History
of how the 1917 work was produced
In the Foreword to the 1963 edition of Maulana Muhammad Ali’s
revised translation and commentary, Maulana Yaqub Khan traced the
history of the first, 1917, edition as follows:
“ Work on the first edition of the English translation
of the Quran took him seven long years (1909 –1916). The
amount of original research that went into tracing the meanings
of the words and verses, finding the underlying sense of Sections
and Chapters, and linking it up with the preceding and succeeding
text, so that the whole of the Quran was shown to have the thread
of a continuous theme running through it — it is simply
staggering to think of all this stupendous and most taxing labour
put in single handed, day after day, for seven long years. But
that is exactly what made Maulana Muhammad Ali’s translation
the boon of the world of scholarship in the West as well as the
East when it appeared in print in 1917. It was a pioneer venture
breaking altogether new ground, and the pattern set was followed
by all subsequent translations of the Quran by Muslims. It meets
every criticism that has been levelled against the Quran. The
Introduction is a whole mine of research, which throws light on
all the salient features of a truly Divine religion. There is
no attempt at pedantry or literary flourishes. Nor is there any
pandering to preconceived popular notions or a bid for cheap popularity.
It is a loyal service to the Word of God aiming at scrupulously
honest, faithful rendering.”
It is also stated in the same Foreword:
“ Maulana Muhammad Ali’s Translation marks
a definite epoch in the understanding of Islam. Among the Muslim
intelligentsia it positively arrested the creeping decay of faith
as a result of the Western materialistic influences, and the sceptical
trends of Western philosophic thought.
In the realm of Western scholarship, the impact of this Translation
is noticeable in the changed outlook on Islam and the changed
tone of literature about Islam that has since appeared. The very
first indications of such wholesome change are met with in the
writings of a man of no less scholarly stature than H.G.Wells.
In 1920, when his work The Outline of History, appeared, it carried
the whole of Section 16 of Chapter 3 as rendered in this Translation,
describing it as an example of the Quran’s “majestic
utterances from the recent orthodox translation by the Maulvi
Muhammad Ali”.”
From the biography of Maulana Muhammad Ali
Below we quote a section from the biography of Maulana Muhammad
Ali (the Urdu book Mujahid-i Kabir, which has been translated
into English as A Mighty
Striving) about the 1917 edition.
“ —
Completion and publication of the English Translation of the Holy
Quran
At last, after a labour of about seven years, in April 1916 Maulana
Muhammad Ali completed work on the English translation and commentary
of the Holy Quran. In his Friday khutba on 28 April he gave
the good news to the community. After reading Sura Al-Fatiha,
Sura Al-Falaq and Sura An-Nas, he said:
“A human being can only take on a task by Allah’s help
and it is only with Allah’s help that he can complete it. Today
is a day of happiness for me. For years I have been busy in the
work of translating the Holy Quran into English and by the grace
of Allah I have completed it today. I am not happy like a student
who, at the end of his examination, feels that now he will have
free time and can rest for a few days. I am happy because all the
time that I was involved in this work the worry was always at the
back of my mind that life is so fickle and it may be that this work
would be left incomplete. Of course, Allah is not short of men and
it was His work which would have been completed somehow; if He has
given strength to a weak person like me to start this work, there
is no reason why He could not get it done by someone else. But it
gives great pleasure to a person to complete by his own hand in
his own life the work that he had started.”
After this he explained the meanings of Sura Al-Falaq and Al-Nas,
as to how a person can seek God’s protection and the purpose of every
work of a human being should be to seek that Divine protection. He
told how God caused all the stages of this work to be completed, lifted
all darkness and as to those who were trying to lay obstacles in the
way, God brought them to failure.
It was decided to have the English translation printed in England
because the printing machines that were required for the high quality,
fine paper that was to be used were not available in India. So Maulana
Sadr-ud-Din at Woking was entrusted with the arrangements for its
printing, a task which he fulfilled extremely well. Later on, Mian
Ghulam Rasul’s son Mian Ghulam Abbas also went to Woking for the same
work. The instructions that Maulana Muhammad Ali gave to Maulana Sadr-ud-Din
in connection with this work can be seen in the following letter which
he wrote to him at the end of 1915 when the translation itself was
ready but some other work remained to be done:
Respected Maulvi Sadr-ud-Din sahib, Imam Woking Mosque. Assalamu
alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatu.
