Interpreting and Translating the Qur’an

Why did a Catholic priest translate segments of the Qur'an into his self-made language Volapük? What use is a Qur’an translation into a variant of Tamazight so purified of Arabic expressions that few Tamazight speaker are able to understand it? Most studies of Qur'an translations do not offer answers to these questions because of their focus on the communicative function of translations. Conversely, this paper argues that the production of Qur’an translations has a performative function that makes them no less important than the much better-researched Biblical translations. The paper will center marginalized languages and show how the Qur’an is positioned in attempts to define their status, and how these languages in turn define the status of the Qur’an. While the production of Qur’an translations in such cases has a largely symbolic quality, their mere existence contributes to centering the marginal and making the obscure visible.

This article explores the role of the Muslim World League (MWL) in authorizing translations of the Qur’an. Established in 1962 by Saudi Crown Prince Fayṣal b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Āl Saʿūd, the MWL aimed to assert moral and political authority over the entire Muslim world. The article argues that Qur’an translation was an important part of the MWL’s strategy for promoting Islam globally. Despite the Qur’an being considered an “untranslatable text,” the MWL successfully completed six translation projects in languages such as Japanese, Yoruba, and Turkish. Through analyzing the history and stories behind these translations, the article shows how the MWL’s experience contributed to the Muslim community worldwide by providing “authorized” translations. This idea of institutional authority in translation, where the role of publisher, reviser, and approving body played a decisive role, went beyond the individual experience of the translator. The article concludes that the MWL’s success in authorizing Qur’an translations played a pivotal role in establishing the King Fahd Glorious Qur'an Printing Complex, which remains the largest Qur’an printing and translation factory today.

Ibn Taymiyya’s "Introduction to the Principles of Qur’anic Hermeneutics," (Muqaddima fi usul al-tafsir) has arguably become one of the most important classical manuals to understand the medieval Qur’anic commentary tradition and its hermeneutic viewed as normative way to understand the Qur’an.  However, in the most recent edition of the Muqaddima, the editor Sami b. Muhammad b. Jad Allah contends that the last two chapters are wrongly attributed to Ibn Taymiyya and are in fact the writings of Ibn Kathir.  Jad Allah makes his argument based on the chapter’s writing style, pre-modern citations and various manuscripts.  I am inclined to Jad Allah’s reasoning but believe more pre-modern and manuscript work needs to be done to conclusively establish the argument.  This discussion is significant because it speaks to the construction of modern exegetical orthodoxy and how the medieval tradition has been transmitted to us.     

This paper examines how, within the ontological framework of the Qur’an, the concept of israf or waste can be understood in not only material terms but also epistemic ones. This paper argues that within this Qur’anic framework, epistemic waste occurs when the meaning-content of an existent entity is unacknowledged or insufficiently apprehended by its recipient. Utilizing Said Nursi’s (d.1960) hermeneutics of approaching the cosmos as scripture or ayat in which divine names are constantly being manifested, this paper examines how israf as conceptualized throughout the Qur’an, looks to the epistemological nature of the world in which all entities are carriers of divine names not to be wasted, materially and epistemically. Understanding israf within the broader theological epistemology of the Qur’an can be a critical step in constructing an Islamic eco-ethic that is not divorced from the broader telos of its scripture.

This paper elucidates a Quranic framework of *shura* as a relational theology of care. Drawing on four references from the Quran this paper highlights what may be considered an implicit norm as encouraging a theology of relationality in interpretation of Revelation and Divine communication between caregiver and careseeker. Engaging with Toshiko Izutsu’s *Revelation as a Linguistic Concept in Islam*, Grau and Wyman’s *What is Constructive Theology?* this paper posits *shura* as a practice of care in Muslim practical theology.