The Message of The Qur'an


The Message of the Qur'an is an English translation and interpretation of the 1924 Cairo edition of the Qur'an by Muhammad Asad, an Austrian Jew who converted to Islam. It is considered one of the most influential Quranic translations of the modern age. The book was first published in Gibraltar in 1980, and has since been translated into several other languages.
Asad meant to devote two years to completing the translation and the commentary but ended up spending seventeen. In the opening, he dedicates his effort to "People Who Think." The author returns to the theme of Ijtihad - The use of one's own faculties to understand the Divine text, again and again. The spirit of the translation is resolutely modernist, and the author expressed his profound debt to the reformist commentator Muhammad Abduh. In the foreword to the book, he writes "...although it is impossible to 'reproduce' the Quran as such in any other language, it is none the less possible to render its message comprehensible to people who, like most Westerners, do not know Arabic...well enough to find their way through it unaided." He also states that a translator must take into account the ijaz of the Qur'an, which is the ellipticism which often "deliberately omits intermediate thought-clauses in order to express the final stage of an idea as pithily and concisely as is possible within the limitations of a human language" and that "the thought-links which are missing - that is, deliberately omitted - in the original must be supplied by the translator...".

Reception

The Message of the Qur'an received favorable reviews from discriminating scholars. Gai Eaton, a leading British Muslim thinker, after noting the limitations of Asad's rationalist approach, described Asad's translation as "the most helpful and instructive version of the Qur'an that we have in English. This remarkable man has done what he set out to do, and it may be doubted whether his achievement will ever be surpassed."

Criticism

Considered one of the leading translations of the Qur'an, it has been criticized by some traditionalists for its Mutazilite leanings. The book was banned in Saudi Arabia in 1974 due to differences on some creedal issues compared with the Salafi ideology prevalent there.

Contents

Following is a list of 114 Chapters of Quran, their Arabic names and their English translations as produced by Muhammad Asad:
  1. Al Fatiha
  2. Al Baqara
  3. Al 'Imran
  4. Al Nisa'
  5. Al Ma'idah
  6. Al An'am
  7. Al A'raf
  8. Al Anfal
  9. Al Tawbah
  10. Yunus
  11. Hud
  12. Yusuf
  13. Al Ra'd
  14. Ibrahim
  15. Al-Hijr
  16. Al Nahl
  17. Al Isra'
  18. Al Kahf
  19. Maryam
  20. Ta Ha
  21. Al Anbiya'
  22. Al Hajj
  23. Al Mu'minun
  24. Al Nur
  25. Al Furqan
  26. Al Shu'ara
  27. Al Naml
  28. Al Qasas
  29. Al 'Ankabut
  30. Al Rum
  31. Luqman
  32. Al Sajdah
  33. Al Ahzab
  34. Saba'
  35. Fatir
  36. Ya Sin
  37. Al Saffat
  38. Sad
  39. Al Zumar
  40. Ghafir
  41. Fussilat
  42. Al Shura
  43. Al Zukhruf
  44. Al Dukhan
  45. Al Jathiyah
  46. Al Ahqaf
  47. Muhammad
  48. Al Fath
  49. Al Hujurat
  50. Qaf
  51. Al Dhariyat
  52. Al Tur
  53. Al Najm
  54. Al Qamar
  55. Al Rahman
  56. Al Waqi'ah
  57. Al Hadid
  58. Al Mujadilah
  59. Al Hashr
  60. Al Mumtahinah
  61. Al Saff
  62. Al Jumu'ah
  63. Al Munafiqun
  64. Al Taghabun
  65. Al Talaq
  66. Al Tahrim
  67. Al Mulk
  68. Al Qalam
  69. Al Haqqah
  70. Al Ma'arij
  71. Nuh
  72. Al Jinn
  73. Al Muzzammil
  74. Al Muddaththir
  75. Al Qiyamah
  76. Al Insan
  77. Al Mursalat
  78. Al Naba'
  79. Al Nazi'at
  80. 'Abasa
  81. Al Takwir
  82. Al Infitar
  83. Al Mutaffifin
  84. Al Inshiqaq
  85. Al Buruj
  86. Al Tariq
  87. Al A'la
  88. Al Ghashiyah
  89. Al Fajr
  90. Al Balad
  91. Al Shams
  92. Al Layl
  93. Al Duha
  94. Al Sharh
  95. Al Tin
  96. Al Alaq
  97. Al Qadr
  98. Al Bayyinah
  99. Al Zalzalah
  100. Al 'Adiyat
  101. Al Qari'ah
  102. Al Takathur
  103. Al 'Asr
  104. Al Humazah
  105. Al Fil
  106. Quraysh
  107. Al Ma'un
  108. Al Kawthar
  109. Al Kafirun
  110. Al Nasr
  111. Al Masad
  112. Al Falaq
  113. Al Nas