The Koran: With Parallel Arabic Text

by N.J. Dawood (Introduction)

N. J. Dawood’s masterful translation in a fully revised edition, with a parallel Arabic text

The Koran is universally accepted by Muslims to be the infallible word of God as first revealed to the prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel nearly fourteen hundred years ago. Its 114 chapters recount the narratives and rules of conduct central to Islamic belief, and together they form one of the world’s most influential prophetic works and a literary masterpiece in its own right. This newly revised edition of N. J. Dawood’s classic translation also includes the original Arabic in parallel text.

For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Genres: Religion, Classics

640 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2015

About the author

Nessim Joseph Dawood (Arabic: نعيم جوزيف داوود) was born in 1927 in Baghdad, Iraq. He emigrated to England in 1945 as an Iraq State scholar, and settled there. He graduated from the University of London. He is known for his English translations of the Qur’an, Tales from the One Thousand and One Nights (Penguin Classics) and his edition of the Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun. (from Wikipedia).

Reviews

[Corbin · Rating 1 out of 5]

My rating of this text is not based on my assessment of its veracity, but rather whether I found it fruitful or not to read. Despite being an atheist, I am interested in the world's wisdom traditions, and Islam has been an important and impactful tradition in human history. I expected to find compelling stories, poetry, insightful teachings, etc., even if I didn't believe in the metaphysical and historical truths it professed. But I found this a very repetitive and unnuanced exhortation to believe its metaphysical and ethical claims.

I was pleased to see that the call to arms and to kill unbelievers were frequently contextualized to historical situations and a general call to fight for survival and purity. I was greatly appreciated the emphasis on charity, concern for the destitute, and criticisms of pursuing and hoarding wealth.

But overall the commands to do good, trust the prophet, avoid blasphemy, fear God, and dissociate from unbelievers were motivated so overwhelmingly by the promise of future reward, and God's power was emphasized so thoroughly that the insistence that God chose who would be saved and who would refuse to believe presented a bleak picture that made devotion seem unnoteworthy. I found it a terribly depressing picture of reality, intensified by the glorification of fantasies to be fulfilled only in the afterlife by those fortunate enough to be willed by God to do what is right.

I'm obviously not an expert on Islam and don't wish to judge the religious doctrines or potential lived value on a single reading of the Q'uran, but I would say that I have no interest in reading it again.

[جویریہ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Its been written by non-Muslim who also changed the order of the Surahs. In fact, Dawood's translation might as well been written by Robert Spencer!
This translation probably the worst one you could have choose. For brief context, NJ Dawood is of Iraqi Jewish origin, no connection to Islam, yet decided he has skillset to accurately translate the Qur'an. A simple skim through the book from a Muslim's perspective would tell you the translator uses his own personal inferences to convey his prejudiced, orientalist-leaning, ideas to the readership, for instance deciding to change the sequence of the book since he says 'It is unfortunate [...] that in preparing the contents of the Koran for book-form its editor or editors followed no chronological sequence. […] the uninitiated reader, […] understandably, is often put off by such mundane chapters as “The Cow” or “Women”, with which the traditional arrangement of the Koran begins.'

This is an awful translation at best, a disrespectful alteration by someone with no claims nor knowledge of Islam at worst.

The Qur'an, unlike the Injeel or Torah, is completely untouched, thus for someone to come in and claim he knows better than God and start making his own alterations – know such a personal has a hidden agenda and knows nothing about Islam. Since if he read the book in its entirety before deciding upon such a insensitive decision, the Qur'an talks about just that: altering the Words of God.

[Samir Benjelloun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read long time ago …
Excellent translation!

[Forked Radish]

Switched to the far superior Muhammed Marmaduke Pickthall translation.