Why Qur’an al-Karim can not be translated into any language?

 The Qur’an al-karim cannot be translated into any language, even into Arabic. It is impossible to translate any poem into its own language precisely. It can only be explained, interpreted. We should not read the Qur’an’s translation in order to understand it. To understand the meaning of an ayat [1] means to understand what Allahu ta’ala means through this ayat. A person who reads a translation of this ayat cannot learn murad-i ilahi (the divine purpose). He learns what the translator has understood according to his level of knowledge. And he who reads the translation written by someone ignorant or by an irreligious translator, learns not what Allahu ta’ala says, but what the translator, who assumes that he understands it, is expressing from his own thoughts.

The government does not send a law concerning villagers directly to villagers because villagers cannot understand this law even if they can read it. This law is sent to governors of cities first. These governors, understanding it well and adding their explanations, send it to the mayors of towns, who, explaining it more clearly, send it to directors of districts. Directors of districts can understand the law with the help of these explanations and can explain them to headmen of villages. Headman of a village could not have it understood just by reading it. The headman explains it to the villagers in village dialect. By the same token, the Qur’an al-karim is divine rules. It is divine law. Allahu ta’ala has shown the way of happiness to His born servants through the Qur’an al-karim and has sent His own word to the highest of mankind. Only Hadrat [2] Muhammad can understand the meaning of the Qur’an al-karim. No other person can understand it completely. Though the Ashab-i kiram [3] ‘alaihim-ur-ridwan’ knew Arabic as their native language and were literary and eloquent, they couldn’t understand some ayats and asked Rasulullah to explain them.

In short, only Hadrat Muhammad understood the meaning of the Qur’an and explained it through his hadiths [4]. It is he who interpreted the Qur’an. The correct book of interpretation is his hadiths. By not sleeping or resting, by sacrificing their repose, our religious scholars gathered these hadiths and wrote books of interpretation. The book of interpretation entitled Baydawi is one of the strongest among them.

[1] ayat: a verse of al-Qur’an al-kerim; al-ayat al-karima.
[2] Hadrat: title of respect used before the names of great people like and Islamic scholars.
[3] As’hab-i kiram: (as-Sahabat al-kiram); the Companions of Rasulullah.
[4] hadith (sharif): i) a saying of the Prophet (‘alaihi ‘s-salam).; al-Hadith ash-sharif: all the hadiths as a whole; ii) ‘ilm al-hadith; iii) Books of the hadith ash-sharif. iv) Al-hadith al-qudsi, as-sahih, al-hasan: kinds of hadiths (for which, see Endless Bliss, II).