Structured, Volunteer Based, Open Translation Department

i didn't complete what i have to say.
what we were doing as individuals - you want to do as a collective. good luck.

but my opinion is about quality translation - or even a decent translation. i do not want to get into specific examples but i see alahazrat's books murdered without mercy - not to even talk about his poetry. pardon me for my impudence, but nowadays AI powered translations are better than many on the market. clearly, capturing the idiom of one language into another is not possible always, and therefore we have use footnotes for some insights and implications of the original text.

so a translator should know the subject well. aqidah. fiqh. qur'an. hadith. seerah. should have a good understanding of the topic, about differing opinions if possible, and most importantly access to commentaries - knowledge of where to look for explanations etc.

to give you an idea: if one intends to translate imam nawawi's arbayin - 40 well known hadith - one should be able to dive deep and wade far. for example, there are nearly a dozen commentaries of arbayin. then there are commentaries of anthologies such as mishkat and riyadu's salihin - in which these hadith are also found. then fayD al-qadir of munawi, commentary on the supercollection jamiy al-saghir. of course, it would also help if the translator has knowledge of snippets of hadith explained in other works and contexts. and then major commentaries such as fat'h al-bari, umdatu'l qari, al-minhaj of nawawi and ikmal of qaDi iyaD. (the arbayin as we know is sourced mostly from these works).

we see hadith translations - especially wahabi translations are bland and shoddy.

whether you were being sarcastic - or were just indicating haste, this is a problem with the new generation. they want it asap. i wish i could, but it is not going to happen. especially when you have to "compose" something original - think about it and write. even more, when it is expect to be an instruction manual. many times, we jump into the fray, and realise how deep the waters are only when we cannot turn back. khayr.

this will wait. other things are a priority right now.

 

Release it within 24 hours please. Jazakallah khayr.

 

... and until then, in my humble opinion, the proposed initiative is a great idea

 

passionate, is necessary.
but are they really capable?
in my opinion, a translator should have a good grasp of the subject. especially, the qur'an and hadith. ideally, he/she should be a scholar comfortable reading tafasir, hadith works and commentaries. or at the least an advanced student of knowledge.

the translator should be comfortable reading the source text - be it in arabic, persian or urdu. and a good translator will have mastery in all languages. one way of achieving this competence is to READ books in those languages. mere sarf-nahw and ability to do tarkeeb will not fetch you there. and reading should be varied - across multiple authors, across multiple ages. this way, one learns to identify idioms and expressions that native speakers understand but a dictionary-bound translator will miss by a mile.

you may be justified in pointing out that i myself may not fit the above criteria - i will not dispute that. but translators of our generation had to fill a gap and didn't have the luxury to wait for the ideal situation. very few traditional ulama knew english and almost none could write or translate in english; and english speakers/writers were not ulama or could read arabic/persian. so the translations of our generation come with their flaws.

i once told a friend that we should be considered as stepping stones - non-specialists holding the fort - until qualified ulama take up their responsibilities.

Allah ta'ala knows best.

 

i had briefly touched upon this:

https://sunniport.com/index.php?threads/book-release-nawawis-arbayin.15594/#post-80139

---
during my conversation with a mufti sahib a few years ago, he said something similiar to the below:

he urged me to compile a guide for translators, which i began earnestly and is a work in progress. in sha'Allah.

--
this is a working title, but may change by the time the book is completed - in sha'Allah wa bi tawfiqihi

 

if you think translation is words from one language to another, yes. but i beg to differ. translation of islamic works is not that straightforward.

firstly, translation of islamic works is meant to benefit the muslim. in my opinion, this requires the translator to be a committed sunni muslim.

for example, we have a translation of al-hidayah since 1870, the objective of the translator was to provide a guide to the english lawyers and judges to look up islamic rulings, mostly aspirants to be government servants in india, i.e. white brits of the 19th century.

secondly, this was a translation of a translation. charles hamilton probably didn't know arabic - he relied upon a persian translation of hidayah for his own english translation. many translators in our time, translate from the urdu translations of important works and hadith, and many times glossing over the context. while a urdu translation may help, a translator MUST have access to the original language [arabic, persian] to look up the original text and ensure that the author's intent is not lost in translation.










https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.5767/mode/2up

PDF link: https://archive.org/download/dli.csl.5767/5767.pdf

 

Would it not be beneficial to build a Proper, Organized, Digital Translation Community?

Either on other social media platforms or on this very forum, but with a dedicated, separate space.

Why?​

• Many capable & passionate individuals are willing to undertake Translation works but lack a clear guide to aid them in the translating & proofreading process (Which is Crucial Islamically ) and to actually make it reach the target audience once completed.

(So many Great, In-Demand translations have Already been done but the work itself does not reach those in need)

• It will Provide an opportunity for senior translators to teach & hone the skills of New Translators and pass on the Mantle, ensuring that the next gen has a strong Base without having to start from scratch

• If we're being overly optimistic, It may grow into a well-established, Proper, Large scale International Translation Department & perhaps even lay the foundation for the robust intellectual team we're so desperately in need to make English Fatawa Razaviyyah a reality.

• It goes without saying that it would be a great source of ever-growing sadqah jariyah and will allow future translators to easily & smoothly shine through while all the ilm gathered by the previous (this) generation does not get buried with them in their graves. الله اعلم

(An Interesting Initiative)​