Impromptu review of 'The Clear Quran' translation, surah 4:34 (2020-12-05) #

0:00:00 um hello in this um uh impromptu
0:00:03 episode uh i just wanted to uh relay
0:00:06 something that happened to me earlier
0:00:07 today i was up in kilburn not far from
0:00:09 where i live in
0:00:10 here in london uh just talking to some
0:00:12 of the brothers
0:00:13 giving dowa there as they do every
0:00:15 saturday when they can and there's not a
0:00:17 lockdown
0:00:18 and um there's a new translation of the
0:00:20 quran uh they had on the
0:00:21 their desk there with the dow material
0:00:24 and uh this
0:00:25 is the uh quran here
0:00:29 so um we hope you can make that out it's
0:00:31 uh
0:00:32 the clear quran a thematic english
0:00:34 translation by dr mustafa
0:00:36 kattab and uh it's published by aira
0:00:39 based here in london
0:00:40 uh one i one reason and i hear a project
0:00:44 so this is an official quran uh
0:00:46 published by
0:00:47 them and um i just want to do a quick
0:00:49 review of this
0:00:50 new translation now obviously i haven't
0:00:52 read it all but what i did do perhaps a
0:00:55 little bit misjust
0:00:56 mischievously i went straight to verse
0:00:59 434. now why would i do that well i'll
0:01:01 explain why in a minute but
0:01:03 i read the verse um in the translation
0:01:06 and i'm
0:01:06 aware of some of the arabic issues
0:01:08 actually having read
0:01:10 a really good scholarly discussion of
0:01:12 this very verse
0:01:14 in this book in jonathan brown's
0:01:16 misquoting
0:01:17 muhammad where um on page 274 275
0:01:21 uh uh he discusses the various
0:01:24 translations
0:01:25 of this text and the uh the different
0:01:28 motivations behind them and the problems
0:01:30 it causes
0:01:31 people uh this text in the arabic and
0:01:33 why they translated differently so
0:01:34 sort of read it in my trusty uh abdel
0:01:37 haleem
0:01:38 english translation and this is a very
0:01:41 well known verse i read the whole of the
0:01:43 verse
0:01:44 in context and then i will read this new
0:01:47 clear
0:01:47 quran and you can see why i'm making a
0:01:50 video of it hopefully
0:01:52 so in this good reliable translation it
0:01:54 says husbands should take good care of
0:01:56 their wives
0:01:57 with the bounties god has given to some
0:01:59 more than others
0:02:01 and with what they spend out of their
0:02:02 own money righteous wives are devout
0:02:05 and guard what god would have them guard
0:02:08 in their husband's
0:02:09 absence if you fear high-mindedness from
0:02:12 your wives remind them
0:02:14 of the teaching of god then ignore them
0:02:18 then hit them if they obey you you have
0:02:21 no right to act against them
0:02:22 god is most high and great now the bit i
0:02:26 was interested in is
0:02:27 then hit them that that bit and the
0:02:29 arrow because a note here
0:02:30 is um it says to the bottom of the page
0:02:32 this signifies
0:02:34 a single slap as is clear from the
0:02:36 circumstances of the revelation of this
0:02:39 verse
0:02:40 see also abdul haleem understanding the
0:02:42 quran
0:02:43 pages 46-54 so he's referring to his own
0:02:47 a separate work where there's a quite a
0:02:49 big discussion of that
0:02:51 so i'm aware of the arabic the arabic
0:02:53 does have hit
0:02:54 or strike that is the literal meaning of
0:02:57 the word as translated here
0:03:00 um so let's before i go down to how we
0:03:02 interpret this verse
0:03:04 let me just read to you from this new
0:03:06 clear quran
0:03:08 so it should be even clearer so what
0:03:09 does it say men
0:03:11 are are the caretakers of women as
0:03:14 men have been provisioned by god over
0:03:16 women
0:03:17 and tasked with supporting them
0:03:19 financially and righteous women
0:03:21 are devoutly obedient and when alone
0:03:24 protective of what god has entrusted
