by changing the informal style of an oral address mto the conventionals} style of a written work.

There ts still another handicap in a litcrai translation. An English word 1s not always the exact equivalent of an Arabic word; it is, therefore, difficult io transfer accurately into English every. shade of meating that is contained in the Arabic word of the Qur'an. A free translation, however, can convey in English the meaning of an Arabic sentence as a whole.

Almost all the existing English translations of the Qur'an suffer from the drawbacks of a literal translation. Besides these, they have two More. detects: (a) Generally they follow the archaic English of the Bible, Which makes the meaning of the Qur'an unintelligible. (b) They isolate every verse, number it and show it as an independent whole and thus lake away life and dynamic force out of it. It ts obvious that even if an excellent discourse is dissected and written in separate enumerated sentences, it fails to produce the effect which would have been produced by keeping it as a continuous whole.

That is why a general impression has been created that the Qur'an lacks continuity of subject and deals with miscellaneous topics in a haphazard manner without any interconnection between the verses. No existing English translation claims or attempts to show that there is unity of purpose in the whole of the Qur'an; that all its topics revolve around the central theme and never deviate from that, its each Sirah isa complete whole and all its Verses are interconnected.

Naturally the non-Muslim cranslators cannot be expected to do full justice to the Holy Qur'an, for they are generally inspired by hostile intentions or at best by tolerance because they regard the Qur'an to he ‘the product of (Prophet) Muhammad's (Allah's peace be upon him) own imagination or an inspired literature’: there are others whose chief aim is to reflect “rhythm, music and the exalted tone of the original.” Doubtless the thrilling rhythms of the Qur'an touch the very core of the heart. But that is not the real object of the Qur'an, it is only a means ta it. Though the Muslim translators approach the Book with reverence, they do not try to remove the difficulties which are real hindrance to its right and full understanding. The westerniscd Muslim translators wittngly or un-wittingly try to explain away thage things which they