As your letters show that the English translation of the Quran
is urgently needed for your mission of the propagation of Islam,
and without it you as well as the new converts are facing great
problems, and as the translation part of my work is ready, while
some work remains to be done on the footnotes, and because of
difficulties with Arabic type there could be a further delay,
so I give you authority to get the first edition printed consisting
of the translation only, to arrange for the finance as you think
fit and to publish it as you wish. However, no change, alteration
or amendment whatsoever should be made in the translation except
for corrections required during proof reading. You do not even
have to send me the proofs.
Wassalam. Humbly, Muhammad Ali, 29 October 1915.
But this translation without Arabic text was not printed at that time.
Later on, in 1928, a smaller edition consisting of the translation
without Arabic text and with brief footnotes was published by Maulana
Muhammad Ali for the first time.
He spent the whole of the year 1916 preparing the index and the preface
for the English translation, and at the same time going through the
first proofs which came printed from England. These proofs were initially
read by Maulana Sadr-ud-Din in England, and then read and corrected
by Maulana Muhammad Ali in his own hand here. After that stage, the
reading of the second proofs, the correction of the Arabic text, and
all the other tasks in connection with the printing were done by Maulana
Sadr-ud-Din.
By the end of 1917 the printing had been completed and the publication
of the book had started in England. Its first copies reached India
at the end of November 1917. Thus was this great work accomplished
which he had undertaken according to the wishes of the Promised Messiah
and begun during Maulana Nur-ud-Din’s time, on which he had laboured
hard, day and night, for seven years, in spite of his other religious
work and engagements. So was fulfilled the vision of Hazrat Mirza
sahib which he had recorded as follows:
“After that a book was given to me, about which I was
told that this was the commentary of the Holy Quran written by Ali
and now Ali is giving that commentary to you. Allah be praised for
this!”
(Tazkira, p. 21; Barahin Ahmadiyya, p. 503, subnote
3 on footnote 11)
After its publication, this translation became exceedingly popular.
All its reviews in Indian and British journals were highly favourable
and appreciative. Besides the English and Christian world, it spread
among the educated classes of India in abundance, and brought to the
right path many well known, Western-educated Muslims who had come
under the misguiding influence of Christianity or modern godlessness.
The glad tidings mentioned by Hazrat Maulana Nur-ud-Din, that ‘our
translation has been accepted by Allah’, can be seen to be fulfilled
by reading the newspapers of the time and those countless letters
received about this translation which were then published.
This translation is resplendent with the light of the truth of Islam
as it contains that unique religious thought and knowledge which was
produced by the Promised Messiah and which Maulana Muhammad Ali gained
from him and from Maulana Nur-ud-Din. It also has the following chief
features. The translation is in plain, fluent and idiomatic English,
containing very few extra explanatory words and these are given within
parenthesis. The footnotes have been written keeping in view the objections
raised against Islam by the Christian and other religions. These notes
contain an invaluable treasure of information from dictionaries, commentaries
of the Holy Quran, collections of Hadith and works of history, with
full references. All the chapters (surah), sections (ruku‘)
and verses (ayat) are numbered, and there are plenty
of cross references given so that the meaning of a passage in the
Quran can be explained in the light of other places in the Holy Book.
Every chapter carries an introductory note in which the subject matter
of its sections is summarised and the connection between its sections
and between that chapter and its neighbouring chapters is indicated.
The introduction is so comprehensive as to be a book in itself, and
throws light on the essentials of Islam, the compilation and collection
of the Quran, and other questions. The introduction in the first edition
(and its reprint editions) also presented details of the Muslim prayers,
the words of prayers being given in Arabic text, Roman transliteration
and English translation. In short, this work has many unique features.
Its popularity can be judged by the fact that its first three editions
(the 1917 original edition and its two reprint editions of 1920 and
1935) and the various printings of the version without Arabic text
totalled forty-two thousand copies.
Another distinction of this translation is that Maulana Muhammad
Ali did not have before him any previous example of such a translation.
The translations done by Christians reflected their deep hostility
and prejudice against Islam. So he had to embark upon very difficult
and laborious research from scratch, like having to dig a well to
find water. For this translation and commentary the Maulana went
through the previous commentaries of the Quran, works of Hadith
and dictionaries, and having extracted the gist of their knowledge
and opinions he provided thousands of references to them in his
explanatory notes. The translations of the Quran done by Muslims
after this, for example Hafiz Ghulam Sarwar, Abdullah Yusuf Ali
and Marmaduke Pickthall, derived much benefit from Maulana Muhammad
Ali’s work.
— ”
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