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Towards Understanding the Qur’an

from deliberate distortion or misrepresentation, it generally lacks an insightful understanding. Moreover, quite often these translations make a dull reading compared to the sparkling original. Since the ordinary reader of the Qur’an is not familiar with the ethos of the Qur’an and is not properly initiated into the culture of the Divine Word, he/she is often unable to taste its sweetness, to encompass its breadth, and fathom its depths, through many of these translations. Hence good translations in different languages, especially English, are a pressing need of the hour. It is heartening that a number of able scholars, who are respected by the Muslims as authentic spokespersons of Islam, have responded to this need of our times. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, and Muhammad Asad are some of the most outstanding names that instantly come to mind from among a growing body of distinguished translators of the Qur’an.

A great Muslim scholar of the twentieth century, Mawlana Sayyid Abul A[la Mawdudi (1903-1979), was conscious that a fresh effort to translate and explain the Qur’an was needed for the Urdu-reading public. In response to that he devoted several decades of his life and produced his monumental work, Tafhim al-Qur’an, which is a unique contribution to the contemporary literature on the exegesis of the Qur’an. The uniqueness of Tafhim lies in the fact that it is focused on explicating to the fullest extent possible the Guidance embodied in the Qur’an. The Qur’anic Guidance has to be optimally appreciated by all because it is meant to shape man’s worldview and outlook on life as well as to shape the pattern of individual and collective behaviour and to mould human institutions in line with the letter and spirit of God’s imperatives.

In Tafhim Sayyid Mawdudi also emphasizes that the Qur’an is not meant for a docile, arm-chair reading. It is essentially meant for those who seek to know the Truth and after knowing it will actively engage themselves in living according to its demands and will also strive to make it prevail in their milieu. It is meant for those who are ready to change themselves and willing truly to change the world around them. It calls upon those who embrace its message not to be satisfied ever with the status quo, but to strive

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