Translations of the Holy Qur’an, History and Development: A Study with Special Reference to Malayalam Translations

The Holy Qur’an is Divine Book, revealed by God of this universe, “It is the revelation of the Book from the Lord of the Worlds” (Qur’an: 32:2). It is revealed as the clearest sign of His Gracious and Mercy, “Most Gracious! It is He Who has taught the Qur’an” (Qur’an: 55:1-2).
It is revealed as guide to whole mankind and light for them. “Blessed is He Who sent down the Criterion to His servant, that it may be an admonition to all creatures (25:1). Thus the Prophet (saw) has been sent to all mankind. We sent you not, but Mercy for all creatures” (Qur’an:21:107).
The Qur’an was revealed in a gradual manner duringthe period of Prophetic life of Mohammed (saw) which lasted 23 years. Depending on the needs of the circumstances and time, the revelations were made p of fiery oratories, royal decrees, scholarly teachings, reformatory analyses, affectionate coaching, terse warnings, and inspirational discourses. Thus Qur’an deals all aspects of human life. Allah says“We have sent to you the Book explaining all things, a Guide, a Mercy, and Glad tidings to Muslims” (Qur’an:16:89).

The Language of the Qur’an
The Qur’an is the Word of Almighty God that was revealed in wording and meaning in Arabic language, and has preserved and reached us by continuous oral and written transmissions. The Arabic language of the Qur’an has unique characteristics and style. Its eloquence and rational, idiom and metaphor, symbols and moments and events are all unique. The excellent and most appropriate wording of the Qur’an, its clarity, well-balanced verses, impressive and inimitable eloquence, and gentle and majestic style penetrate deep into a person’s heart, stimulating human values and wisdom. Allah says: “We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur’an, in order that you may learn wisdom” (12:2).
Despite of the Qur’an has been sent down for all mankind, it is revealed in wording and meaning in Arabic language. Zamakhshari, author of famous Tfsir Al Kashafwrites, “The Qur’an could have been revealed either in all the numerous languages of all peoples, or only in one language. If the revelation were to be communicated in all languages, however, it would lead to needless repetition, since translation could serve as a substitute for such repetition. Hence it was revealed to the Prophet in the language of his own people, to whom was sent, in the preliminary stage of the call to Islam. Once these people came to understand comprehensively the meaning of this message, they undertook the task of transmitting it to the rest of mankind throughout the world. Translation became one way of elucidation and instruction. This is the evident in all non-Arab countries, where Muslims get their instruction in the Qur’an through translations in their native tongues. However, different peoples and remotely distant communities, and even generations hundreds of years apart, all conform to and follow one Book, the Qur’an. They all strive to study its language and to explore its meaning, to their great advantage.
The message of Islam has been expanded day by day to various part of the globe. Following the conversion of non-Arab people to Islam, numerous communities and tribes felt the necessity of learning the principles of this religion which they accepted it as way of their lives. Thus they endeavoured to translate the Holy Qur’an into their own languages in order to understand it fully and properly.

History of Translations of the Qur’an
The first translation of any part of the Qur’an occurred during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad itself. The Prophet used to send letters to the rulers of neighbouring countries introducing them the message of Islam and inviting them to embrace it. Most of these letters included some verses of the Qur’an, and these verses must have been translated along with the letters.
It is to be concluded that the letters of the Prophet were either explained by the delegation carrying those letters or by interpreters of rulers to whom those letters were sent. This was the first form of translation of the Holy Qur’an, if it was only of some verses. It is also reported that some Persian converts requested companion Salman-al-Farisithat translate some parts of the Qur’an, and he translated the Surah Fatiha. Thus there is no information about any direct translation of the Qur’an which done during the life of the Prophet.
