The Five Fatihas

From Silvers

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Copy out the fatiha from your translation. What nuances in meaning do the word choices make?

Contents 1 Tuna's Yusuf Ali 2 Alexis' A.J. Arberry 3 Ashly's Fakhry 4 Hager's Ahmed Ali 5 Laury's Cleary

Tuna's Yusuf Ali

from The Qur'an Translation by Adullah Yusuf Ali

Al-Fatiha, or The Opening

(1) In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. (2) Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds; (3) Most Gracious, Most Merciful; (4) Master of the Day of Judgement. (5) You do we woreship, and Your aid do we seek. (6) Show us the straight way. (7) The way of those whom You have bestowed Your Grace, those whoes (portion) is not wrath, and who do not go astray.

• One important thing that I have noticed is that Yusuf Ali uses "Allah" and never God when he is referring to God/Allah. Ashley's translator uses "Allah" instead of God too. I wonder what was going on through the mind all the translators when they had to translate "Allah" and the rest of the attributes of God. I know that in the Muslim community Allah and the rest of the 99 attributes of Allah are seen as names. Many when calling God publicly don't always us Allah but sometimes Malik, Rahman, Gaffur,etc. So what I am trying to get at is that what why should the name "Allah" not be translated and the rest of the attributes be translated. Ali Yusuf also begins everyone of Gods attributes with a capital letter as does all the translation we are studying as group. In line 5 you can also clearly see that when referring to God a capital "Y" is used for you. In Alexis' translation "you" is avoided by using "thou" and "thee".

• Laury's comment: Excellent observation on not translating the name "Allah." I never thought of it that way. So what are all these translators who keep it "Allah" up to? You bring up a good point about the use of capital letters. What does using a capital letter do "theologically" and how does using a capital letter fix the meaning of a pronoun (and so the meaning of a verse?). There are plenty of ambiguous antecedents in the Arabic (not this one here, but there are many others)!

• Allah is distinct from all of the names of Allah. In Sufi class I remember Laury had said that if you "add" all the names together (like have a plus next to one another then put a equal sign and equal it to Allah than thats when you can some what understand the level of what the name Allah can be referred to as. From my knowlegde I think that some translators use Allah rather than God to emphasis the level of power the word can hold. Also by capitalizing the names/attributes it emphasizes the names of Allah and also helps make the names stand out and showing the attributes importance within the surah.

• Also another important thing I noticed is that the Muslim translators usually keep Allah as Allah when translating as see in Fahkry, Yusuf Ali and Ahmed. While Arberry and Clearly translates Allah to God. I wonder if there is consistancy in this pattern. How do Muslim translators compare to the Non-Muslim translators?

• In comparsion to Alexis' Arberry translation and comment about line 3 for using "All" I feel that Ali Yusuf's tranlation (at least for this chapter) emphasizes the Tanzih of God and does not include anyone but God and his guidance. Also in terms of going in the "straight way" in line 6, line 7 with Ali Yusuf's translation emphasizes that the striaght way is "the way of those who You have bestowed Your Grace."

• Laury's comment: What does that emphasis mean?

• I think the emphasis means that you must follow people who you believe are "righteous" or have "Grace." The path that people follow, that guide you toward Allah. I am not too sure though, I don't want to misinterpret, so please feel free to comment.

• Line 4 gives a stright forward explanation that the Master is Allah that controls the day of Judgement. Also seen in Ashley's translation.

Alexis' A.J. Arberry

from The Koran Interpreted by A.J. Arberry

THE OPENING

(1) In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate (2) Praise belongs to God, the Lord of all Being, (3) the All-merciful, the All-compassionate, (4) the Master of the Day of Doom. (5) Thee only we serve; to Thee alone we pray for succour. (6) Guide us in the straight path, (7) the path of those whom Thou hast blessed, (8) not of those against whom Thou art wrathful, (9) nor of those who are astray.

• In Arberry's translation, he includes "All" in line 3, which emphasizes the Unity of God, tawhid. I find this nuance particularly important, as it concisely displays the All-Comprehensiveness of Allah. Side note, this reminds me of Chittick’s work on Ibn al-Arabi; Chittick writes, God “encompasses all things and all acts, all worlds and all presences” (The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 6).

• Arberry uses the verb “Guide” in line 6. Laury stated that one of her critiques of Cleary was that he does not evoke agency in his translation, when he writes, “Show us the straight path, 7. the path of those You have favored, not of those who are objects of anger, nor of those who wander astray.” I am interested in Arberry’s decision to use “Guide,” which does leave room for human agency. On can decide not to follow guidance, but “showing,” in the way Cleary uses the term, eliminates the nuance of choice that guidance evokes. "Showing" is paternalistic, as Laury mentions below. “Guide” is more complex, and implies that one must make a decision concerning the right path. most importantly, "Guide" leaves humans accountable for their decisions.

• I find Arberry’s decision to use “Thee” and “Thou” rather interesting, and I am not sure how I feel about it. In one sense, it resembles the Christian rhetoric of the Bible, but in another sense, “Thee” and “Thou” are proper and formally respectful. They imply more than just using “You,” since the English language has formal pronouns while Arabic does not have a formal “you." There is room for a translator’s interpretation on this matter and I need to think about this more.

