Dr. Mustafa Khattab - The Clear Quran: A Thematic English Translation (Allah edition)

THE CLEAR QURAN

A Thematic English Translation

Translator
Dr. Mustafa Khattab

Chief Editors
Abu-Isa Webb
Aaron Wannamaker
Hisham Sharif
Downloaded via Sunniconnect.com

In the Name of Allah
the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful

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Copyright 2015, Dr. Mustafa Khattab
All Rights Reserved.

Email:

Translation approved by Al-Azhar (Egypt)
and endorsed by ISNA and the Canadian Council of Imams

Website: www.theclearquran.com

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Use the Table of Contents to navigate through this e-book.
Click the superscripted numbers in the translation
to access the hyperlinked endnotes.

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QURANIC THEMES

As pointed out in the Table of Contents and the Thematic Index, the Quran has three main themes:

Doctrine (e.g., acts of worship, human interactions, family relations, and business transactions), which focuses mainly on a Muslims relationship with Allah, other people, and the rest of Allahs creation.

Stories (e.g., the story of Moses, Noah, and li), which served two purposes: to reassure the Prophets heart, as he was met with rejection in Mecca, and as cautionary tales for the pagans ( see 11:120-123). Other stories (e.g., Joseph and Job) focus on moral lessons.

The Unseen (e.g., the belief in Allah and His qualities, as well as angels, resurrection, judgment, etc.), which reaffirms ones faith in the divine through ones heart, not eyes.

Some chapters contain more than one theme, and some individual verses may touch on a theme not presented here, but the following table represents the general themes covered in the body of the text.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

With over two decades of experience in Arabic-English Islamic translation, Dr. Mustafa Khattab is a Canadian-Egyptian authority on interpreting the Quran. He was a member of the first team that translated the Ramadan night prayers ( Taraw ) live from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and the Prophets Mosque in Medina (2002-2005). He memorized the entire Quran at a young age, and later obtained a professional ijzah in the af style of recitation with a chain of narrators going all the way to Prophet Muammad ( ) . Dr. Khattab received his Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. in Islamic Studies in English with Honors from Al-Azhar Universitys Faculty of Languages & Translation. He lectured on Islam at Clemson University (OLLI Program, 2009-2010), held the position of Lecturer at Al-Azhar University for over a decade starting in 2003, and served as the Muslim Chaplain at Brock University (2014-2016). He is a member of the Canadian Council of Imams and a Fulbright Interfaith Scholar. He has served as an Imam in the U.S.A. and Canada since 2007 and is the author of The Nation of Islam (2011) and Outfoxing Fox News (2017), and contributor to the Encyclopedia of Muslim American History (2010). His forthcoming works include: Qamus-ul-Quran ( The Dictionary of Quranic Vocabulary) , The Illustrated Clear Quran for Kids , and Shukran: the Grateful Young Man.

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ACKNOWLEGMENTS

First I praise the Almighty for His guidance and assistance. I am eternally indebted to Dr. Muhammad M. Abu-Laylah, Dr. Esam Fayez, Dr. Ahmed Shafik Elkhatib, Dr. Reda Bedeir, Dr. Hassan M. Wageih, Dr. Rasha Al-Disuqi, Dr. Saeed Attia, Dr. Salah Nefeily, Dr. Ahmad Ezabi, and all my professors and colleagues at Al-Azhar University.

I am thankful to Imam Refaat Mohamed, Imam Sherif Ayoup, Imam Amr Dabour, Dr. Imam Arafat Elashi, Imam Muhammad Mustafa, Imam Muhammad Abuelezz, Imam Gomaa Makhlouf, Imam Mohamed Masloh, and Imam Ahmad Seddeeq for their valuable feedback.

My thanks go to the chief editors, particularly Abu-Isa Webb for his help with editing, styling, and formatting the work and co-authoring the introduction, as well as Aaron Wannamaker and Hisham Sharif, along with the following sub-editors: Sarah Halabi, Yasmeen Mezil, Harris Sheikh, Celine Dean, Akber Ali, and Jason Gowrie.

