Interpreting the Qur'an
Warning!
Please keep in mind all ANY translation (interpretation) of the Qur'an will most definitely contain errors In its natural language (Arabic), the Qur'an is the direct Word of Allah (God) to mankind through the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Any translation of the Qur'an no longer retains that 'official' and perfect status, however it can be tremendously helpful to beginning students wanting to learn more about Islam.
We would strongly encourage those want to learn about Islam to purchase a hardcopy of the Qur'an but with the following conditions:
- get one with commentary (tafseer)
- make sure the tafseer is scholarly (e.g. references to reasons behind a verse, references to hadith and sunnah, etc.)
Unfortunately, this interpretation presented here does NOT meet this simple conditions. To the best of our knowledge, an excellent English translation and commentary of the Qur'an is Maududi's recently published work "The Meaning of the Qur'an". This work took more than forty years to complete, and was published beginning in the mid to late 1980's. Maududi's introduction to each chapter of the Qur'an is included at the moment, but the complete commentary is not online (yet!).
This article was taken from :USC Muslim Students Association Islamic Serverhttp://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/