Scholar Says Hilali-Khan Translation of the Quran is not Against Other Religions

A popular local scholar said that the Hilali-Khan translation of the Quran does not encourage Muslims to be against other religions in defense of the criticisms against this translation.

Local Malaysian Muslim scholar Dr. Fathul Bari Mat Jahaya said that the Quranic verses that were interpreted in the Hilali-Khan translation of the Quran were not intended to approve Muslim hostility against non-Muslims. He said that the translations actually maintains the Quranic verses which enjoin Muslims to be peaceful with other religions and not to sully them. The scholar also clarified that the references towards the Christians and the Jews in the Hilali-Khan translation were only done to make a distinction among these three beliefs.

One true faith

Muslims are taught to believe that their religion is the one true faith. This is just the same as the teaching of other religions. But, according to Fathul Bari, this belief does not give Muslims or any other religion for that matter, the right to put down other faiths. Fathul Bari has a Master’s degree and doctorate in Hadith and Quran studies.

The scholar added that the interpretations done by Hilali-Khan were based on the teachings of authorities such as ibn Kathir, Al Qurtubi and Al Tabari

Joint work

Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud Din Al-Hilali and Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan were the two scholars that worked together on the Hilali-Khan translations. They added the interpretations of the Quran based on 600-year old world views. However, these centuries-old world views were constructed at a time when the concept of different religions having equal rights, which now exists in modern democracies, was not yet born.

Where the controversy rests

Based on the Sahih International translation, the last verse of the Al-Fatitah says: “Guide us to the straight path, The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those you have evoked (Your) anger or of those who are astray.”

This is just one of the many topics discussed during the December 8 forum held in Malaysia called “Is Islam a religion of peace?” where progressive thinker and academic Dr. Ahmad Farouk Musa presented his views on the Hilali-Khan translations. The forum was held at the Nottingham University Malaysia campus in Kuala Lumpur and organized by the Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF). Other renowned Muslim scholars attended the event.

He pointed out that the Hilali-Khan translators inserted several parentheses within verses, which contained the authors’ own interpretations of what might be the meaning of a particular phrase or word. Therefore, again citing the example above, the Hilali-Khan translation of the same verse ended up like this: “Guide us to the straight path, The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked (Your) anger (the Jews) or of those who are astray (the Christians).”

Dr. Farouk argued that comments inserted by the authors made the Quranic text hard to follow. It actually distorts rather than clarify the text. Likewise the meaning of the words that were not easy to explain in English remained unexplained. He added that since this translation is the one that is widely distributed today, it gives the wrong impression that this was the true translation of the Quran.

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