Towards Understanding the Qur'an Translation of Mawdudi's Tafhim al-Qur'an

Abstract

Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi's multi-volume Tafhim al-Quran is a major Qur'an commentary of the twentieth century. Written over a period of about thirty years, the work runs the gamut of Qur'anic-and Islamic-thought and doctrine, and is the magnum opus of a writer called by Wilfred Cantwell Smith "the most systematic thinker of modern Islam." As such, Tafhim is an important work. An English translation exists, but clearly there was a need for a new translation, and that is what Zafar Ishaq Ansari attempts to provide in Towards Understanding the Qur'an, of which two volumes, covering the first six surahs of the Qur'an, have so far been published. Ansari's translation may be called "authorized" in that it was the author's wish that Ansari render Tafhim into English. The translation reads quite well. Being intimately familiar with Mawdiidi's style, and being a writer of repute in his own right, Ansari has done a good job of rendering Tafhim into English. Besides possessing a high degree of readability, the work has other notable features. The translator has furnished complete documentation for the quotations in the original work, including all ahadith, and, while retaining and translating the highly useful subject index of the Urdu original, has added a glossary of terms, biographical notes, a bibliography, and a general index. On occasions, alternative interpretations, offered by other scholars, are noted (e.g. of the object pronoun in ya'rifanahu in the Qur'an, 2:146 [Towards Understanding the Quran, 1:125), or of alladh'ina yakhafana in 5:23 [ibid., 2:151, n. 451), the reasons for the use of certain Islamic terms by Mawdudi (e.g. "caliphate" for pre-Islamic kingships, etc. [2:153]) are given, and terms and expressions which an Urdu reader would understand because of his particular cultural background are explained for the English reader. The amount of such notes and explanations seems to increase in Volume 2. A few problems may be noted. Here and there certain portions of the original text are not translated. From the author's Preface and Introduction especially, several paragraphs have been left out. While every attempt is made to convey the general meaning of the parts omitted, the omissions in some cases are not indicated. Unlike the Biographical Notes, the Glossary of Terms, found in each volume, is not meant to be cumulative. There are, however, some repetitions in the Glossary of Vol. 2 (e.g. Ahl al-Dhimmah, Din, Hadith, ...