THE TARJUMAN AL-QUR’AN by MAWLANA ABUL KALAM AZAD

THE TARJUMAN AL-QUR’AN

by
MAWLANA ABUL KALAM AZAD

EDITED AND
RENDERED INTO ENGLISH BY
DR. SYED ABDUI, LATIF

VOLUME ONE
SORAT-UL-FATIHA

 

Acknowledgements

The trustees of Dr. Syed Abdul Latif’s Trust for Quranic and other Cultural Studies wish to placeon record their indebtedness to the trustees of H.E.H. the Nizam’s Charitable Trust, particularly its chairman Prince Mufakkham Jah Bahadur and its acting chairman Dr. Zahir Ahmed, I.A.S. (retd) for their generous grant which enabled the Quranic Trust publish this edition.

They are grateful also ta Mr. Md. Anver, Reader, Osmania University, for his help in bringing out this edition and particularly for compiling the appendix.

Nizamuddin Ahmed, IAS (Rtd)
Chairman,
Dr. Syed Abdul Latifs
Trust for Quranic & other
Cultural Studies.

Hyderabad,
D/ Jan. 1, 1981.

Forwarded to the Translation Dr. Syed Mahmud

TEE name of Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad will be written indelibly across the pages of Indian history as one of those great stalwarts who struggled to win freedom for India. That is the reward of patriotism and of sacrifices made under its compuleive demanda.

But his name will be equally remembered by posterity as a fighter in the cause of man’s intellectual emancipation as well, fighting hard against the intellectual and religious obscurantism which had held mankind under its grip for ages together, particularly the mind of his co-religionists, the Mualima of India, and those who inhabited the huge belt which stretched itself along the Central and Western Asia and North Africa right up to the shores of the Atlantic on the one hand, and in its offshoot to the South-East covering in its onward march into the Pacific, the Malaya peninsula and Indonesia, – a form of obscurantism which had expressed itself in a rigid adherence to medievalism in thought and action styled Taqlid or unthinking allegiance to mere tradition.

This struggle iq its deeper reaches was at ht a struggle against his own self, his very upbringing, a veritable Jehad, so to my, against his own personality as built up by medievalism in religion to which he was heir.

The manner in which Mawlana had endeavoured to free his mind from the clutches of his medieval past may be noticed in the pages of the Al-Hilfil and the 81-BalEgh, two weekly journals in Urdu which he himself edited oft and on between 1912 and 1930, azd above all in the pages of his monumental work in Urdu, The Ta~juma~n al-Qur’in or the interpretation of the Qur’in, the first volume of which was issued in 1930, and the second in 1936.

How hard was the struggle in hia own soul to rise above his own self to seek fresh avenues of approach to the sources of his Faith, the Qur’ltz and the example of the Prophet, may be gleaned from the agmised statement which he makes in the preface to his work.

The Tarjumifi al-Qur’iin, is recognised on all hands as Mawlana’e wtagnum opus. Therein he has tried to give to the Qur’inic word the interpretation which it was originally meant to bear, or as was understood by the followers of the Prophet in his own lifetime.

It is in the form of an explanatory translation of the Qur’iinic text supported, wherever necessary, by foot-notes and comments.

The work, as it came out, attracted the serious attention of scholars both in India and abroad, so much so, that when it was revised by him while he was in Ahmednagar Jail and the second edition of it issued, I suggested to him the need for an English version of his great work, a suggestion which he readily appreciated.

In fact, when he came out of jail in 1946, several scholars, one after another, tried their hand at it, but the result did not satisfy him.

The translators themselves had to admit that the work was not easy to translate. The idea had therefore to lie in abeyance.

Indeed, Mawlana Azad had well-nigh given up the hope of ever seeing hie work in an English translation.

It was when Mawlana and I had the opportunity to read that remarkable work, The Mind Al-Qur’iin Builds, written by Dr. Syed Abdul Latif, the distinguished scholar of Hyderabad, that we felt that here was a scholar who could rise equal to the occasion and fulfil the wish not only of my own self but also of Mawlana Azad.

Dr. Latif was personally known to us for several years as Professor of English at the Osmania University, tmd a keen student of Islamic thought. When I approached him in this regard, he at ht felt hesitant to undertake the task. But when it was brought home to him that his personal talents demanded of him to enter upon the task as a matter of duty to the world of intellect, he yielded.

He had, however, long talks with Mawlana in regard to the manner of presentation. Mawlana Azad had, as I know, set great store by his commentary of the opening chapter of the Qur’iin wherein he had surveyed its entire ideology. Indeed he regarded his achievement as a distinct landmark in the field of Islamic thought.

He was anxious to see at least this part of his commentary on the Qur’Gn – the Stirat-ul-FZtihii – rendered into English. So, when Dr. Latif finished its translation, I found Mawlana Azad immensely delighted and even overjoyed at the result. May it be noted that Mawlana was a very hard man to deal with in the matter of literary
expression.

At this stage, a thought came to Mawlana that before issuing the finished ka,nslation of the opening part of his Commentary

Leave a Comment