Al-Jahiz writes in his book Al-Bayan Va-al-Tabyin “Musa ibnSayyar Al Aswariwas as proficient in Persian as in Arabic. In his council of study the Arabs were sitting on his right, and the Persians were sitting on his left. He would recite the verse of the Holy Qur’an and explain to Arabs in Arabic. Then would turn to the Persians, and explain to them in Persian. One could not decide in which language he was more capable”. It is to be supposed that there were many oral translations had been done in early period of Islam.
A Persian translation is said to have been made by Salman al-Farisi a companion of the Prophet; one into Berber in 127/744-5; and a Sindhi one in 270/883-4; but none of these survives. According to Prof. Muhammad Hamidullah it isSyriac translations made by non-Muslims, in second part of the first century A.H in the period of HajjajIbn Yusuf. There is also possibility of the existence of a Berber translation written in 127 A.H. There was a Persian oral translation made by Musa ibnSayyar Al Aswari before 255 A.H. and a complete Indian translation before 270 A.H.
One of the earliest extant surviving translations of the Qur’an is in Persian; it was made for Abu Salih Mansur ibnNuh, Samanid ruler of Transoxania and Khurasan (350-366 A.H/ 961-976 A.D). This translation was accompanied by a translation Tafsir of Imam at-Tabari’s, part of which still available in manuscript form.
It is many numbers of translations had been written in Indo Aryan and Dravidian languages. A big share of these translations are Urdu versions, the earliest are said to have been made by Shah Abd al Kadir and Shah Rafi al-Din, each of them an uncle of the celebrated preacher and scholar Muhammad IsmailShahid. In the other Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages; there are versions in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Marathi, Oriya, Panjabi, Pashto, Sanskrit, Sindh, and Sinhalese; and in the Dravidian languages, Malayalam, Tamil and Telegu.
Simultaneously, there have been numerous complete printed translations of the Qur’an in many languages later.“The World Bibliography of Translations”collected authoritative publication details of the translations of the Qur’an in 65 languages. It lists altogether 551 complete, and 883 partial translations till the year of 1980. Counting subsequent reprints of same translation, there is an overall total of 2672 translations.
The first printed translation of the Qur’an was in Latin, which was prepared by the English scholar RobertusRetenesis in 1143 and titled HermannusDalmata, but it was published in 1543, exactly after four centuries later al Basel. It abounds in inaccuracies and misunderstandings. Nevertheless it severed as the foundation of the earliest translations into modern European languages. This in turn was translated into Italian, German, and Dutch.

Qur’an studies in Kerala
Kerala is one of the lands which blessed with the message of Islam in its early ages. History of the emergence of Islam in Kerala is well known among the students. Malik Ibn Dinar and his companions came here and they undertook the responsibility of preaching of Islam in this land.They gotwarmly reception from rulers of then. And they got opportunity to introduce Islam as new religion for the nation which gave them emancipation and they established masjids for performing their worship to God. It is reported that in those days more than 18 masjids were established in various parts of this land.
The foundation stage of the teachings of the Qur’an in Kerala may be assumed that itwas commenced from the early days of emergence of Islam in this land. The masjids were used for teaching and cultivation of peoples who were interesting to learn about Islam and those who converted to Islam. Naturally, interpretation of the Qur’an constituted an indomitable part in Dars system. Othupallis were established near the masjids for teaching the Qur’an and primary teachings of Islam. Then students were promoted to Dars, which was the centre for the higher study.There is no evidence indicating about the day in which Dars system was introduced in Kerala. However it is reported that one of the oldest Dars, which was carried in Masjid of TanurValiyaKulangara,in which a Yamani scholar named Abu Abdillah al Hadrami was directing a Dars in 679 A.H.
By the emergence of Madrassa movement in the half of the 19th century teaching of the Qur’an became common in Muslim society of Kerala. Every Muslims child taught to recite the Qur’an and tried to memorize it as it possible. Simultaneously, in the Dars system there three Arabic Tafsirs were decided to be taught till nowadays. ThreeTafsirs are Tafsir alJalalaini, written by renowned scholars Imam JalauddinMahalli (791-864 A.H.) and Imam JaluddinSuyuthi (849-911 A.H), Tafsir-al-Baidawi and TafsirNasafi.
