The Clear Quran® Series

The Quran was revealed to Prophet Muḥammad (ﷺ) in the 7th century and was not translated into English by a Muslim until the 20th 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 orientalists—which 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.