Qur’an Translation

Abstract

The Holy Qur’an is the Holy Book of Islam and the most important of the three sources of authority which underpin Muslim religious life, the other two being the revelation by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) during his life (hadith, ‘sayings’) and the Prophet’s own practice (Sunna, ‘tradition’). The importance attached to the Qur’an stems from the belief that it contains, verbatim, the Word of God, as revealed piecemeal to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) by Angel Gabriel between 610 and 632 AD. It is therefore considered inimitable, and this has important implications for the legitimacy and the (authorized) methods of translating it.