The English Reference Qur'an Translation: The First Translation of the Qur'an from the Original Arabic into Modern English with References to the Tawrah, Zabur, and Injil

by The Reference Qur'an Council

This translation of the Qur'an was done by a team of Muslim and Christian Arabic scholars who seek to bring to light the similarities between the Qur'an and the Bible. Most of the 6200 footnotes are cross references to words, concepts and stories that are the same or similar in the Qur'an and the Bible. It is the first such translation in English, and possibly in any language. The primary focus of this translation is accuracy to the original text of the Qur'an. In addition, it goes much further to helping the English reader to understand what the Qur'an actually says. First, the Reference Qur'an translation does not use Islamic traditions and Hadith to determine the meaning of the Qur'anic verses. Instead, it gives a direct translation from the Arabic. Second, it aims to be exactly as specific or vague as the original Arabic, and does not add clarifying information in the text of the translation. Since Arabic has no capital letters, this translation does not use capitalization of pronouns, even when they may refer to God. Third, it brings out meaning differences in the Arabic text that cannot easily be expressed in modern English. For instance, Arabic has five different words for "you" and three different words for "they." This is the only translation that we are aware of that distinguishes them. Fourth, this is the only translation that we are aware of that gives information about the Arabic rhyme scheme. Many sections of the Qur'an have consecutive verses that end in a rhyme in Arabic. This translation notes when the rhyme scheme changes or has exceptions (some see this as significant).The Reference Qur'an translates as accurately as possible the meaning of the unpunctuated, rhymed prose of the Arabic Qur'an into clear, unrhymed, readable, modern English prose, with standard English sentence structure and length, word order, phraseology, grammar, punctuation, and style. When the Arabic can be understood more than one way, this has been footnoted.

631 pages, Paperback

Published February 3, 2014

Reviews

[Bryan Eberl]

I think I’ll leave this book unrated for a while. Not quite sure how to rate it. Coming from a Christian background, it was incredibly helpful to know what Muslims believe, how much is very similar to Christianity, where diversions lie, and what’s drastically different. I will say I was humbly brought to my knees multiple times in awe, reverence and thankfulness that I worship a triune God which includes Jesus, the God who chooses me, died for me, rose again, and laid out a foundation/ rule book to follow. I took many notes and hope to use this book as a way to stimulate, and vulnerably seek conversation with my Muslim friends. It also raises many questions, in that most of the things I’ve heard historically, and in the news about Muslims are not even from this book.

I’m thankful for the leadership, and ways the Bible defines leadership, religion (per se), and how doctrine is rooted deeply in scripture. The Quran is written more in sayings, and prayers, and statements. With no dialogue or narration. It’s kinda like reading psalms or proverb verses out of order. It has a lot of expectations of what should be done, or else hell.

The other books referenced here are the Injil (gospels given by Jesus… but they believe they aren’t perfect, so they have their own interpretations of them), Quran (given by Muhammad), psalms aka zabur (given by david) and the Torah or Tawrat (given by Abraham aka genesis thru Deuteronomy). Although they consider those books holy, they only believe the Quran given by Mohamed is perfect, and in its fully whole, untainted form. But I hope to transition to studying these books of the Bible deeper to know where to start conversations.