The Qur’an Beheld, beheld

The Quran Beheld, An English Translation from the Arabic, Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Visions of Reality, www.visions-of-reality.com, 2022.

The Qur’an, A Verse Translation, M . A. R. Habib & Bruce B. Lawrence, Liverwright Publishing Corporation, https://wwnorton.com/books/9780871404992, 2024.

An expert in the assessment of English translations of the Qur’an, Abdur Raheem Kidwai of Aligarh University, has remarked that “a too close, literal translation of the Qur’an is not desirable, for it defeats the very purpose of a translation which aims to facilitate one’s access to the original.”[1] Both works under review have exercised this license, in their own ways. By way of introduction, some biographical details are provided on the scholars, followed by their own explanations for embarking on this great task.

The Quran Beheld is the work of a renowned shaikh of the Shadhili order, Nuh Keller, who was born in the Pacific Northwest U.S. in 1954. He first attended a liberal arts college in Washington State, and later the University of Chicago. He was a student of the French philosopher-theologian Paul Ricoeur, who provided a grounding in close textual reading “from Hegel and later [Karl] Mannheim giving painstaking attention to key details, historical and recent attempts to place them in the context of the larger thought of each, and the implications they held for a greater understanding of Man through his language and meaning.” Nuh Keller also took university courses in classical Arabic, followed by further studies in Cairo. He  found the path to Islam in 1977.  In 1979, he graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is now settled in Amman, Jordan, where his zawiya provides guidance to those seeking sufi wisdoms. He is the author of Reliance of the Traveler, an annotated English translation of‘Umdat al-Salik, a Shafi’i legal work. HisSea without Shore, A Manual of the Sufi Path was published in 2023.

The Qur’an, A Verse Translation is co-authored. Bruce B. Lawrence (born 1941) is presently Professor of Religion Emeritus at Duke University, North Carolina. His university studies were in the history of religions, that led to a Ph.D. from Yale in 1972. He has a Master of Divinity degree from its Episcopal Divinity School. He has a specialist interest in  Indo-Persian Sufism and is proficient in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. His book, The Koran in English: A Biography (2017) has been described as a “highly informative and empathetic work”, notable for its description of surah al-Fateha, as  “the fine gold dust of all Revelations [. . .]  Collectively, the seven verses become the gateway to spiritual health, for all believers, be they Jews, Christians or Muslims.”[2] Professor Lawrence is married to Miriam Cooke, professor  of modern Arabic literature and culture at Duke University.

His partner in The Qur’an, A Verse Translation is M . A. R. Habib, professor of English at Rutgers University, New Jersey. He is of Indian Muslim (Hyderabadi) heritage, with an upbringing in England where his family had settled. He obtained a BA Honours with distinction in English/European Literature at the University of Essex in 1978. He later proceeded to Oxford for a doctorate in Literary Theory and Criticism, awarded in 1986. In 2004-2005,  a Fulbright year from Rutgers was spent at the International Islamic University, Malaysia, studying Arabic as well as teaching.  He is author of several works of literary criticism and philosophy, including those on the texts and ideas of Hegel, Bergson and T. S. Eliot. He has translated modern Urdu poetry to English, and his own works include Shades of Islam, Poems for a New Century, (published by Kube Publishing, Markfield; 2010). His wife is the Urdu poet Yasmeen Habib. In their introduction, Lawrence and Habib note that their collaboration extended over a decade, including the years of the Covid-19 pandemic when this continued online.

Like The Qur’an, A Verse Translation, The Quran Beheld is also the outcome of  prolonged effort that has benefited from collaborations. The opening pages describe how it occupied him for  fifteen years, with much reliance on the personal instruction received from Shaikh Ali Hani Yusuf, an ‘alim who has studied the Qur’anic sciences at the University of Jordan and the Rabat Tarim in Yemen. Nuh Keller was also supported  by  his wife, the Sufi scholar Umm Sahl (née Besa Kasniqi, born and raised in New Zealand), who contributed by “checking the English translation word for word and giving corrections and advice”.

