To:
Kazi Publishers and Distributors Chicago info@kazi.org
From:
Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
Subject:
Critique: Laleh Bakhtiar and The Sublime Quran By Zahir Ebrahim
Date:
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 12:27 AM
Dear
Kazi Publishers,
Assalaam
Alekum. Ramadan Mubarak.
I
noted that you are featuring the beautiful cover of The Sublime Quran
on the front page of your website and you are also listed as
Distributors on its copyright page. Therefore, I would like to draw
your kind attention to my detailed critique of the translation. Its
URL for online and PDF are listed below. The critique was sent to Dr.
Laleh Bakhtiar and an excerpt of the critique is reproduced below. It
was also shared with many Muslim mosque boards and Muslim
organizations with an introduction letter prefacing it which is what
I am sending you. Thank you for your time. Zahir Ebrahim. California
----------
Forwarded message ----------
From:
Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
Date:
Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 5:39 PM
Subject:
Critique: Laleh Bakhtiar and The Sublime Quran By Zahir Ebrahim
To:
Muslim mosque boards, Muslim organizations, and Muslim friends and
colleagues
AsSalaam
O Alekum.
I
have written a very detailed critique of an English translation of
the Holy Quran called The Sublime Quran using my standard
for evaluation, inter alia, Surah Al-Asr.
This
English translation is written by a very famous American Muslim woman
scholar who has translated dozens of inaccessible Eastern Muslim
scholarship into English, including from Farsi, some of which I have
greatly benefited from myself. Her name is Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar and she
is (or was) a protégé of
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor, The George Washington
University, when Nasr was teaching at Tehran University in 1964.
If
you are into reading books, or browsing books in your mosque book
store, you would be quite familiar with the name Laleh Bakhtiar. That
is what first prompted me to pick up her translation of the Holy
Qur'an in my local bookstore just a few days ago as I went to
purchase a copy to read and study during this blessed month of
Ramadan. The Preface of her translation fascinated me, so instead of
purchasing what I intended to purchase, a big print copy of Shakir's
translation which I find easiest to read in English, I purchased
her's. I brought it home and said to myself, let me see how she has
translated Surah Asr, my favorite Surah, before I spend my time
reading the rest.
And
that's when I immediately wrote her my first inquiry letter. She
graciously replied the very next day. And that has led to this 36
page critique which I wrote between the 4th of Ramadan and today, the
8th of Ramadan, August 8, 2011. I am only copying the beginning
excerpt from the letter I sent to Laleh
Bakhtiar containing my critique. If you are interested in
perceptively understanding how religion and empire politically
intersect, why we are suddenly seeing new translations of the Holy
Quran in English by people not fully equipped to undertake such a
momentous burden, why we have the "reform Islam" mantra
being taken up from Left to Right by even pious holy men and holy
women to complement no-religion friends like Pervez Hoodbhoy, Daniel
Pipes, Bernard Lewis, et. al., then you might click on the Read more
link below. You will surely not be disappointed at the heavy overdose
of intellectual vitamins it shall offer you for reflection. To
swallow or not is as always, your own choice.
Thank
you for your time, with best wishes, Zahir Ebrahim
----------
Forwarded message ----------
From:
Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
Date:
Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 4:30 PM
Subject:
Your translation of verse 103:3 عَمِلُوا
الصّٰلِحٰتِ
in
The Sublime Quran
To:
Laleh Bakhtiar laleh@bakhtiar.org
Cc:
Seyyed Hossein Nasr University Professor The George Washington
University msirat@gwu.edu
[URL
for this Letter:
http://faith-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2011/08/critique-laleh-bakhtiar-sublime-quran.html
] [ PDF
]
Kazi
Publisher's Reply
To:
Project Humanbeingsfirst.org humanbeingsfirst@gmail.com
From:
Kazi Publications info@kazi.org
Subject:
Re: Critique: Laleh Bakhtiar and The Sublime Quran By Zahir Ebrahim
Date:
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 5:20 AM
Alaykum
salam.
Ramadan
mubarak to you and your family as well.
Thank
you for your email. I will respond once I have a chance to go through
it.
Wassalam.
Liaquat
Ali
Manager
Zahir's
Response
To:
Kazi Publications info@kazi.org
From:
Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
Subject:
Re: Critique: Laleh Bakhtiar and The Sublime Quran By Zahir Ebrahim
Date:
Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 9:07 AM
To:
Kazi Publications
Dear
Mr. Liaqat Ali, Manager,
Assalaam
Alekum. Thank you for your quick reply and good wishes. Once again
same to you and your family. I look forward to: “I will
respond once I have a chance to go through it.”
By
way of this letter I would just like to take the time to advise Kazi
Publications, the distributor of Laleh Bakhtiar's The Sublime Quran,
of the fact that I returned my purchase of the same to the bookstore
(Barnes and Noble). The reason for this return is stated in the
Critique:
Laleh Bakhtiar and The Sublime Quran : “I
plan to return the 6th Edition, 2009 I purchased back to the
bookstore as a totally unsatisfactory
product.”
Below
are some comments on what I discovered browsing your excellent
website in relation to this subject.
I
found it revealing that kazi.org
has featured this translation of the Holy Quran on its front page
with glowing recommendations from reviewers none of whom appear to be
Muslim scholars of the religion of Islam. The fact that the only
named review Kazi publications could put up for this translation of
the Holy Quran, Product
ID: 3288, is by this academic: William O. Beeman,
Professor and Chair of Anthropology and specialist in Middle East
Studies at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul
Minnesota, formerly of Brown University ---- is telling. [ William
O. Beeman's own description of his erudite
qualifications to judge an English translation of the Holy Qur'an is
revealing: “I am a specialist in Middle East Studies,
Japanese Studies, Central Asian Studies, linguistics, performance
studies, and I am also a professional opera singer.” ]
I
am actually not surprised that no well known Muslim scholar of the
religion of Islam in the West or the East could be found to write a
positive review good enough to sell this book by its own distributor.
