quraninplainenglish

Bismillāh ir Raḥmān ir Raḥīm

Ramaḍān Mubarak. Ramaḍān Kareem.

Thank you for your prayers and your expressions of support for this effort. For those who are reading a juz of qur’ān each day of Ramaḍān,

please pardon any distraction. That blessed endeavor is more important than this message. For any soul desiring to read Sūrat an Naml ~

the Ant, in a fresh English version, the text has been posted here today.

An Naml ~ the Ant begins with a brief mention of significant events in the life of Moses, and features the story of the courtship of Solomon

and the queen of Sheba. The first half of the sūrah ends with her coming to understand tawḥīd, when her misperception of a reflecting pool

is shown to be in reality a crystal palace. It is a beautiful story.

Al Naml goes on to mention the stories of the prophets Ṣāliḥ and Lot, as a vehicle to recite of the signs and blessings of Allāh on this earth

for humanity.

Naturally, it is impossible to convey the beautiful assonance and rhythm of the Qur’ān recited in Arabic with an English version. It is

unique to the Qur’ān even in Arabic, as there are aspects of the recitation which transcend the most exalted poetry, owing to the

purity of its Source. As such, the Qur’ān is a message to all of humanity, to anyone interested in submitting to God, who can understand

that such surrender is the easiet path tothe best life and to deeper wisdom, for those whom God gives eyes to see and ears to hear.

Do to the universal nature of the Qur’ān’s message about the nature of existence, and of human life in the context of the history of the world

as well as the vaster universe, people who do not speak Arabic desire to know and benefit from reading it.

This is the reason for trying to offer that message as clearly as possible in a language as widely spoken as English, notwithstanding

the daunting challenges for anyone attempting to do so.

The Qur’ān was clearly intended as a message in Arabic to people who understand that tongue, as shown by its multiple declarations

in many ayāt that this qur’ān is a clear recitation, a clear book for a people who speak Arabic. Arabic is very conducive to clarity,

due to its complex, precise grammar. Yet the nature of verb and noun root structures makes it a deeply textured and nuanced language as well.

All languages contain ambiguous constructs at times. That can become additive in translation. Fortunately, there are many significant

parallels between Arabic and English grammar, as the latter is also a precise form of symbolic logic. There are some remarkable

equivalences of expression, even in some idioms.

We have been attempting to correct a display problem with the website on certain browsers. In addition to posting 27 the Ant, today we have

used a different transfer method to repost the texts of 1 al Fātiha, 55 ar Raḥmān, 71 Noah, 72 the Jinn, 74 al Muddaththir, 87 al ‘Ala, 91 the Sun,

and 112 al Ikhlās ~ Sincerity. Insha’Allāh we have fixed the problem.

Jazakum Allāhu khairan.

~ Rasheed al Ḥajj Abū Muṭahhar, 8 Ramaḍān 1442