In the introduction, Nuh Keller notes that the array of disciplines and skills needed for a Qur’anic translation are “unlikely to be found in a single individual endowed with an English aesthetic that might convey it, and that for one person to try is to underjudge the job.”  He explains that “the present volume’s interpretative methodology has uncovered matters of Arabic meaning in the Qur’an that no previous English translation has seriously incorporated.[ . . .] The translation also attempts to convey to the reader, through the cadence, feeling, and sound in English, something of the sheer force of the many emphatics found in virtually every verse of the Qur’an, and whose numbers – often up to six or eight in a single verse – would defy translation without a surfeit of adjectives and adverbs.”

The co-authors Habib and Lawrence also point to a unique aspect of their endeavour: “What distinguishes our translation, is that, for the first time, expertise in Arabic/Islamic studies has been brought together with expertise in English [. . .]. We have also sought help from a variety of English-language poets and scholars in our endeavour to produce a translation that not only is accessible and readable but might be considered poetic.”

Neither work is a commentary (tafsir) but there are various features other than the translated text. The Quran Beheld  has a bibliography with intellectual biographies of the nineteen classical exegetes consulted. There are also single-paragraph summaries of the main themes of each surah. The  subject index extends to 60 pages, with key entries shown in bold. The Arabic text of the Qur’an is on a page that faces the English translation.

The Qur’an, A Verse Translation includes an account of the life of the Prophet, and  at the start of each surah, a note on location of revelation and its themes. In a glossary,  the authors provide explanations for their translation of about 40 Arabic terms. There is no Arabic text of the Qur’an or a subject index, though a concluding section, ‘The Beautiful Names of God’, includes page references.

The  two works differ in their approaches to the listing of contents: in The Quran Beheld , in most cases, the surahs are named in English – for example ‘The Leagued Forces’, not ‘Al Ahzab’; in The Qur’an, A Verse Translation  the surahs are referred to by their Arabic names. Both works are easy on the eye because of attention to page layout. The pioneer in this regard was perhaps the work of Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley, The Noble Qur’an, A New Rendering of its meaning in English (1999), that had the text centred on the page, with paragraph breaks between verses (or groups of verses) to mark a shift in theme or other logical departure. The Quran Beheld  does not have such spacing, but “the present text has been typeset in the only way the translator felt it could preserve certain meanings of the original made possible by the greater flexibility of the Arabic word order.”  In The Qur’an, A Verse Translation the line breaks convey poetic effects and also the pauses and stops that occur in an Arabic tarteel recitation. The spacing is even applied at the intra-verse level.

*   *   *

The more detailed comparison that follows considers five aspects: first, an example of how Nuh Keller’s studies of classical exegetes has alerted him to nuanced renderings; second, extracts from the  Habib & Lawrence translation, that seek to capture the oral impact and poetic effect of a  Qur’anic recitation; third, a consideration of ‘ideological drift’, where the translators’ preferences lend to a certain interpretation; fourth, the focus is on Nuh Keller’s often startling imagery which conveys the balagha (rhetorical eloquence) of the Qur’anic Arabic – truly the Qur’an beheld. Fifthly and finally, there are some observations on the American idiom in both works.

1. Nuanced rendering in The Quran Beheld

In his introduction, Nuh Keller remarks, “a nuanced translation requires a feel for the nuances of the original”. Several examples are presented in the introductory essay, ‘The Once and Future Hermeneutic’ in The Quran Beheld, including one on the conjunctive adverb Thumma.

He notes that it “invariably appears in past translations as and or then, indicating the simple succession in time between what it conjoins, or the lengthiness of the disparity between their respective times.”. An example are the verses describing human embryology in Surah Al Mu’minun 23: 12-16 where there are 5 thummas in 6 consecutive verses. The extract below also indicates how the lines are centred in The Quran Beheld, and the use of spacing in A Verse Translation.

In each case Nuh Keller has distinguished between the different thummas to convey  sequence and an unfolding for the reader to reflect in awe and amazement. The translation has brought to English insights from traditional Arabic sources – in this case, Nuh Keller acknowledges the debt to the Tunisian scholar Muhammad Al-Amin Al-Khuduri, author of Min asrar huruf al-‘at fil al-Dhikr al-Hakim: al-fa’ wa Thumma (Cairo, Maktaba Wahba; 2007).  

Habib & Lawrence’s translation is easier on the ear and economic in words – but misses out the rhetorical force of the repeated thumma as in the excerpt above.

There are several other instances in The Quran Beheld of the nuances when thumma is repeated in a passage: Surah Al-Ma’ida 5:93; Surah Al-Kahf, 18:37.

