the help of a Qur'anic Arabic/English dictionary such as Penrice, before the meaning appears to be apparent – and often in this process mistakes and misinterpretations are easily made by those whose grasp of Arabic is limited. Furthermore, those more recent 'translations' which have in effect been attempts to modernise the Pickthall and Yusuf Ali translations have on the whole lacked penetration and depth, especially when prepared by authors lacking either a complete education or a proper grasp of English or both. There is of course the Arberry translation, but this while remaining technically faithful to the Arabic, and while succeeding in conveying at least something of the poetical splendour of the original Arabic, does not always convey the actual meaning, simply because the author was not a practising Muslim and therefore did not have experiential access to the subject matter itself. 

Anyone who has read a literal translation of an instruction manual from, for example Japanese into English, made by someone without a working knowledge of the appliance for which the manual has been written, knows how misleading and often nonsensical and amusing such 'translations' can be, even when most of the important words have been translated more or less accurately. As regards other contemporary translators from Arabic into English, scholars who can translate both accurately and clearly – without being either too profuse and shallow or too dry and academic – are not plentiful. Fortunately Hajj Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley are not only scholars but also they have been practising Muslims and prolific translators for the last 30 years. How different their work is to, for example, De Sale's awful 'translation' which was made principally from a deformed Latin translation of the Arabic for the Pope with the express intention of distorting the Qur'an's meaning so as to ridicule Islam and strengthen what remained of Christendom.