Sublime Quran Preface Introduction

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 lack internal consistency and reliability. Clearly no translation of the Quran can compare in beauty and style with the original Arabic, which has been described as: " by turns, striking, soaring, vivid, terrible, tender and breathtaking. " 1 Recognizing this, a translation of a sacred text which will never equal the original still has certain criteria it should meet. 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 to correlate the English and the Arabic to be able to do so. In other words, the twenty or so English translations put emphasis on interpreting a Quranic verse without precisely representing the original Arabic word. 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 and God used a different word in each case. Therefore, a translation should do the same to the extent possible in order to give the English reader more of a sense of the depth to the Quran. This Arabic-English version of The Sublime Quran is the best way for a student of classical Quranic Arab to learn to read the Quran because of the internal consistence and reliability of the translation. For the Muslim, the Quran is the Word (Logos) of God. It is this Word of God that has inspired artists, artisans, poets, philosophers and writers, those who had been the exponents of Islamic culture and civilization for almost 1500 years. Yesterday and today's Muslim wants to know more about each Word that God chose for His revelation through the Quran. This realization, in turn, prompted