In
fact, the omission of any endorsement from the most famous person
that Laleh Bakhtiar cites and credits for getting her started on the
path to Islam back in Tehran in 1964, S. H. Nasr, speaks volumes.
She
draws association to this most prominent and respected scholar of
Islam continually, including in the Preface “Seyyed Hossein
Nasr for his spiritual presence in the life of this translator”.
His name is even mentioned in the very second sentence of her
wikipedia entry: “Born to an American mother and Iranian
father in New York, Bakhtiar grew up in Los Angeles and Washington,
D.C., as a Catholic. At the age of 24, moved to Iran with her Iranian
husband, an architect, and their three children, where she began to
study Islam under her teacher and mentor, Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr at
Tehran University, studying Quranic Arabic, eventually converting in
1964.”
Having
such a distinguished scholar as “teacher and mentor”
surely must be Allah's great blessing. One should feel honored to
mention their teacher. But the innocent public name dropping also
sets public expectations. And we see that even though the same
"teacher and mentor" who is Alhamdolillah still living,
teaching, mentoring, as University Professor at The George
Washington University (
http://www.gwu.edu/~religion/faculty/index.cfm#nasr
), does not seem to have his review posted on kazi.org. A pretty
strong indictment I should say, if silence itself is permitted to
speak.
There
are at least 41 English Translations of the Holy Quran which I can
list, not counting all the new ones being introduced in America to
“bring reform to Islam”.
That is Laleh Bakhtiar's own quote from her interview with Salem
News. Some of these translations are quite inimical to
Islam, like Sale's – I am sure he also wanted to “bring
reform to Islam”. And some just incredible
enduring works of service to all mankind, like Shakir's and Yusuf
Ali's. No Muslim ever reads Sale's translation to inform themselves
of what's in the Arabic Holy Qur'an, for if they have any knowledge
of imperialism, they well understand its “orientalism”. I
should say that Laleh Bakhtiar's translation reeks of “occidentosis”.
If
that new English word sounds unfamiliar, one can gain familiarity
with it by reading the book: “Occidentosis – A Plague
From The West By JALAL AL-I AHMAD” [ PDF
], Translated by R Campbell, Introduction by Hamid Algar, written
1961 in Iran and banned until published after the Iranian Revolution.
Mizan Press 1984. Evidently, a majority of Iranians in Iran have
inoculated themselves well against this
infestation of the mind which once plagued their entire society
before the Iranian Revolution. Today, its few mutated strains sadly
still continue to infect many of Iranian heritage living in Diaspora.
The
very first introductory statement for The Sublime Quran, Product
ID: 4607, carried on the very front page of kazi.org
reads : “Laleh Bakhtiar This is the first edition of the
Quran translated by an American woman. This modern, inclusive
translation refutes past translations that have been used to justify
violence against women.” I am not sure who has the capacity
to evaluate reviewer comments at Kazi.org, no name is mentioned under
that review, but it is an ignorant lede statement. The Critique:
Laleh Bakhtiar and The Sublime Quran goes into the
specifics of why it is ignorant. And my new article: Hijacking
the word 'Islam' for Mantra Creation situates that
calculated ignorance in the global context in which the war on terror
is being fought, Muslims maligned, and Islamophobia spread, precisely
to demand “bring reform to Islam”.
With
continued best wishes for this blessed month of Ramadan,
Zahir
Ebrahim
Project
Humanbeingsfirst.org
California
Zahir's
Followup Letter
To:
Kazi Publications info@kazi.org
From:
Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
Subject:
Re: Critique: Laleh Bakhtiar and The Sublime Quran By Zahir Ebrahim
Date:
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 1:19 AM
Dear
Kazi Publishers, Mr. Liaqat Ali,
Assalaam
Alekum. Eid Mubarak,
This
is regarding your featuring The Sublime Quran as a bookseller and
distributor. I just wanted to let you know that I sent multiple
letters to various Muslim scholars to review Laleh Bakhtiar's The
Sublime Quran. It is unsurprising that none have responded thus far.
You may find these letters here:
My
previous letter to you concerning the absence of Muslim Qur'anic
scholar reviewers on your own website is here:
Just
for completeness, my two cents worth of critique is here:
And
the political science which contains both Laleh Bakhtiar's
translation of the Holy Qur'an, as well as her gratuitous mantra of
“bring reform to Islam”
in synchronicity with the rise of
Islamophobia and neo-cons calls for "moderate Islam", is
here:
The
latest two reports on the rise of Islamophobia in America, from CAIR,
and from Americanprogress, both play in the same cesspool of
political science and this can be gleaned respectively in the
following two letters to them:
And
like yours, their only response to challenge is silence. Islam is big
business in America and salesmen and scholars alike peddle in its
wares.
This
is my last self-initiated correspondence to
you. If you have any questions, please feel free to write.
Best
wishes,
Zahir
Ebrahim
Project
Humanbeingsfirst.org
Source URL:
http://faith-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2011/08/warn-laleh-bakhtiar-translation-quran.html
Print URL:
http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2011/08/warn-laleh-bakhtiar-translation-quran.html
Link
fix November 11, 2016
Letter to the Distributor of
Laleh Bakhtiar's Translation of the Holy Qur'an By Zahir Ebrahim