I also would like to express my deepest gratitude to the following brothers and sisters for proofreading some parts of this work: Aayesha Bonnie Kalicak, Abdullah Al-Hassan, Abubakr Elghul, Ahmed Ahmed, Ahmed Mezil, Ahmed Qassem, Ala Qubaja, Ali Al-Harazi, Ali Younes, Anthony Stehouwer, Aqib Nakhooda, Bilkis Al Haddad, Brenda Hyde, Carol Dohn, Charmaine Kissmann, Dana Younes, Desmond Sequeira, Emina Tihak, Fahim Khan, Faisal Hejazi, Habib Abdul-Habib, Hanan Awadh, Jana Bataineh, Janette Bramley, Kaalyn Thomson, Karim Ismail, Kevin Ruffle, Khairija Stehouwer, Kolton Uitbeyerse, Logaina Satti, Mahabba Ahmed, Malik Watson, Meshari Al-Otaibi, Misbah Shaikh, Mohammed Halabi, Muhamad M. Abutaha, Nayrah Islamovic, Nicole Cathcart, Osama Fadel, Salum Zanjibar Mshoka, Sulaiman El-Salah, Syed Shafqat, Taher Shayeb, Tamer Fadaly, Yageen El-Haj, Yahya Ianiri, Yasin Cetin, Yusuf Al-Harazi, and Yusuf Fattore.

Thanks are also due to Hemen Mahmoudi and Nasir Dowlatkhahi for technical support.

This translation could not have been done without the generous contributions of the Niagara Pakistani community, Dr. Tareq Omar Azabi, and Dr. Riad Tarrabain, with a special thanks to the Islamic Society of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

I am grateful to my parents, my wife Dr. Fawziyah Abdelqadir, and my children (Yasmin, Ziyad, Noura, and Omar) for their patience and support throughout this journey.

Whatever good is in this work is from Allah.
Only the mistakes are mine.

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TRANSLATORS NOTES

It was a summer day in Toronto and I had just finished leading the Friday congregation at a downtown mosque. On the way home I had an unlikely encounter, since all my cab-drivers in Toronto had been Muslims so far. That day my driver was non-Muslim, so he was able to identify me as Muslim simply because of my traditional Arab garb. Out of nowhere, he commented, I think Muslims are good, but Islam is evil! Taken aback by this Fox News style rhetoric, I responded, Well, first of all thanks for the compliment about Muslims, but why do you think Islam is bad? He replied, Because your holy book calls me an animal. In astonishment, I answered, I know the whole Quran by heart and I dont think it says that anywhere! He cited 8:55, and I responded by telling him that the word dbbah in Arabic does not mean an animal but a living being ( see 24:45). He persisted, saying that his translation says so. I later checked many popular translations by Muslims and non-Muslims and realized that the man was right. This fateful encounter opened my eyes to the rampant misrepresentations of the Quran.

The Quran was revealed to Prophet Muammad ( ) in the 7 th century and was not translated into English by a Muslim until the 20 th century. Many Muslims had long believed that the Quran should only be read in Arabic, the original language of revelation. This led to many inaccurate, ill-willed translations by missionaries and orientalistswhich explains why we still see some words like holy war and infidels as well as many theological inaccuracies in some existing translations. All this leads to endless false assumptions about Islam and Muslims. Some Muslim translators are no better off than their non-Muslim counterparts because they are not well-versed in Arabic, or English, or Islamic studies, or translation, or all of the above. Looking up words in an Arabic-English dictionary or copying earlier translations when frustrated does not always guarantee accuracy in translation. There are some noteworthy modern translations like that of Dr. Ahmad Zaki Hammad (2007) and Dr. M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (2004), but many are either overtranslated, making it difficult for laypeople to understand, or undertranslated, doing a great disservice to the Quran. This is why I saw a need for an accurate, smooth, and accessible translation.