0:03:26 them with and if you sense ill
0:03:29 conduct from your women advise them
0:03:31 first
0:03:32 if they persist do not share their beds
0:03:36 but if they still persist then
0:03:38 discipline them light
0:03:39 gently discipline them gently but if
0:03:42 they change their ways
0:03:43 do not be unjust to them surely god is
0:03:45 most high or great
0:03:47 so if they still persist then discipline
0:03:50 them
0:03:50 gently discipline them gently um
0:03:55 this is obviously not a translation this
0:03:57 is a an interpretive
0:04:00 view of what they want the english to
0:04:02 say
0:04:04 at the bottom of the page um there's
0:04:06 actually quite a helpful comment
0:04:07 to this very verse it says disciplining
0:04:09 one's wife gently
0:04:11 is the final resort the earliest
0:04:13 commentators understood
0:04:15 that this was to be light enough not to
0:04:17 leave a mark
0:04:18 it should be done with nothing bigger
0:04:19 than a tooth stick and should
0:04:21 be not be on the face prophet muhammad
0:04:25 said to his companions
0:04:26 do not beat the female servants of god
0:04:29 he said that honorable husbands do not
0:04:31 beat their wives
0:04:32 and he himself never hit a woman or
0:04:34 servant if a woman feels her husband is
0:04:36 ill-behaved then she can get help
0:04:38 from her guardian or seek divorce now
0:04:41 that
0:04:42 comment is fine and that's indeed based
0:04:44 on the earlier sources
0:04:46 what i have a problem with is when it
0:04:47 says then discipline them likely as part
0:04:49 of the translation
0:04:51 um i don't know this is going to come up
0:04:53 it's going to be easy to see or not
0:04:55 if you can see that anyway um
0:04:59 this uh okay so what do we do what's
0:05:02 going on here
0:05:03 in um jonathan brown's excellent book he
0:05:06 discusses as i say this
0:05:07 very subject and the problems uh that
0:05:10 this verse has caused in the minds of
0:05:12 some people particularly in the west
0:05:15 and um and then he makes this helpful
0:05:18 comment
0:05:18 on page 274. ironically the unstated
0:05:22 assumptions that many readers today
0:05:24 would generally see
0:05:26 as encasing the literal meaning of 434
0:05:30 were shared by none of the pre-modern
0:05:32 ulama the ulama the
0:05:34 islamic scholars they are in fact
0:05:36 totally foreign to the islamic tradition
0:05:39 so in other words just reading this as a
0:05:40 verse to beat your wife so to speak
0:05:43 is totally foreign to the islamic
0:05:45 tradition
0:05:46 the pre-modern language so it's not a
0:05:48 modernist issue that goes back
0:05:49 many centuries reading the verse as an
0:05:51 unambiguous legitimization of spousal
0:05:54 abuse
0:05:55 assumes that the quran should be read in
0:05:57 isolation
0:05:58 and that duties should be derived from
0:06:01 it unmediated
0:06:03 yet no pre-modern muslim school of
0:06:05 thought ever advocated that
0:06:07 except perhaps the earlier the early
0:06:10 karajaite extremists
0:06:12 and islamic modernists who claim they do
0:06:15 this today
0:06:16 cannot manage to do so consistently on
0:06:18 the contrary
0:06:20 muslim sects agree that the quran had to
0:06:22 be read through the prism
0:06:24 of the prophet's teachings as expounded
0:06:26 by the ulama
0:06:28 who then disagreed endlessly on what
0:06:30 those teachings should be
0:06:32 the ulima who articulated the islamic
0:06:34 tradition
0:06:35 were men taken as a whole however their
0:06:38 reading of 434
0:06:40 was characterized by neither the
0:06:41 interests of patriarchy
0:06:43 nor what is sometimes imagined to be an
0:06:45 untempered indifference to violence
0:06:48 rather the most salient theme in the
0:06:50 ulama's writings across the centuries
0:06:52 has been one of restricting
0:06:54 almost completely the apparent meaning
0:06:57 of the verse
