The Qur’an is the main source of Islamic belief, theology, and practice, making it profoundly important in regards to Islam. The Arabic text of the Qur’an is neither comprehensible for all Muslims around the world nor for all researchers or those who are interested in studying the text. For those who do not know Arabic, translation of the Qur’an plays a key role for conveying its message. Without a clear and correct translation, most people of the world become incapable of comprehending the message of the Qur’an.

In order to get a vision of the significance of proper Qur’an translation, we should consider the hundreds of millions who do not understand Arabic but would like to understand the Qur’an. Therefore, the translation of the Qur’an seems to be truly important. Different approaches to what “translation” actually is and the significance of the Qur’an result in a dispute between scholars and translators over the different methodologies used in translating its text.

In this writing, we have based our methodology for translation of the Qur’an on the language it uses and the message it is trying to convey. In regards to language, the Qur’an uses plain Arabic. And delivering the message of God was the main duty of God’s Messenger (S) according to the Qur’an.

Accordingly, we have selected difficult words and structures used in the Qur’an and analysed them according to translations by the eight prominent translators of the Qur’an, including, Arberry, Shakir, Pickthall, Irving, Sarwar, Qara’i, Saffarzadeh, some of whom are Muslim, Shia or Sunni, and some not. Our goal was to find a method for conveying the message of the Qur’an as complete as possible.

Finally, it is my duty to express my sincere thanks to all of those who helped us including our advisors Dr. Seyd Mohammad Reza Hejazi, Dr Mohammad Reza Fakhr Rohani and Dr. Mohammad Rassafi also I give special thanks to Seyed Hossein Marashi who devoted his time for editing and Mohammad Amin Yazdanpanah for proof reading.

Behrouz Foroutan, Ph.D.

July 2019

Website: bforoutan.com

Email: bforoutan@ gmail.com