Other translators have tended to the literal, like Habib & Lawrence’s “after this” (v.15)

• Pickthall: Then; Then lo!
• Abdullah Yusuf Ali: Then; After that; Again.
• Muhammad Asad: And then; And then, behold!
• Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley: Then; And then
• Abdel Haleem: then; and then
• Musharraf Hussain: Thereafter; After all that; and
• Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Then; Then indeed; Then surely

Muhammad Asad comes closest with “behold!”. However, it has been a matter of attention for scholars of the Qur’an from the Subcontinent, notably the lexicologist and grammarian Hamidudeen Farahi (died 1930) and his students, who have gone further and noted the different shades of meaning between thumma and thamma, with the latter conveying a specifity of place.[3]

II. Conveying the oral impact and poetic affects in The Qur’an, A Verse Translation

Habib and Lawrence convey the oral effect of a Qur’anic tarteel through line breaks, the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words (alliteration), and repetition of a sound in nearby words (assonance).  

They  clarify, “[Hence] our rendering of the Qur’an into English must be susceptible to performance, achieving its full effect when read aloud [. . .] A performance of the text could invest its cognitive meaning with a profound emotional charge. It is not a question of changing the meaning but of allowing it to be registered on several levels: cognitive, sensible, psychological, and spiritual. A skilful performed recitation will enable the text to affect a listener’s entire being. It will help render cognitive meaning into an overall aesthetic experience – affecting thought, emotion, senses, and spiritual sensibility.”

The first extract below is their translation of Surah Al-Shams (91, The Sun).

The striking feature is the way the translators have repeated ‘her’  eight times to echo the rhythm in the Arabic endings ‘ha’.  There is also a denouement at the end.

A second example is their rendering of Surah ash-Shahr (94, The Broadening):

The poet’s ear can be seen in the rhyming words: ‘before’, ‘bore’, ‘soar’, ’ease’, ‘cease’, ‘increase’.

Habib & Lawrence include a reflection on the famous ‘Light’ verse of Surah al-Nur 24:35 in their introduction to The Qur’an, A Verse Translation:

They note, “If we listen to recitations of this verse, we can make a number of observations. The most striking feature is its slow and steady pace, contrived not only by the slow cadence but also by significant pauses [. . .]  Reciters tend to emphasize through pitch and syllable length the Arabic words for “God,” “light,” “heavens,” and “earth.” In our translation, the corresponding words receive stress. We opted to break the first sentence into two lines so that there is a pause after “Light” (which is not in the Arabic where, however, the word for “light” is repeatedly stressed tonally by the reciter) [. . .].

Reciters enact a pause between the two instances of “lamp” and “glass,” respectively. In the English rendering, we have tried to express this parallel by placing the first instance of “lamp” on one line with an indefinite article—a line that is made to pause at its end not only by using a comma but also by mimicking the absence of the verb in Arabic—and the second occurrence on the next line with the definite article [. . .] Many reciters lengthen the word nur (“light”) in the clause “Light upon Light,” which, in a way, marks the climax of this entire passage, as its central clause. We communicate this emphasis in English by giving the expression an entire line to itself.” [4]

A further fine example of assonance is the translation in Habib & Lawrence of the closing verses of Surah Al-Fajr, 89: 27-30

Note the apt translation of “ya ayyatuhan nafsul muthmainah” – You, serene of soul.

III. ‘Ideological drift’ in Translations

Translators bring to their endeavours  personal dispositions, allegiances and life experiences. These come into play in the choice of words, the handling of rhetorical omissions or ellipses (hadhf) and even the placement of punctuation marks.

(i) The “gender”  dimension

In the two translations of Surah Al-Muminun, verse 12 presented above, there is a difference: Nuh Keller: Verily We created Man [. . .]; Habib & Lawrence: We created humankind [. . .]

In their glossary note, Habib & Lawrence explain, “to be gender inclusive, insan has been rendered as ‘humans’ (instead of singular) or  ‘humankind’.” [reviewer’s emphasis]. There are other instances where the two translations differ in this regard, with a patriarchal reading noticeable in Nuh Keller’s translation. For example, in Surah Tauba, 9:87

In Nuh Keller “the women” is an interpolation – though not made distinct through the use of parenthesis – while Habib & Lawrence remains gender inclusive.