• Laury's Comment: This is a good observation. Who is Arberry and why does he use this language? What are his goals in his translation? (Look at the introduction) Consider how using "King James" style English gives the translation a air of "holiness." Is that appropriate to the Qur'an? Or better, is that an accurate way to translate the "holiness" of the Qur'an as Muslims have understood it? We'll have to take into account converts and anglophile Muslims who may very well associate holiness with "thees" and "thous." But what about others? It may very well be the best way to do it, even though I find it irritating in the extreme and distancing.
• I raised the question of ambiguity in translation below in Hager's post. Keep a close watch on Arberry. He tends to leave meanings ambiguous.

Ashly's Fakhry

I. The Opening¹ 1. In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful². 2. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds³, 3. The Compassionate, the Merciful, 4. Master of the Day of Judgement, 5. Only You do we worship, and only You do we implore to help. 6. Lead us to the right path, 7. The parth of those who have incurred Your wrath or have gone astray.

¹ That is, the opening section or chapter of the Qur'an. It has various other names including Umm al-Kitab or the Quintessence of the Book and the Chapter of Prayer, because it is repeated in every one of the five daily prayers. It is also recited on many important occasions.

² This verse is one of the most recurrent verses in the Qur'an. Muslims recite it at the commencement of their daily activities.

³ That is, the whole of creation.

• Though I can't be sure of the Arabic, Fakhry seems to be pretty straightfoward in his translation, as well as his use of explicative footnotes. As a first time reader, his explanations are concise and helpful - and from what I gather, inoffensive to most.

• In response to Laury's concern of the issue of 'God as King' - I feel that Fakhry's translation is drawing from a balance between God's Majesty and Grace/Caring. He does in fact include Merciful, but precedes it with Compassionate, which allows for individual inerpretaion.

• Laury's comment: "Compassionate refers to the other attribute al-Rahman. So it is in the name of God, the Compassionate (al-Rahman), the Merciful (al-Rahim). Even so, it is a good point you've made. Does "al-Rahman" temper the imperial mercy implied in "al-Rahim"? Is there imperial mercy implied in "al-Rahim" at all? We'll look for this in commentaries (we'll have a broad selection). We'll see who thinks that there should be an edge of majesty in the meaning of "al-Rahim" and why. Good!

• Fakhry's translation places responsiblity on the worshipper in line 7 - "Not those who have incurred Your wrath of have gone astray"

• Compared to Alexis' "day of doom" and Laury's "day of requital" in line 4 - I feel that Fakhry's translation of "day of judgement" is again the most straightfoward. I am interested to see what Hager and Tuna's translations are of this line, it seems that this would be a clear indication of what perspective each translator is likely to be coming from, and what attributes of God they would be most likely to focus on.

Hager's Ahmed Ali

Al-Fatihah: Makki

In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful. ALL PRAISE BE to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, 2. Most beneficent, ever-merciful, 3. King of the Day of Judgement. 4. You alone we worship, and to You alone turn for help. 5. Guide us (O Lord) to the path that is straight, 6. The path of those You have blessed, 7. Not of those who have earned Your anger, nor those who have gone astray.

• I appreciate that he attempted to translate thet surrah word for word without placing any group of people in the catagories of those that have earned His anger, or those that have gone astray.

• Laury's comment: as compared to which translation? Why would a translator do that? What kinds of claims does it make for a translation when a translator inserts "clarifications" rather than leaving a line "ambiguous."

Laury's Cleary

I. The Opening 1. In the name of God, the Benevolent, the Merciful. 2. Praise is proper to God, Lord of the universe, 3. The Benevolent, The Merciful 4. Ruler of the Day of Requital. 5. It is You we serve, to You we turn for help. 6. Show us the straight path, 7. the path of those You have favored, not of those who are objects of anger, nor of those who wander astray.

This is one of the klunkiest translations of some of the most gorgeous Arabic. That said, I have just a couple of points to make tonight.

• I am reminded of Michael Sells' choice to translate Merciful as "Caring." Merciful seems to emphasize the sense of God as King. God has chosen to be merciful to you today and not cut off your head for displeasing him with your less than witty performance in court. I do not mean to be flippant. I want to emphasize the transcendence and fear present in the translation, "The Merciful." "The Caring" emphasizes intimacy and nurturing. One can imagine here both the care of a King and the care of the Beloved.
• Cleary translates verse 7 such that God is not angry with "those" nor do "those" seem to be responsible for being in their predicament. They are simply "objects of anger,' floating in the ether. Likewise, it then feels as if "those who wander astray" were just minding their own business, walking around, and then find themselves, suddenly, on the wrong path! God cannot be angry, because there is no human agency. But if there is no agency, there is no "human." His choice erases the possibility of human responsibility in an effort to be merciful to those who end up on the wrong end of things. Problem is, like the translation Mercy, the word choice feels paternalistic to me. A caring translation would acknowledge that human beings get themselves into trouble and stress the need to turn to God for help. I don't like it now, but I'm going to try to see the good in this word choice. Going to sleep on it. It is just that it seems so limiting in its very attempt to be more open! Frustrating!