Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)

and without possessing any extensive vocabulary.

Some of these interlinear translations, especially the older versions, are word-for-word renderings. They are in fact dictionaries of the Qur’ān in that they mention the meaning of each Arabic word and phrase in the line below. Although useful as dictionaries, they often fail to make the meanings of the Qur’ānic text intelligible, as the prose of the translated text turns out to be awkward, unnatural and at times inscrutable.

An interlinear English translation of the Qur’ān, similar to those in Urdu and Persian, is obviously of little benefit, as the two languages are written in opposite directions. The phrase-for-phrase approach adopted in this translation is intended to bring some of the advantage of the interlinear translations to English-speaking readers of the Holy Qur’ān. “Mirror-paraphrasing” is a new approach to translation of sacred Islamic texts, mainly the Qur’ān and ḥadīth. In this approach, the translation of the source text develops phrase by phrase, with the translation appearing opposite the corresponding phrase in Arabic. Each phrase in the target or receptor language mirrors the semantic import of the phrase in the source text.

At first when such an approach was suggested to my mind, it was not at all clear whether it would be feasible. It seemed that it would result in an unnatural and warped style. But as I worked through the translation, it was a surprise to find that it did seem to work (with few exceptions, such as in verse 2:105, where the verb yawaddu comes at the beginning of the sentence). In any case, the results were not as dismal as might be expected. However, one had to deal with two constant constraints, firstly, of having to cover the complete meaning of each phrase of the source text in a corresponding phrase of the target text, and, secondly, of connecting the successive phrases in such a manner as to generate, so far as possible, a fluent, clear, intelligible, natural and stylistically acceptable prose.

The utility of such an approach will be evident to the reader who wants to understand the Arabic text by referring to the translation of each phrase and verse. All that he needs for following the meaning of the Arabic text of the Qur’ān is an elementary knowledge of Arabic, which means an elemental knowledge of Arabic vocabulary and morphology. However, a reader who already possesses such an elementary knowledge of Arabic will not find much difficulty in following the Arabic text with the help of the translation provided here. After several readings, it is hoped, the reader will be able to follow the Arabic without needing to refer to the translation.

The main features of the method and approach followed in this translation may be described as follows:

1. As my principal aim was to provide a translation affording direct access to the Arabic Qur’ān, I have tried, so far as possible, to maintain a formal equivalence between the phrases and clauses of the source and the target text, but I have not hesitated to make adjustments when required by the need for