YAISHWARYAJ: The Great Abdullah Yusuf Ali,, Translator of The Holy Qur'an

The�sad ending of Yusuf Ali, translator of the Qur'an

Abdar Rahman Koya,

21 January 2013

Sixty years ago, on Dec 10, 1953, few in the Muslim world noticed a minor tragedy unfolding in London. The previous day, a sick man was found sitting on the steps of a house in London in a bitterly cold British winter day, and was taken to hospital by police. On this day, a man whose name was already known around the Muslim world, died a pauper's death, without even a companion by his side. British authorities contacted the Pakistani High Commission in London to arrange his funeral and burial. Ask any English-speaking Muslim what translation and commentary of the Quran they originally studied, and the chances are that it was the one by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. First published in 1934, it remains to this day the most widely read and quoted English translation of the Quran. Despite the efforts of numerous other scholars - Muslim, non-Muslim, English and non-English - to better it, few have been able to come close to Yusuf Ali's classical English, which has given readers a sense of the beauty of the original Arabic verses. At the same time, it has had many critics, who have accused Yusuf Ali's translation of being rife with linguistic errors, and his accompanying commentaries of being 'too spiritual', particularly for those with anti-sufi sectarian inclinations. But for millions of ordinary English-educated Muslims (and non-Muslims), Yusuf Ali's translation has been their main gateway to the Quran for decades. So widely accepted was this work that it was reprinted and distributed by the tens of millions by publication houses in the east and west, often funded by despotic Arab governments seeking Islamic legitimacy from their own people and those important Muslim minorities living in Western countries.�

Unauthorised revisions�Over time, however, this exercise became increasingly controversial, not least because some of these publishers and their sponsors saw it their responsibility to 'improve' Yusuf Ali's work, by correcting what they perceived as errors of translation or interpretation. Although this exercise did not butcher the original work completely, it was criticised by other Muslim scholars as a form of plagiarism. Other attempts to discredit Yusuf Ali's work betrayed the Arab-centric character of some Arab scholars of Islam, who evidently believed that they were better qualified to disseminate the Quranic language because of their knowledge of Arabic. Unfortunately, these critics generally lacked the knowledge of other languages, and the way languages are spoken and comprehended. For all the failings of his work, time has only confirmed that Yusuf Ali, with his deep knowledge of Arabic and remarkable grasp of the English language, was in fact superbly equipped to bring the message of the Quran to a people who hitherto could not absorb its beautiful phrases and intended meanings in Arabic. As a result, Muslim publishers recently reprinted Yusuf Ali's original translation and commentary, ignoring most subsequent attempts at revising it. Having said that, there can be no doubt that any translation and commentary of the Quran reflects that understanding and outlook of the translator and commentator. To fully understand Yusuf Ali's perspective, therefore, it is necessary to know something about the man, his life and his times.�The story of Yusuf Ali�In Yusuf Ali's case, however, little was known about him until the publication of�Searching for Solace, a biography by M A Sherif, in 1994. It was only then that many Muslims realised that Yusuf Ali, far from being a feted ulama and scholar, was in fact a civil servant in British India and a loyalist to the British empire, whose life was one of personal tragedy. He died alone after being neglected by his children and his community in a city which did him little honour.�

Many Muslims, discovering this sad story, have responded with harsh judgements, reflecting their reservations about elements of his work. This, however, is unfair. Yusuf Ali was, as Sherif's superbly compassionate and balanced biography shows, a product of his time and environment, but also one whose hardships led him to a deep study and understanding of Islam and the Quran. His life story, his strengths and his weaknesses, offer lessons for Muslims today. Like many Muslims of the last couple of centuries, Yusuf Ali's life was defined by the impact of western power on Muslim societies. Like much of India's Muslim elite, Yusuf Ali served the British rulers of India, as an Anglophile member of the Indian civil service, much as his forebears had served earlier Muslim regimes. Brought up to be more British than the British, he placed trust in British values of justice, fair play and benevolent empire, going as far as to marry an English woman. Throughout his life, he put his skills at the service of the Empire, always under the illusion that this was in the best interest of his community. But the incompatibilities of life as a 'native' Muslim in India, and a loyal British gentleman, were soon to be laid bare, not by any issues of conscience that arose in his work as an official of the empire, but in his personal life. His marriage ended with divorce, when he discovered that his wife had been unfaithful â€" something normal and tolerated in English high society at the time, but obviously unacceptable to him as a Muslim. One result was his alienation from his children, brought up as English.�Blind loyalty and re-awakening�His pain and anguish had left an indelible mark on his later world view, and he turned to the Quran for solace. Ultimately, one man's loss soon became the Muslim world's greatest gain. He devoted himself to the study of the Quran, and soon came out with the first volume of his translation, first published in Lahore in 1934, a feat he had been hoping to achieve for some forty years of his life.

The circumstances Yusuf Ali was in are not dissimilar to our own era, in which a section of Muslim intellectuals are obsessed to portray Islam's image as a moderate religion, so as to please their political masters in Washington.

Yusuf Ali's generation was attracted by the same slogans, and the situation is no different today, albeit in a more subtle manner through the setting up of think-tanks, Islamic chairs at universities and through publication of bulky but mostly hollow and pedantic theses on Islam.

The difference is that Yusuf Ali went through such a phase and learnt the consequences of blind loyalty. How many we know today have even gotten over the blind loyalty phase?

As he writes in his 1934 preface to his translation: "I have explored western lands, western manners and the depths of western thought and western learning, to an extent which has rarely fallen to the lot of an eastern mortal. But I have never lost touch with my eastern heritage.

"Through all my successes and failures I have learned to rely more and more upon the one true thing in all life â€" the voice that speaks in a tongue above that of a mortal man. I felt that with such life-experience as has fallen to my lot, my service to the Quran should be to present it in a fitting garb in English."

Yusuf Ali was buried at a cemetery in Woking, Surrey, UK. His grave is not far from that of Marmaduke Pickthall, whose earlier translation of the Quran was the first by a Muslim Englishman. May he rest in peace.

