The Gracious Quran

The Gracious Quran by Ahmed Zaki Hammad is only one of the many translations of the meaning of Allah's Book, the Qur'an. The following is a brief summary of three which more often than not, fail to impress readers of the English translation  (of the meanings) of the Qur'an.

‘…H.A. Ali’s somewhat bizarre rearrangement of the surahs into something on the order of the Pentateuch that Biblical scholars traditionally attributed to Moses. He calls it the “five books of the Qur’an, “and its justification is thematic unity:…One half-expects Ali to have grasped what the Rodwells and Bells in the first did not – that such reordering destroys the coherent connections with which key terms and phrases link verses, passages, and (especially the beginnings and endings of) surahs together, in a far more impressive, germane, and sophisticate thematic engagement than merely personal observation.’

(P, 1196, “Presenting the Gracious Qur’an”, by Ahmed Zaki Hammad in his Part II, examining the translations of the Qur’an in history, of his interpretation of the Qur’an, e.g. The Gracious Qur’an).

Quran by Niseem J. Dawood is mentioned. He was a Jew of Iraqi origin and a translator, professionally. “… once gently reproached Dawood for taking license with the language of the Quran that he would not accept in the mundane transactional Arabic translations at his own firm….This aptly summarizes Dawood’s effort, as does his own introduction, which openly catalogues his bias against Islam. Dawood is guilty of plenty of mistranslation, in addition to leveling the Text to a uniform monotony.”

(P. 1190, Hammad)

Marmaduke Pickthall’s different translations are praised and/or disliked. But his most published work, The Meaning of the Glorious Quran has been well-received by many audiences throughout many editions since 1930.

“Pickthall was a British novelist of some distinction who accepted Islam after careful study.”

(P. 1193, Ibid)

Yusuf Ali is well known, and has been revised more than once, while containing many interseting footnotes, and so on, also is not loved by all readers of the Qur'an.

Suffice to say, the Qur'an is inimitable and cannot ever be translated.