CONCORDANCE OF THE SUBLIME QURAN pdf download

Concordance of the Sublime Quran by Laleh Bakhtiar

CONCORDANCE OF THE SUBLIME QURAN

This Holy Quran translation meets the needs of persons who do not speak Arabic yet want to comprehend the Quran.

This work is a translation and transliteration of al-Mujim al-mufahris, an Arabic Concordance. The semantic structure of the Arabic vocabulary is shown in this all-English book in order to arrive at the numerous meanings of Arabic three and four-letter roots and their derivatives.

Book’s Preface

Clearly, no translation of the Quran can compare in beauty and style with the original Arabic.

Yet, after spending many years studying the various English translations of the Quran and realizing the sincere efforts of the translators in this great, divinely blessed task,

it became clear to me that English translations have lacked internal consistency and reliability I found, when the context is the same, if the same English word is not used for the same Arabic word throughout the translation, it becomes difficult for someone who wants to learn Quranic Arabic to be able to correlate the English and the Arabic.

 In other words, the twenty or so English translations put emphasis on interpreting a Quranic verse without considering reference to each of the original Arabic words. For example, in one translation, the English verb “to turn” is used for over forty-three different Arabic words and the noun “sin,” twenty-three.

The Arabic language is much more precise than present translations would indicate. The English reader does not get a sense of the depth to the Quran.

This realization, in turn, prompted this present translation. Method Undertaking of an English translation of the Quran entitled The Sublime Quran (as the Quran refers to itself in 15:87, al-quran al- c azlm), I asked myself the question:

Is it possible to produce a translation that has internal consistency and reliability? In order to answer this question, I began with the translation of the words in the Quran rather than beginning the translation at the beginning of the sacred text and moving forward.

 This method is known as formal equivalence. This is the method used by the translators of the KJV or King James Version of the Bible, first published in 1611 CE, as well as ten other English translations of the Bible.

Therefore, there is no commentary in the English translation of The Sublime Quran. Introducing the non-Arabic speaker to the words of the revelation without any commentary is as formal equivalence dictates.

 Related to the eternality of the Quran, readers of the translation will then be able to ask themselves: As this is the eternal Word of God, what does it mean to me today?

What does it say to me? How can I self-identity with it? How do I feel when I read it? Do I accept the arguments that the Quran presents for the Oneness of God?

 As a result of using formal equivalence, there are no parenthetical phrases further interpreting and elaborating a verse, thus allowing the translation, as the Quran itself is, to be free of any transient political, denominational or doctrinal bias. The method used by English translators of the Quran to date has been to start at the beginning of the sacred text and work through translating until the end.