Celebrations In Islaam

Translating and Referencing Qur'aan and Hadeeth
Previous Table of Contents Next

The Qur'aan contains Allaah's exact words. These words cannot be exactly translated into other languages because of possible misinterpretations and limited human understanding. It is best to translate the meanings as understood by the Muslim scholars. This is what is attempted here. When an Aayah1 is cited, the Arabic text is quoted first, followed,
in text that looks like this
, by the English meaning in boldface. The meaning is extracted from books of tafseer (Qur'aanic commentaries and interpretations) and from accessible translations.
The location of a Qur'aanic citation is specified in a footnote. It provides the name of the soorah (Qur'aanic chapter) followed by its number and the number(s) of the aayah(s) cited.
In general, the Arabic text of a cited hadeeth is not provided. This is based on a general agreement among the `ulamaa' permitting relating the hadeeth by meaning. The meaning of a hadeeth is included, in text that looks like this.
A footnote normally specifies the location of a cited hadeeth in the hadeeth compilations. The footnote indicates as well its degree of authenticity and the names of scholars who made such judgement. If a hadeeth is narrated by Al-Bukhaaree or Muslim, its authenticity is taken for granted.
  1. aayah: A Qur'aanic phrase approximately equal to one sentence, but sometimes longer or shorter than a full sentence. Its plural is ayaat. - Back to text 
Previous Table of Contents Next