Translations, justice and identity

Most translations of the Quran that one can commonly find on websites like quran.com or mobile phone apps are translated by men. As all knowledge production is situated - in other words, the creation of knowledge is always influenced by the specific context in which it occurs - it raises an important question of the identity of the translator and the biases of this identity seeping into the translations, i.e. how does a translator's identity shape their worldview, and how they shape this worldview through their translations. 

For this essay, I define the concept of identity as anything that describes someone's sociocultural, political, and economic background, including gender which is constructed between these ranges.

Popular Quran translations

My favorite translation at the moment is the one produced by Mustafa Khattab titled The Clear Quran. As the name suggests, this translator is male-gendered. His translation is now gaining huge popularity.

I will compare Khattab's translation to the most commonly used English translation of the Quran at the moment which is known as Saheeh International and is written by 3 American women. It is not my favorite translation by a stretch as I believe one can find more patriarchal worldviews in this translation made by three women compared to the one done by Khattab. A simple example of this is how the word الناس is translated. Let's take Q 40:57 as an example:

لَخَلْقُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ خَلْقِ ٱلنَّاسِ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ ٱلنَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ

Saheeh International translation uses the word "mankind" to translate this word: 

The creation of the heavens and earth is greater than the creation of mankind, but most of the people do not know.

While Mustafa Khattab translates it using the word "humankind": 

The creation of the heavens and the earth is certainly greater than the re-creation of humankind, but most people do not know.

The use of the words humankind and mankind is significant here. Mankind assumes that humans are defined by men, the patriarchal definition in question, and humankind does not. If this example sounds too plain and inoffensive, thinking about the origin of words like "whitelist/blacklist" (white being a good category and black the bad), or "master/slave" (very common in engineering) might help to understand that words have historical backgrounds. This means that translating an Arabic gender-neutral word like الناس to mankind or humankind reflects some of the biases of the translator about their patriarchal views of the world.

The examples of translations I used here and the identity of the authors of these translations reinforce the fact that identities are non-simple constructions and cannot be reduced to just the gender of the translator in question but also greater sociopolitical realities. In the case of the Saheeh International translation, is a Saudi-government-sponsored translation and one pushed heavily by the Saudi authorities for standardization in the worldwide Islamic community, it is not to be ignored the clear political interest for the country to dominate the image of the religion.

Justice in Islam and praxis

One cannot change their identity in many aspects, but understanding the identity, acting from it, and producing knowledge with it in mind is essential. This is what Muslim scholars like Farid Esack, Kecia Ali, Amina Wadud, and more bring to their Quran analysis.

I'll take the concept of justice in Islam as an example. One of the biggest motifs of the Quran is the concept of Allah being just and despising anyone who acts unjustly. The concept of justice is repeated many time in the Quran (see Q 4:135, Q 4:29, Q 4:58, Q 16:90, Q 49:9 and more). Allah also describes Themselves as being just (see Q 3:18, Q 6:115). 

Farid Esack, a South African scholar who has been involved in apartheid abolishment activism, calls the method of operating from one's identity the praxis. His theory, in essence, claims that what one does is more important than that what one believes in. This is to say that actions define a person more than their beliefs. Again, actions precede beliefs. 

So if one of the main messages of the Quran is justice, then actively helping people who live in injustice makes one better prepared to interpret the Quran's message concerning justice. In contrast, not participating actively in works of liberation from oppression makes one less prepared to understand the depth of the message of the Quran.

As the praxis (identity and action) are pre-requisites of better interpretations of the message of the Quran, it is important to recognize and give voice to one's identity in matters of religious beliefs and push beyond interpretations (and translations in this matter) of Quran and Islam done by people who are not participating in certain praxis of liberation.

Concepts > Identities

Still, I think the core concepts of Islam found in the Quran can be seen beyond the biases of translations and interpretations. I'll explain my point using again the idea of justice.

Firstly, It’s important to acknowledge that the ethics of justice are not static and evolve. Naturally, interpretations of justice will always need to be revisited and changed depending on the time and context. For example, we are currently living in an era where slavery is abolished and so the same ethics of slavery from 1400 years are not to be applied in modern society.

The reason why I search for different interpretations of the Quran and Hadiths is because the message of justice is so fundamental to the Quran (and in my praxis) that I put in great contention any interpretations that I believe might be unjust towards a specific group of people, or me. In other words, if Islam is about purest form of justice, unjust interpretations need to be revisited. This is a clear example of how the concept of justice in Islam is stronger and more fundamental than any identity of a translator or exegete when they interpret some aspects of Islam. Using my previous example. the concept of justice in the Quran and my current praxis of justice makes me see clearly that translating a non-gendered word like الناس to mankind is wrong, and transcends the biases of other interpreters. Concepts > Identities. 

Another example of concepts prevailing over existing interpretations is modern Muslim women marrying non-muslim men. In Muslim tradition, there is still in many places a prevalent opinion that it is not ethical for women to marry non-Muslim men, but men can marry non-Muslim women who are people of the book. This might seem to be unfair towards women, and although many Muslim scholars have claimed this is not a correct interpretation, it is enforced by law in some Muslim-majority countries. Still, one will find a lot of Muslim women in these countries marrying non-Muslim men in practice. Many of these women don’t have the academic privilege or knowledge to find different interpretations that suit their condition, but they still feel that it is unfair and unjust to not be able to marry a person they love. So the solution for them, when they lack religious support on the topic, ends up being something quite paradoxical from a faith perspective: they reject the part of the religion that does not allow them to marry non-Muslim men and stand with everything else. That is, they believe in everything except a single interpretation, instead of abandoning the religion altogether which is an extremely interesting approach and shows the relevance of the Islamic practice to these people. My interpretation is that this course of action occurs because the concept of justice is so clear in the Quran that they believe it is unjust and unfair that their love is not considered ethical by the dominant interpretation. Unfair and unjust are not descriptions of God. So "it must be a wrong interpretation or I might be wrong". In the case it's the latter, there's a faith trust that they will be forgiven (Q 39:53). This example is just used to demonstrate again how important it is to understand the concepts of Islam and show how these concepts have helped Muslims for 1400 years to push the interpretations and translations beyond dominant positions and even disobey them in faith.

All in all, I believe that understanding Islamic core concepts matters more than worrying over the translation of the Quran. The Quran in a way speaks of itself regardless of the translation, the Islamic core concepts are delineated and repeated all over the text.

والله أعلم