It is said about the reason of deciding on these three Tafsirs to be taught in Dars especially in final stage of Dars, that theauthorities of Darscould not prepared to bring the students who did not understand the Arabic language and grammar deeply, to the ocean of the Qur’an. They claim that this trend appeared from modern reformist thoughts, and it could be unfairness.
The beginning of Islamic college system for Islamic teaching resulted to basic modifications in method of learning the Qur’an.Establishment of Arabic colleges like Roudatul-Uloom Arabic College (1942) SantapuramIslamia College (1955) and JamiaNadviyyaEdavanna (1964) these colleges had brought reformations in the learning the Qur’an among the students.

Qur’an learning Centres
The Islamic Organizations like Kerala NadvatulMujahideen and JamateIsalmi, playing a big role in expansion of learning Qur’an in Muslim society, and these organizations helped people to understand the Qur’an. They included teaching of the Qur’an among common people in their activities.
Qur’an Study Centre Kerala, which was formed in 1997 under the supervision of JamaateIslami Kerala. The main objective of this centre is to spread the theme of the Qur’an among the people. It directs a course lasting 9 years, in this term it will be covered whole part of the Qur’an. Nowadays there are about 1000 units in various parts of Kerala, consisting more than twenty thousand learners including gens and women.
Qur’an Hadith Learning School (QHLS) one of the largest centre in Kerala,  functioning under Kerala NadvatulMujahideen (KNM-AP), under this centre there are more than one thousand units and more than eleven thousand learners officially seeking knowledge under QHLS. It conducts seven year course called seven Marhala and a special one year course for public, aiming to attract peoples for learning the Qur’an. It does not targets complete parts of the Qur’an. One of main significant of QHLS is it consists a special syllabus for Hadith also.
Qur’an Learning School (QLS) working under KNM Madavoor group organizing seven years course, targeting complete study of Qur’an. It has about four hundred units and more than three thousand learners.There many other centres functioning under organizations and some personalities. These centres and schools are performing a vital role in Qur’an learning spreading its message among the Muslims.

Qur’an Translations
in Malayalam
Searching the emergence of Quranic Literature and its development in Kerala,it makes clear about the carelessness and historical events which caused to disappearance of many valuable manuscripts and documents. Consequently we had lost enormous collection of heritage of knowledge. Nevertheless some of these manuscripts have been published and survived.
The earliest translation and commentary of the Qur’an is known as TarjamatuTafsiril Qur’an in six volumes written by Mohyuddin Abdul Qadir alias MayinKuttyElaya (1809-1888),who was a son-in-low of Arakkal Palace in Kannur. He started his eminent work in 1855and it takes 15 years for accomplishment. This Tafsir was written in Arabic-Malayalam script. This Tafsir had invoked some reactions among the traditional Ulama who had kept a conservative stand on translation of the Qur’an. It was not a direct translation of the Qur’an, but it was translation of TafsirJalalaini.
In the beginning of 20th century many writings in Arabic-Malayalam on Qur’an were taken place and many minor and partial attempts came into being. Like Konkanamveetil Ibrahim bin CheriyaBava (1840- 1905) wrote translation on Surah al Fatiha and Sura al Kahf, published in 1900 at Ponnani. Another attempt was by QadribnMoideenTenattikkal (1872-1950) who made a translation of AmmaJuza entitled Fath al Muin published in 1925. It is Hasanibn Ali PuthenVeetil (1867-1945) wrote Tarjuma al Surah al Rahman, Tarjuma al Surah Yusuf and last three parts of the Qur’an, published in 1911. TarjamAmmaJuza translated into Arabic Malayalam by PK MoosaMaulavi and P. Muhammad Mohiyuddin and published in 1938 and its second edition was published in Malayalam by Al Huda Book Stall, Kozhikode, in 1985. The list of partial translations of Qur’an in Arabic-Malayalam lists out numerous names and entries.
