Mistranslations of Islamic Scripture (English): Difference between revisions

Modern Islamic scholars have argued that the verse describes a visual representation of what Dhul-Qarnayn saw as the sun set into the “horizon”. Such explanations are frustrated by authoritative sources, themselves represented by the likes of ''Tafsir Al-Jalalayn'' (p. 251), and numerous classical authorities (which explain that the setting of the sun is in a well containing a murky mud). The same interpretation is found in al-Tabari’s commentaries (p. 339) as well as in the ''Concise Interpretation of al-Tabari'' (p. 19 of part 2) in which he remarks that the well in which the sun sets "contains lime and murky mud". The words “apparent” or “looks like” do not appear in classical explanations or commentaries. Indeed, the verse appears to reflect the [[Cosmology of the Quran|cosmological views]] [[Muhammad|Muhammad]] would have been expected to have in seventh century Arabia. Furthermore, since the earth is in fact round, [[Flat Earth and the Quran|not flat]] (as the Qur'an appears to suggest), Dhul-Qarnayn could never have reached some "farthest point", since no such point exists on a globe.   

{{Quote|{{quran|18|86}}|Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it [as if] setting in a spring of dark mud, and he found near it a people. Allah said, "O Dhul-Qarnayn, either you punish [them] or else adopt among them [a way of] goodness."}}

The al-Azhar site translates the origination point of sperm as from "between the pelvis and breast bone".

===(67:5) Shooting stars===

{{Quran|67|5}} discusses the [[Jinn]] (mythical creatures that are described in Islamic scriptures as living among humans)<ref>Mawdudi, Sayyid Abul Ala, Tafhim ul Quran, Markazi Maktaba Islami, Delhi, 1995, vol. 6, p.110</ref> and stars from the "lowest heaven" which are used as missiles against any mischievous jinn that attempts to eavesdrop on conversations between angels.<ref>"...''The Jinns would go to the lowest heaven and listen to the Angels conversing amongst themselves about events of the Future which they heard from Allah. The Jinns would then inform the fortune-tellers. This is why before the time of the Prophet (saws) many fortune-tellers were very accurate in their predictions. However, upon the Prophet's arrival the heavens were guarded intensely by the Angels, and any Jinn who tried to listen was attacked by meteors (shooting stars)''..." - [http://www.islamawareness.net/Jinn/world.html The World of Jinn] - Invitation to Islam, Issue 4, January 1998</ref>

{{quote |{{Qtt|67|5}}|وَلَقَدْ زَيَّنَّا ٱلسَّمَآءَ ٱلدُّنْيَا بِمَصَٰبِيحَ وَجَعَلْنَٰهَا رُجُومًا لِّلشَّيَٰطِينِ ۖ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لَهُمْ عَذَابَ ٱلسَّعِيرِ

*ٱلدُّنْيَا (''ad-dunya'') is translated "the world" or "the lower". The world" is called "the lower", because according to Islamic cosmology the heavens appear one atop the other and the earth is the lowest in this structure.

**So ٱلسَّمَآءَ ٱلدُّنْيَا can be understood as "the lowest heaven", "the heaven right above this flat earth", "the sky above The Lower".

====Accurate translations====

==Hadith==

A sign of the last hour that appears in numerous hadiths is often mistranslated as the sun rising "in the West". This mistranslation occurs throughout the English translation of Sahih Bukhari by Muhsin Khan and sometimes in the translation of Sahih Muslim by Abdul Hamid Sadiqqui.  

{{Quote|{{Bukhari|4|54|421}}|Narrated Abu Dhar:

The 'puberty' mistranslation also fails to achieve chronological sensibility. 'Aisha's father, Abu Bakr, was one of Muhammad's first followers. It would not have taken until puberty for 'Aisha to notice that her father followed the religion.

A mistranslated hadith has a comment from Abu Dawud supposedly about Aisha menstruating when she was nine. This is Sunan Abu Dawud 4915 (Ahmad Hasan numbering; 4933 Dar-us-Salam).

{{Quote|{{Abudawud||4915|hasan}}|Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin:

Ahmad Hasan mistranslates Abu Dawud's comment as "That is to say: I menstruated". Aisha's phrase "I burst into laughter" is fa-qultu heeh heeh (فَقُلْتُ هِيهْ هِيهْ), "And I said heh, heh". The Dar-us-Salam English-Arabic edition of Sunan Abu Dawud translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab (Hadith 4933) renders Aisha's words here: "She made me stand at the door and I started to breathe deeply".

Abu Dawud's comment is ay tanaffasat (أَىْ تَنَفَّسَتْ), which is "That is to say 'I breathed'". The verb nun-fa-sin is used here in Arabic form V with the ta prefix and shadda (doubled) middle letter, which Lane's Lexicon says means "breathed". Form I can mean menstruated, but that is not the form used in the hadith.<ref>nun-fa-sin - [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/25_n/208_nfs.html Lane's Lexicon]</ref>

Muhammad's 'Farewell Sermon' appears in various hadith collections and al-Tabari's History. A short version is found in ''Sunan Ibn Majah''. The Arabic words here translated 'and hit them, but without causing injury or leaving a mark' are a mistranslation.

{{Quote|{{Ibn Majah||3|9|1851}}|Then he said: 'I enjoin good treatment of women, for they are prisoners with you, and you have no right to treat them otherwise, unless they commit clear indecency. If they do that, then forsake them in their beds '''and hit them, but without causing injury or leaving a mark.'''}}

The same Arabic phrase appears in the other versions of the farewell sermon. The translators of Sunan Abu Dawud and al-Tabari's History both renders it 'beat them, but not severely'.

{{Quote|{{Tabari|9|pp. 112-113}}|"Now then, O people, you have a right over your wives and they have a right over you. You have [the right] that they should not cause anyone of whom you dislike to tread on your beds; and that they should not commit any open indecency. If they do, then Allah permits you to shut them in separate rooms '''and to beat them, but not severely'''. If they abstain from [evil], they have the right to their food and clothing in accordance with the custom. Treat women well, for they are [like] domestic animals with you and do not possess anything for themselves. You have taken them only as a trust from Allah, and you have made the enjoyment of their persons lawful by the word of Allah, so understand and listen to my words, O people.}}

*[[Misrepresentations of Islamic Scripture (English)]]