Comparing other translations for the opening phrase of 9:87,

• Pickthall: They are content that they should be with the useless [. . .]
• Abdullah Yusuf Ali: They prefer to be with (the women) who remain behind (at home) [. . .]
• Muhammad Asad: They were well-pleased to remain with those who were left behind [. . .]
• Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley: They are pleased to be with those who stay behind [. . .]
• Seyyed Hossein Nasr: They are content to be among those who remain behind [. . .]

Hossein Nasr’s The Study Qur’an has an informative commentary note on this verse: “That they prefer to be among those who remain behind refers to their willingness to remain with the women, the children, and the sick who were not required to fight  (although some women did actually participate with the Prophet).”

* * *

Bruce & Lawrence’s preference for adopting “spouses” and ” companions” rather than a gendered assignment in the context of jannah occurs in Surah al-Baqara, 2:25

Comparing other translations for this phrase, the consensus is for gender inclusivity

• Pickthall: There for them are pure companions
• Abdullah Yusuf Ali: and they have therein companians pure (and holy)
• Muhammad Asad: And there they shall have spouses pure
• Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley: They will have there spouses of perfect purity
• Abdel Haleem: They will have pure spouses
• Musharraf Hussain: and they will have chaste spouses
• Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Therein they have spouses made pure

Habib & Lawrence are consistently gender inclusive in the translation of the phrase azwajun mutahhara, for example Surahs Ale Imran 3:15 and Al-Nisa 4:57.

* * *

There are also differences in the way  Surah Sad 38:52 is translated

Comparing other translations for this phrase, there are both gender inclusive and exclusive understandings

• Pickthall: And with them are those of modest gaze, companions
• Abdullah Yusuf Ali: And beside them there will be chaste women restraining their glances, (companions) of equal age.
• Muhammad Asad: having beside them well-matched mates of modest gaze
• Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley: and there will be dark-eyed maidens with them with eyes reserved for them alone
• Abdel Haleem: They will have well-matched [wives] with modest gaze
• Musharraf Hussain: and beside them spouses modest in their glances and of equal age
• Seyyed Hossein Nasr: And theirs shall be maidens of modest gaze, of like age

* * *

A starker example, from Surah Al-Naba 78:33, indicates very different different translations of the Arabic kuwa’ib

Leena El-Ali in her book, No Truth without Beauty: God, The Qur’an and Women’s Rights, remarks that “’Glorious and of equal age/quality’ (78:33)  – while there is nothing in this sentence that implies that its subject is feminine, it has almost always been taken to refer to women while ‘glorious’ is usually translated as ‘voluptuous’ or even ‘buxom, a rendering that is unfortunately in keeping with the narrowing and therefore sexualisation of the broad and profound descriptions of Paradise”. [5] Her concerns are supported in this comparison,

• Pickthall: And maidens for companions
• Abdullah Yusuf Ali: Companions of equal age.
• Muhammad Asad: and splendid companions well-matched
• Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley: and nubile maidens of similar age
• Abdel Haleem: nubile, well matched companions
• Musharraf Hussain: beautiful young companions of similar age
• Seyyed Hossein Nasr: buxom maidens of like age

El-Ali’s views have prompted criticism from the Qur’anic scholar Kidwai: “in her zeal to condemn the patriarchal order, El-Ali has, at places, gone too far in hoisting the notions dear to her on the Qur’anic and Hadith texts”. [6] Muhammad Asad however concurs with Leena El-Ali, and in an extensive commentary note traces the etymology of the word Kawa’ib to the gender inclusive “splendid companions.”[7]

(ii) The scope of religious authority

A verse in Surah al-Imran 3: 7 is subject to interpretation, depending on the translator’s choice of continuing a sentence or placing a full stop (marked in bold in the English text below, left hand column).

In the Nuh Keller translation, “those firmly grounded in its knowledge” are privy to the “true interpretations” of the verses that are “subtle of understanding between nuances” – the mutashabihat in the Arabic text. This is a view that makes an elite privy to matters veiled from the masses. In Habib & Lawrence, an understanding of the “allegorical”  is the prerogative of God alone.

Other translations favour Habib & Lawrence with the exception of Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s The Study Qur’an, which is aligned with Nuh Keller’s interpretation.  