0:06:58 this seems to have appeared with the
0:07:00 very first infallible
0:07:02 interpreter of god's revelation the
0:07:04 messenger of god himself
0:07:06 canonical sunni hadith collections quote
0:07:08 the prophet
0:07:09 at first teaching his followers do not
0:07:12 strike the female servants of god
0:07:14 and that of course is what's referenced
0:07:15 in the new translation
0:07:17 only when his lieutenant umar complained
0:07:20 about the media uh
0:07:22 the medinan women disrespecting their
0:07:24 husbands
0:07:25 as opposed to the more submissive meccan
0:07:27 wives to whom they were accustomed
0:07:30 did the prophet allow hitting them the
0:07:32 hadith continues
0:07:34 describing how a wave of 70 i
0:07:37 many women subsequently came complaining
0:07:39 to the prophet
0:07:40 about their husbands this led them to
0:07:43 declare that those men who
0:07:45 this led him the prophet to declare that
0:07:48 those men who beat their wives are
0:07:50 not the best among you adding the best
0:07:53 of you
0:07:54 will not strike them
0:07:57 um and then he goes on about the
0:08:00 prophet's
0:08:00 farewell sermon uh which says something
0:08:03 uh quite similar
0:08:04 and talks about um um
0:08:07 about how husband's striking her but
0:08:09 only with a light blow that leaves no
0:08:11 mark
0:08:12 uh et cetera but there's it's a
0:08:14 fascinating chapter
0:08:16 i suppose in this kind of amateur review
0:08:19 that i'm giving my own
0:08:20 my issue with this is
0:08:24 however it seems to have the translation
0:08:27 seems to have
0:08:28 built in or added in the interpretive
0:08:31 hermeneutic of the of what the english
0:08:35 reader is supposed to read
0:08:36 rather than a faithful translation of
0:08:38 the arabic if that makes sense
0:08:39 the arabic has strike or hit the uh
0:08:42 the commentary at the bottom which
0:08:44 explains um
0:08:46 the mitigating factors and the limiting
0:08:48 factors is perfectly fine
0:08:50 but the translation seems to have have
0:08:56 that meaning rather than let the the
0:08:58 english faithfully
0:09:00 and literally translate the arabic and
0:09:03 i'm wondering if
0:09:03 this translation uh is done by a
0:09:05 canadian guy
0:09:07 if this um translation really is aiming
0:09:10 to
0:09:12 create a translation that's acceptable
0:09:14 to a canadian
0:09:15 western audience rather than be very
0:09:19 literal and faithful
0:09:20 to the arabic itself and um
0:09:24 and that might be seen by some as a
0:09:26 criticism um
0:09:27 because i don't really when i come to a
0:09:30 translation of the quran i want
0:09:32 to see a minimal amount of
0:09:33 interpretation and a maximum amount of
0:09:36 translation so to speak now all
0:09:38 translation is interpretation i get that
0:09:40 but sometimes the interpretation seems
0:09:42 to massively overwhelm
0:09:43 the translation but arguably
0:09:46 and that seems to be the case uh with
0:09:49 this translation so
0:09:51 i i think in the light of that i will
0:09:52 not be recommending this translation
0:09:54 um i will stick with uh this translation
0:09:58 abdel haleem which as i said before is
0:10:01 regarded very highly by
0:10:03 western academics who are aware of the
0:10:06 translation issues um and there we go
0:10:10 as i say i haven't read all the quran uh
0:10:12 in this new translation so maybe the
0:10:13 rest of it doesn't suffer from that
0:10:16 arguably suffer from that problem um so
0:10:19 uh but i think having looked at that
0:10:21 test verse
0:10:22 to see how it deals with the arabic i'm
0:10:24 i'm less inclined as i say to
0:10:27 have confidence that the rest of it will
0:10:28 be a fairly literal translation and may
0:10:31 well give me the opinions of
0:10:34 a more liberal muslim interpretation
0:10:37 instead anyway that's just my review
0:10:39 thank you