Tarjumanul Qur’an written by Veliyankode K. Umar Maulavi, published in 1959 was one of the complete translations of the Qur’an in Arabic-Malayalam. He wrote this translation by the motivation of K.M. Maulavi, it was in six volumes and consisting more than 2500 pages. This was republished in Malayalam by Umar Maulavi with assist of K.K. Muhammad Madani in one volume.In 1918, a Malayalam translation of Quran’s first juzu’ by Vakkam Abdul KhadirMoulavi was being published in Deepika.
From the second half of 20th century onwards, the writings of translations of Qur’an got a momentous transformation that it turned into Malayalam Language. The earliest translation and commentary in Malayalam was written by eminent scholar C.N Ahmad Maulavi, entitled Tafsir al Qur’an al Hakeem. He started his distinguished work in 1951 and accomplished in 1963, consists five volumes. Because of his independent entity form organizations existed he published this Tafsir with the financial assist of Government of India in 1963. C.N Ahmad Maulavi had tried to interpret the Qur’an on the basic on science, and then he explained all miracles also on the basics of science. This solitary journey of C.N in his commentary brought him into conflict with other interpreters and scholars. Nevertheless this Tafsir had become an incentive to being other interpretations in Malayalam.    
In 1954, a portion of the Malayalam translation of Quran by Moulavi P. MuhammedEdasseri was published by an Islamic literature publisher based in Bangalore. Parishudha Qur’ante Malayala Paribahasha, translation of the Qur’an prepared by Muttanissery M. KoyaKutty (b.1925) came out in 1960with a long and grand introduction by A M Uthman Sahib and Lekha PublicationKayamkulam published in 1967. Later it was republished by Moral Books, Kottayam in one volume.And Al Qur’an based on interpretation of C.N Ahmad Maulavi, is an another distinguished work done by a team consisting P.A Karim, K. AbduRaham and K.A Rauf, published by DC Books in 1987 in four volumes and republished in one volume in 1996. The chief adviser of this work was C.N Ahmad Maulavi and edited by DR. K. AyyappaPanikkar (1930-2006).
Tafsir al Qur’an, translation of TafsirJalalaini prepared by T.K. Abdullah Moulavi (1924-1972) adding brief explanation also. It is published in one volume by Bayaniyya Press Parappanangadi in 1967. And FathuRahman fi Tafsiril Qur’an is a comprehensive Tafsir written by K.V. Muhammad Koottanad, who was secretary of Samsta Kerala Jamiyatul Ulama for four and half decades and member of Samsta Mushavara for fifty years. It came to being after a long time research and study; it was published by Sunni Publication Centre of Chemmad in 1981.
Al Qur’an translation of the Qur’an prepared by Hafid P.H. Abdul GaffarMaulavi (b. 1958) and DC Books has published in 1997. Al Bayan fi Ma’anil Qur’an a complete translation of the Qur’an written by SayyidShihabuddinImbichiKoyaThangal has been published by Ashrafi Book House, Tiroorangadi. Tarjuma al Maa’ni al Qur’an a complete translation with brief commentary prepared by Abdul Hameed Cheriyamundam and Kunju Muhammad Parappoor and proofread by K.P Muhammad ibn Ahmad and it was published by Yuvatha Book House, Kozhikode in 1997, named Vishudha Qur’an SampoornnaMalayalaParibhasha and this book is being officially published by the King Fahad Quran Printing Complex, Saudi Arabia for free distribution.
