Do you know where there are proper English versions of the Quran?

Question

Any stores you know of where I can buy one? ..i dont know how to read arabic cuz i was born in AMERICA and I want to read the Quran reallly baddd.. does anyone know where i can buy one thats typed in English>> ONE THATS NOT CHANGED UP

Answer 1

Following are good English translations of Quran

1. The Message of the Quran
The full account of the Revealed Arabic Text
accompanied by parallel Transliteration
Translated and Explained by Mohammad Asad.

I have four translations of Quran. I find this one of the best.
Its English is like spoken by English speaking people. With Arabic Text he has also written in Roman English correct pronunciation of Arabic Text. In my view this is a masterpiece translieraion with good explanations and best index in the back I have ever seen.

I searched and found following information about Mohammad Asad.

Asad was born in 1900 as Leopold Weiss to Jewish parents in Lvov (then part of the Habsburg Empire, now in Ukraine). He moved to Berlin in 1920 to become a journalist and traveled to Palestine in 1922. It was there that he first came into contact with Arabs and Muslims and began a long journey into Muslim lands and minds that eventually led to his embracing Islam in 1926. His bestselling autobiography Road to Mecca (published 1954) recounts these years in vivid and captivating detail., including his adventures in Arabia and in working with King Ibn Saud and the Grand Sanusi, amongst others.


Later in his life, after retiring in Spain, he spent 17 years working on an English translation of the Quran which was first published in 1980. Many consider this to be one of the finest English translation of the Quran - some argue this is because he himself was fluent in bedouin Arabic which is closest to the Arabic in the Quran, others suggest that since he was himself a European and wrote in more understandable idiomatic English his translation is most accessible to non-Arabic speakers.

As a lay-reader who ver the years has read a number of English translations, including his, I do find Asad’s translation - The Message of the Quran - to be easier to read than those by Abdullah Yusuf Ali or Marmaduke Pickthall which are amore formal and literal translations. Unlike the translations by Prof. Ahmed Ali (my particular favorite) and by Thomas Cleary which are also in contemporary idiom and very readable, the Mohammad Asad translation has the added virtue of also having commentary and explanations, and the new edition is wonderfully presented, printed in the highest quality, and with tasteful calligraphy. All in all, Mohammad Asad’s The Message of the Quran is the translation that I now recommend to friends, Muslims as well as non-Muslims.

But I digress. Much as I like Muhammad Asad’s translation of the Quran and especially in its new printing, that is not the subject of this post. The subject of the post is his ‘Pakistani connection’ and also why we do not find much about that connection in his writings. Here is what we know.

By the early 1930s Asad had gotten rather disenchanted by King Ibn Saud and his religious advisors (see Road to Mecca) and had begun travelling Eastwards into other Muslim lands. This brought him to British India and there he met and became a good friend of Dr. Mohammad Iqbal. Indeed, Iqbal encouraged him to write his book Islam at the Crossroads (published 1934); whose cover has the following testimonial from Iqbal:

“I have no doubt that coming as it does from a highly cultured European convert to Islam, it will prove an eye-opener to our younger generation.” Muhammad Iqbal.

During World War II imprisoned him in a camp for enemy aliens (because of his Austrian nationality) while his father was interned by the Nazis because he was Jewish. After the War he fervently threw his all behind the demand for Pakistan. Upon the creation of Pakistan, he saw himself very much a ‘Pakistani’ as did those he worked with (reportedly even took to wearing the achkan). In 1947 he became the director of the Department of Islamic Reconstruction in West Pakistan and worked on a treatise with ideas for the Constitution of Pakistan. Many of these ideas (which were mostly related to creating a multi-party parliamentary democracy) were reproduced in his later books but he was not very successful in getting them implemented.

In 1949 Asad joined the Pakistan Foreign Ministry as head of the Middle East Division and eventually in 1952 came to New York as Pakistan’s representative to the United Nations. Here he met the woman who would become the last of his wifes (Pola Hamida). Whether it was the fact that he married her and divorced his earlier wife or the messiness of Pakistani politics, it was in this period that he fell out with the powers in Pakistan and resigned from the Foreign Ministry. He decided to stay on in New York to write Road to Mecca, which became a major success. He never really returned to Pakistan (although, supposedly, Gen. Zia ul Haq tried to get him back) and died in Europe in 1992.

It was his estrangement with the Pakistan government that pushed him back into writing and produced two amazing works - Road to Mecca and The Message of the Quran. However, here once again is a story of one who wished to give his all to Pakistan and we did not let him.
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The second favorite of mine is The Holy Quran, Text, Translations and commentary by A. Yusuf Ali.
It is very widely used in English speaking countries by convert Muslims. It has good translation of text in Biblical style English which feels odd in the beginning. His commentary in the bottom half of page is short an to the point.

A. Yusuf Ali was Ph.D student in London. During his stay in London, he wrote this translation. He died in London in early forties. He was originally from India.

I looked at the following two sites. I was surprized to see that both places didn't have Quran by Mohammad Asad or by Yusuf Ali. But they do have lot of other excellent books.

www.islamicity.com
www.astrolab.com (A Online Islamic Book Store)

I suggest you ask people in Mosque and some one will guide you where to find Quran.
You can also go to www.yahoo.com and write on search strip Holy Quran and search, you will find some where online.

I was checking on yahoo.com for Quran and found some organization or a rich Muslims offering free Quran
"The Message of Quran by Mohammad Asad". I put a request and about a month later I received it free in mail. It is heavy and must cost around $50.00 if you can find one.

May Allah make you an excellent Muslim.
Wassalam, Abdul Majeed

Answer 2

The Alim is a unique and exciting educational software product that makes learning Quran and Hadith easily. There are translations of Quran by Moulana Azad, Yusuf Ali, Malik, Pikthal and also Quran transliteration in English which will be very useful to you. Experience the wonder of the Quran and Hadith without spending hours poring through thousands of pages in dozens of books. Its web site is www.Alim.org
Headquarters & Mailing Address:
ISL Software Corporation
2313 Falling Creek Road
Silver Spring, Maryland 20904
United States of Amercia.

Please contact : for purchase of the CD.

Answer 3

i will not trust the website, i compare the chapters from the website by darth, to the english translations that I have here. It is not the same. what I have is a word by word translation from the Arabic text. Some discrepancy I find, the chapters in the website is not in the correct order.

all i can say, many people will do anything to mislead the verses and tarnish the religion Islam. So, it is better that you purchase the translation from a genuine muslim bookstore.

I am from out of america and i frequently observe there are many non-muslims who will do anything to tarnish Islam.

Answer 4

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim - In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Hello. Salaam Alaikum. There is a site that I have given the link to below where you can read the entire Qur'an online. If there is an Islamic center in your area they will be happy to give you a copy of the Qur'an in English. If you don't have a mosque near you you can contact me and I'll be happy to send one to you.

Fi Aman Allah,

Nancy Umm Abdel Hamid

Answer 5

Try your local bookstore or library, or try a mosque if one is in your city.

There are also many translations online like this one here http://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/koran/browse.html

You can also just search google for more.

Answer 6

Until you buy one .. here is a site offering 13 different translations of Qur'an:

http://www.answering-christianity.com/quran_search.htm

Answer 7

its called a book store ..

you probably have a Barnes and Noble .. Books a Million or a Borders near u

Answer 8

You can read it online for free.

As you are reading it, there are English translations by three different translators for each verse.

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/