• Pickthall: None knoweth its explanation save Allah. And those who are of sound instruction say [. . .]
• Abdullah Yusuf Ali: but no one knows its hidden meanings except God. And those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say [. . .]
• Muhammad Asad: but none save God knows its final meaning. Hence, those who are deeply rooted in knowledge say [. . .]
• Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley: No one knows its inner meaning but Allah. Those firmly rooted in knowledge say [. . .]
• Seyyed Hossein Nasr: And none knows its interpretation save God, and those firmly rooted in knowledge. They say [. . .]

It should be noted that the Qur’an orthography in The Quran Beheld  indicates a superscript q-l-y on illallah which  signifies a pause in recitation, and continuation is permitted,

while in mushaf  common in the Subcontinent, there is a superscript meem, which is awaqf lazim or mandatory stop,

There is more than one mode of recitation, so both views are valid, though the choice is subject to the translator’s  ‘ideological bias’.

(iii) the Prophetic mission

Another instance of ‘ideological drift’  in The Quran Beheld is in the translation of a verse in Surah Al-Ambiyya 21:73 that refers to the prophets Isaac and Jacob,

In the Nuh Keller translation there is the interpolation ‘spiritual’, absent in Habib & Lawrence.

The Arabic fi’al  al-khairath is rendered “spiritual works” by  Nuh Keller.

Other translations have not introduced the  interpolation,

• Pickthall: and We inspired in them the doing of good deeds  [. . .]
• Abdullah Yusuf Ali: and We sent them inspiration to do good deeds [. . .]
• Muhammad Asad: for We inspired them [with a will] to do good works [. . .]
• Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley: and revealed to them how to do good actions [. . .]
• Seyyed Hossein Nasr: And We revealed unto them the doing of good deeds [. . .]

Nuh Keller has  privileged the ‘spiritual’ dimension of the prophetic mission, while it need not be constrained in this way. In his Foreword to The Message of the Quran, Muhammad Asad draws attention to “the inseparability of the spiritual and physical (and, therefore, also social) spheres of human existence: the inseparability of man’s daily actions and behaviour, however ‘mundane’, from his spiritual life and destiny”.

 (iv) Interfaith sensitivities

The Nu Keller and  Habib & Lawrence translations differ over some verses that relate to  the People of the Book, Jews and Christians. For example, in Surah al-Baqara 2:54, Prophet Moses’s admonishment to his followers and the requirements for atonement are expressed in softer terms in Habib & Lawrence, compared to Nuh Keller.

In a note on this verse, Habib and Lawrence state: “Arabic fa-uqtulu anfusakum: literally, ‘“’and kill yourselves,’”’ but here with a metaphorical meaning.” The other English translations referred to in this review have, like Nuh Keller, remained literal.

A further example of translators’ differing approaches is in Surah Muhammad 47: 25-26

Nuh Keller’s interpolation singles out “those of Jewry” for opprobrium. This tone is absent in Habib & Lawrence’s translation – as  also in the other English translations referred to in this review.

IV. Nuh Keller’s balagha

Nuh Keller has invoked the translator’s licence to depart from the literal with imaginative forms of expression that mirror the balagha of the Qur’an with an English turn of phrase. There is a closeness and immediacy in descriptions of nature, perhaps in part from experiences in the northern shores of the Pacific Ocean, seeing nature “red in tooth and claw”. [8] While his main focus is on the lexical and grammatical nuances, the translation is also mindful of the oral effect of the Arabic Qur’an and seeks an equivalently impactful English sound.

(i) Evocations of the natural world

Surah Al-Nur, 24: 40 – the fathomless sea

Surah Al-Haqqa, 69: 6-7 – the shrieking wind

Surah Al-Hajj, 22:31 – the plummeting and rending

Surah Al-Muddaththir, 74: 48-51 – the startled oryx

Surah Ya Seen, 36:8-9 – disdainful camels

Surah Al-Ambiyya, 21:96 – loping wolves

Surah Ya Seen, 36:51 – loping wolves

(ii) Impactful English sound

Nuh Keller has deployed alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia to convey the impact of an oral reading, in some instances to greater effect than Habib & Lawrence.

