EXPOSITION OF THE QUR'AN
The celebrated Urdu expositional translation of the Qur'an by
G.A. Parwez, titled Mafhoom-ul-Qur'an, is now available in English. In
1983 Parwez began this translation himself, but managed to
complete just over half the text (up to the 18th surah) before he
passed away in 1985. Some time after his death, the Tolu-e-Islam
Trust resumed the editing and publication of this work.
It is well known that translating the Qur'an into any language, let
alone English, is a most challenging task. Many Qur'anic terms
represent entire concepts and so are impossible to faithfully
translate using one equivalent English word and sometimes an
English word doesn't even exist for it. For this reason Parwez did
not translate word for word as with most traditional translations, but
presented his as an 'exposition'. To avoid making the text
cumbersome and repetitive, he also chose not to translate certain
Qur'anic terms at all but instead retained them in the text, e.g. deen,
hamd, kafir, momin, mushrik, nabi, etc. and explained their full
meanings in a specially-prepared glossary.
This is a work of English translation quite unlike most efforts
of the past, and a scholarly attempt to convey the pristine concepts
of the Qur'an. However, as Parwez himself acknowledged, the
original Arabic text of Wahi is eternal and so no human
interpretation can be treated as the final word on the subject.
The book is complete with footnotes, Arabic and Biblical
names, bibliography, index and a comprehensive glossary of around
140 important Qur'anic terms.