After reading this article, I really am starting to broaden my eyes to try and see through the eyes of an Islamic woman living in America. Since I took the class ‘Islam in America’ with professor Albert last semester, I already gained a great amount of knowledge of Islam in America, but it was hard to actually put the information we got into affect. This is about how a democratic women, Rashida Tlaib became the first Palestinian-american woman to serve in congress. Not only that, but when she had her swearing in ceremony she wore an intricately embroidered floor-length robe, that almost looked like a traditional Islamic dress. The best part is, she wanted to get it out to the world that Islamic women can do anything. She tweeted with the hashtag #Tweetyourthobe” so that women can be empowered to dress how they want and still be successful. The question that pops into my mind is, do you think it is positive or negative that this is a headline on the news? Should it just be normal that a muslim women reach their highest potential?
There are a wide variety of versions of the Qur’an in English. Muslim tradition holds that the Qur’an is not translatable which is a good reminder that any version of the Qur’an in English will necessarily incorporate some element of interpretation. As with any language, English and Arabic do not have direct word-to-word correspondence, so two English versions can both be literally correct but convey very different, sometimes even opposing, meanings. Whatever version you choose to use as your primary source, when you are considering a verse it is always worth looking at a few different versions.
A good website for viewing the Qur’an and even hearing the Qur’an is quran.com.
… And here are articles by McAuliffe(2017) and Haleem(2004) evaluating translations.
Some of the translators you are most likely to come across include:
Abdullah Yusuf Ali
A. J. Arberry
- Very poetic, with an emphasis on the aesthetics of the Qur’an
Muhammad Asad
N. J. Dawood
- A problematic translation which, for many years, was the basis for the Penguin edition
M. A. S. Abdel Haleem
Tarif Khalidi
S.H. Nasr, et.al
- A study Qur’an, with a collaborative translation and extensive notes and commentaries
Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall
Michael Sells
- An aesthetically motivated translation incorporating only a limited number of verses.
The Book Foundation produces a beautiful, and very large!, edition entitled The Message of the Qur’an, with English version by Asad, and including facing Arabic, transliteration, and commentary.