Two translations

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K.Venugopal

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La ilaha ilallah. This has been translated as "There is no god worthy of worship except Allah" as also "There is nothing worthy of worship but The Divine." Do members of this forum feel the second translation quoted here is a correct translation or acceptable translation?
 
To clarify my OP, I wish to add that my question is based on the following entry in Wikipedia:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

La ilaha ilallah (Arabic: لا إله إلا الله‎) is considered, along with belief in the divine mission of Muhammad, to be the key belief of Islam.

One English translation is "There is no god but God". Sometimes the Arabic word Allah remains untranslated, i.e. "There is no god but Allah". Allah is the contraction of "Al-Illah", in which "al" means "the One", and "Illah" means god. So the more realistic version would be "There is no god, but the One God." It has also been translated in other ways, e.g. "There is nothing worthy of worship but The Divine."

I was quite surprised that such a translation as "There is nothing worthy of worship but The Divine" exists. This is a translation that is more in tune with the Hindu vision of the ultimate. Therefore I wanted to know if this is a genuine translation acceptable to members of LI Islamic Forum.
 
Translations are never free of interpretation. Interpretations will correspond with the people and the time. For myself and my own personal connotations I do not see the second one as being an accurate translation/interpretation. However, other English speaking people living in different times and/or locations may have a different connotation that would make it correct for that place and time.

Fortunatly, the Arabic remains unchanged and that is the only true meaning. we will make errors in translating.

Just as an analogy, the simple word molasses, which today, for most English speaking people, is a perfectly harmless word naming a specific sweet syrup. Yet, in the 1500s using the word molasses would be considered very vulgar and border on being an obscenity. English translations need to be retranslated for different English speaking people in different places or times.
 
Woodrow said:
Translations are never free of interpretation. Interpretations will correspond with the people and the time. For myself and my own personal connotations I do not see the second one as being an accurate translation/interpretation. However, other English speaking people living in different times and/or locations may have a different connotation that would make it correct for that place and time.

Fortunatly, the Arabic remains unchanged and that is the only true meaning. we will make errors in translating.

Just as an analogy, the simple word molasses, which today, for most English speaking people, is a perfectly harmless word naming a specific sweet syrup. Yet, in the 1500s using the word molasses would be considered very vulgar and border on being an obscenity. English translations need to be retranslated for different English speaking people in different places or times.
Click to expand...

And as an aside, this is the very reason that we Christians have so many different English Bibles. I don't see why so many people get bent out of shape over this. It is just as Woodrow has explained: English translations need to be retranslated for different English speaking people in different places or times.
 
The statement is correct, along with 'Muhammadun Rasool Allah' [Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah].


Therefore what Allah's Messenger Muhammad (peace be upon him) preached will consist of the definition of the divine, not concepts which are contrary to it i.e. God and the creation being 'one', or incarnation - all these different concepts stray from the message revealed to Muhammad.

We believe Allah is above the heavens, above all His creation, and He is everywhere in His knowledge.
 
K.Venugopal why don't you ask the questions you have been sending me PM's about on here?

I am not gonna get dragged down to your level and will not reply to your PM's. I am not obliged to justify anything to you.

Peace
 

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