Tafsir al Qur’an il Kareem one of the most authentic Malayalam translations of Quran is known as ‘Translation of AmaniMoulavi’. Its works started in 7th September 1960 in the leadership of KM moulavi and finished in 27th September 1977. Scholars worked for the project were P K MoosaMoulavi (1886- 1990), A AlaviMoulavi (1911- 1976) and MuhammedAmaniMoulavi (1909- 1987). From the first chapter to 17th chapter AmaniMoulavi himself worked on the translation and he was helped by MoosaMoulavi for the translation of chapters 18 to 27 and by AlaviMoulavi for chapters 18 to 114. With its acute carefulness this work is considered to be the most authentic Malayalam Qur’an translation and is republished in four volumes by the publishing division of Kerala NajvathulMujahideen. What is more special about this work is that along with the Arabic root, it has the word meaning and sentence meaning enabling everyone who knows Arabic to learn Qur’an without other’s help. The introduction to this Malayalam Quran translation is an authentic preface to Qur’an study.One of the most significant of this work that the references were the authors depended on that listed out in its preface as 14 Arabic commentaries, three Urdu and one English translation and five Hadith books.
Tafhimul Qur’an the Malyalam translation of its renowned Urdu origin produced by eminent Islamic reformist MaulanaMoududi. He started this work in 1942 and accomplished in 1972 it took 30 years. Before its completion it had been translated in other languages also. In 1972 its first volume’s translationcame out in Malayalam by Islamic Publishing House, Kozhikode, and then 2nd volume produced in 1990,3rd in 1991, 4th 1993, 5th in 1997 and 6th in 1998. Those who participated in this great work are T.K Abdullah, T. Ishak Ali Maulavi, V.K. Ali and T.K. Ubaid. Its preface is representing a guide to learning Qur’an. It had been translated to various languages. Tafhimul Qur’an presents Islam as a code of lifewhich Qur’an gives; it shows Qur’anic solution for problems of humanity and it works as guide of Islamic reformation in modern era.
‘Qur’anBhaashyam’ is Malayalam translation of summery of Tafhimul Qur’an came out in 1988. T.K. Ubaid translated it and K.C. Abdullah Maulavi proofread and Islamic Publishing House, Kozhikode published. And another translation of Qur’an has been published by IPH is ‘Qur’an Lalithsaaram’ written by Shaikh Muhammad Karakkunn and VanidasElayavoor. Both of these translations are deferred from others by its purity in language and clearness.
There are some latest translations and commentary in Malayalam. One of these is the Malayalam translation of ‘Fee Lilalil Quran’ by SayyidQuthub was produced by Manas Foundation by the name ‘QuranteThanalil’. V S Salim and KunjiMuhammedPulavathu were the translators and Dr.MohiyuddinAlvai made edition. And its translators have prepared a translation of Qur’an without Arabic roots and brackets named Qur’anMalayalasaaram which was also brought by Manas Foundation. And translation of TafirRazi named TafsirKabir has been bought by Qur’an for world and translated by a group of translators and edited by V.S Saleem.
K V M Panthavoor produced a translation by the name ‘Qurante Ul sara Vyakhyanam’ which is a Sufi translation work. It is the translation of the book ‘Thafseerul Quran’ by Sheikh Muhyudheen-ibnuArabi. In 1994 the first part of the book ‘Vishudha Quran Vyakhyanam’ written by M P MusthafalFaisy was published by Dubai Islamic Centre.
A latest attempt in this field is the translation named ‘Anwarul Quran’ published in 1999 which was authored by A AbdussalamSullami, famous Hadees scholar and author of many books. Its main significant is word meanings, singular and plural forms, verbs and translations are all included in it.
There are also two poetic translations of Quran brought out in Malayalam. One is written by KonniyurRaghavan Nair, a native of Konni, Pathanamthittadistrict and is named as ‘DivyaDeepthi’. He started its works in 1964. Samanwayam Books, Kozhikkodu is the publisher. Another poetic translation of Malayalam Quran named ‘AmruthaVani’ is written by K G Raghavan Nair, a native of Ottappalam, Palakkadu district. It was brought out by IPH in 1997.