Surah Yusuf 12: 33, alliteration

Surah Al-Zumur 39:73, assonance and onomatopoeia

In one place, Nuh Keller even finds a correlation between the Arabic ba’as (suffering) and a  like sounding English word ‘bale’ (torment) in Surah Al-An’am, 6:147

V. American idiomatic language

American English can be endearing, but in both The Quran Beheld and The Qur’an, A Verse Translation there are sometimes a choice of words that jar for readers this side of the Atlantic.

For example, in Surah Al-Dhariat 51:29, a verse describes the surprised reaction in Prophet Ibrahim’s household when informed of a forthcoming child

Both translations convey the drama, but Habib & Lawrence’s ‘hollering’ brings to mind Tom Sawyer being berated by his aunt.

Similarly, Nuh Keller’s translation of Surah Al-Muminun 23:108 requires a familiarity with  dog training

Nuh Keller has  a quaint farming reference in Surah Saad 38:15

* * *

In the preface of his The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an, Text, Translation and Commentary, published in Lahore in instalments from 1934-1937, Abdullah Yusuf Ali set himself the challenge, “I want to make English itself an Islamic language”.  The gauntlet has been taken by successive generations of Qur’an scholars, though not necessarily using an Indian Civil Service-honed ‘Queen’s English’.   The efforts of  Shaikh Nuh Keller and Professors Habib and Lawrence are certain to be landmarks in the continuing efforts to convey the sacred text.

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JS 17 February 2026. Acknowledgements due to Dr S Noyes for comments on a draft.

[1] Abdur Raheem Kidwai, The Muslim World Book Review, 13:2, 1993

[2] Abdur Raheem Kidwai, The Muslim World Book Review, 46:1, 2025

[3] Rashid Ayub Islahi (Ed.) Farahi Islahi Lughat al-Qur’an (New Delhi, Al-Balagh Publications; 2021); pp. 147-148. References for the specificity of thamma (as opposed to thumma) are Surahs Al-Shu’ara 26:64 and Al-Insan 76:19.

 [4] Habib Rafay and Bruce Lawrence provided further examples, including readings in the video https://musliminstitute.org/idea/the-quran-a-verse-translation/

[5] Leena El-Ali, No Truth without Beauty: God, the Quran and Women’s Rights (Palgrave MacMillan, London 2022); pp. 277-278.

[6] Abdur Raheem Kidwai, Muslim World Book Review,45:3, 2025.

[8] Muhammad Asad’s Surah An Naba, commentary note 16: “[. . .] As regards my rendering of kawa’ib as “splendid companions”, it is to be remembered that the term ka’b – from which the participle ka’ib is derived – has many meanings, and that one of these meanings is “prominence”, “eminence” or “glory” (Liṣān al-ʿArab); thus, the verb ka’aba, when applied to a person, signifies “he made [another person] prominent”, “glorious” or “splendid”. Based on this tropical meaning of both the verb ka’ba and the noun ka’b, the participle ka’ib has often been used, in  popular parlance, to denote “ a girl whose breasts are becoming prominent” or  “are budding”:  hence, many commentators see in it an allusion to some sort of youthful “female companions” [. . .] But quite apart from the fact that all Qur’anic allegories of the  joys of paradise invariably apply to men and women alike, this interpretation of kawa’ib overlooks the purely derivative origin of the above popular usage [. . .] and this, in my opinion is utterly unjustified [. . .].”

[7] Shaikh Nuh Keller refers to his years on fishing boats in the Bering Sea, together with an explanation of his hermeneutics in the video
https://youtu.be/MkRzJ2PBRgg?si=YQHAR-IWtTVDABa3

Translations consulted

(Muhammad Marmaduke) Pickthall, The Meaning of The Glorious Qur’an, Text and Explanatory Translation  (numerous reprints from 1930).

Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur’an: An Interpretation in English, with Arabic text in parallel columns, a running rhythmic commentary in English and full explanatory notes  (numerous reprints and editions from 1938).

Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’an, Translated and Explained (numerous reprints and editions, partial in 1964, full in 1980).

Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley, The Noble Qur’an, A New Rendering of its Meaning in English (Madinah Press, London 1999).

M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an, A New Translation (Oxford University Press, 2004):

Musharraf Hussain, The Majestic Quran, A Plain English Translation (Invitation Publishing, Nottingham 2018).

Hossein Nasr (Editor in Chief), The Study Quran, A New Translation and Commentary (Harper One, USA 2015).

JS/16 February 2026