The Qur’an (Arabic: القرآن al-qur’ān, literally “the recitation”; also sometimes transliterated as Quran, Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran or Al-Qur’ān) is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the book of divine guidance and direction for mankind, and consider the original Arabic text to be the final revelation of Allah.
Islam holds that the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad by the angel Jibrīl (Gabriel) from 610 CE to his death in 632 CE. Followers of Islam further believe that the Qur’an was written down by Muhammad's companions while he was alive, while concurrently the oral method of transmission also ensued. It is maintained that at the death of Muhammad at least one complied copy of Quran was present which Muhammad had himself supervised. In 653 CE (under the calipate of Abu Bakr) it was copied and distributed in the Islamic empire and produced in large numbers. The present form of the Qur’an is regarded by Muslims as Allah's revelation to Muhammad. Academic scholars also consider it the original version authored or dictated by Muhammad.
Muslims regard the Qur’an as the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with those revealed to Adam, regarded in Islam as the first prophet, and continued with the Suhuf Ibrahim (Sefer Yetzirah or Scrolls of Abraham), the Tawrat (Torah or Pentateuch), the Zabur (Tehillim or Book of Psalms), and the Injeel (Christian Gospel). The contents of the aforementioned books are not physically affixed within the Qur’an, but are recognized therein. The Qur’an also refers to many events from Jewish and Christian scriptures, some of which are retold in comparatively distinctive ways from the Torah and New Testament respectively, while obliquely referring to other events described explicitly in those texts.
The Qur'an itself expresses that it is the book of guidance. Therefore it rarely offers detailed accounts of historical events; the text instead typically placing emphasis on the moral significance of an event rather than its narrative sequence. Muslims believe the Qur'an itself to be the main miracle of Muhammad and a proof of his prophethood
Translations
Translation of the Qur’an has always been a difficult issue. Since Islam regards the Qur’an as miraculous and inimitable many argue that the Qur’anic text can not be exactly reproduced in another language or form. Furthermore, an Arabic word may have a range of meanings depending on the context, making an accurate translation even more difficult.
Nevertheless, the Qur’an has been translated into most African, Asian and European languages. The first complete translation of Quran was into Persian during the reign of Samanids in the 9th century. Islamic tradition holds that translations were made for Emperor Negus of Abyssinia and Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, as both received letters by Muhammad containing verses from the Qur’an.
In 1936, translations in 102 languages were known.
Robert of Ketton was the first person to translate the Qur’an into a Western language, Latin, in 1143. Alexander Ross offered the first English version in 1649. In 1734, George Sale produced the first scholarly translation of the Qur’an into English; another was produced by Richard Bell in 1937, and yet another by Arthur John Arberry in 1955. All these translators were non-Muslims. There have been numerous translations by Muslims; the most popular of these are by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan and Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al Hilali, Maulana Muhammad Ali, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, M. H. Shakir, Muhammad Asad, Marmaduke Pickthall, G.A. Pervez and A. Momin.
The English translators have sometimes favored archaic English words and constructions over their more modern or conventional equivalents; for example, two widely-read translators, A. Yusuf Ali and M. Marmaduke Pickthall, use the plural and singular "ye" and "thou" instead of the more common "you." Another common stylistic decision has been to refrain from translating "Allah" — in Arabic, literally, "The God" — into the common English word "God." These choices may differ in more recent translations.
Kanzul Iman is the name of the 1910 Urdu translation of the Qur'an by Ahmad Raza Khan, the scholar who revived Sunni Islam in the Subcontinent. The Sunnis of the Subcontinent are sometimes referred to as Barelwi due to him. It was subsequently translated into English by Professor Shah Faridul Haque. Recently, it has been translated into many other regional languages and become popular on the internet. Kanzul Iman is regarded highly by Sunni Muslims.
