Muhammad Habib Shakir


Muhammad Habib Shakir was an Egyptian judge, born in Cairo and a graduate from Al-Azhar University.

Life

Sheikh Mohammed Shakir b. Ahmad b. ‘Abd al-Qadir was born in 1866 CE in Jirja, a city in Upper Egypt. He studied and graduated from Al-Azhar University. He died in 1939 in Cairo.
His son, Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad Shakir, wrote his biography in a treatise entitled Mohammed Shakir ‘Alam min A‘lam al-‘Asr

Positions

Mohammed Habib Shakir has been stated by many internet sources as "a well known translator of the Qur'an into English." He has been associated with the translator M. H. Shakir of the translation published by Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an. However this idea is contradicted by two pieces of evidence that have now come to light:
  1. There is strong evidence that Mohammed Habib Shakir was against the translation of the Qur'an and considered the rendering of the Arabic into any other language unlawful.
  2. There is strong evidence that M. H. Shakir, the translator, is actually a pen name for Mohammedali Habib Shakir the son of Habib Esmail of The House of Habib.

    Criticism

It is alleged that the translation is directly plagiarized from Maulana Muhammad Ali's English translation of the Qur'an AAIIL, USA.
One criticism in his translation is that he translates the word Nass to, which is wrong, those who speak Arabic understand that Nass means people. However, other opinions show that translating the word 'He' to refer to the entity of Mankind is plausible.