Wishing upon a star?

 "Wishing upon a star",  "Blow the candle and make a wish",  and some latest terms for a song "talking to the moon"

As I was reading ar ra3d 13:14, the above phrases come to mind - and how fitting it is!

"To Him is the call of truth; and those upon whom they call, apart from Him, answer them nothing, but it is like a man who stretches out his hands to water that it may reach his mouth, and it reaches it not. The prayer of the unbelievers goes only astray."

Yes, people think it sounds romantic and cute(?) saying all those things without logic or with just wishful thinking.  It may sound 'beautiful', because... 

"... and satan makes their acts seem alluring to them". al an3aam 6:43  naudzubillaah.   

The problem with this modern life is that, everybody is trying to 'fit in' by following what the masses are doing - even if the idea was sparked by an ignorant one.   They do it without any reflection or thought, following blindly.  

And if we question the act, then immediately we would be deemed 'weird' or strange. 

It is narrated on the authority of Abu Huraira that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:
Islam initiated as something strange, and it would revert to its (old position) of being strange. so good tidings for the stranger. Sahih Muslim

This is a continuous fight against satan's plan to deceive people by making them believe what they do is 'beautiful'.   So let us persevere and stand our ground, don't start or stop doing nonsense. 

"O ye who believe! Persevere in patience and constancy; vie in such perseverance; strengthen each other; and fear Allah; that ye may prosper."  3:200

Feedback on The Clear Quran - a translation effort by Talal Itani

 I have a group of sisters who gets together twice a week to recite the Quran and read the translations.    Most of them have been averted from reading the English translations because the English was classic and most find it difficult to understand.   

In my aim to gently introduce and encourage them to at least have a rough idea of what Allaah SWT is saying in the Quran, I tried to find a simple English translation of the Quran - that would not scare them away.    I found on the internet, The Clear Quran, by Talal Itani.    

I read his biography (About ClearQuran - About Talal Itani) - and understood that he is not an Islamic scholar - but for many years learned the Quran through various English translations.   His objective was basically to translate the Quran into simpler English that would be accessible to more modern people.  He explained that he did not intend to do a tafsir on it or give his understanding of it - but only to translate the words and sentences to the best of his knowledge.  

I have the same thoughts and feelings about reading the various English translations of the Quran,  where some translator put more words in brackets, perhaps to ease understanding - however some of them may lead a person to restrict the understanding of the Quranic ayat in only that specific way, the translator thinks.  May Allaah reward ALL of their efforts of trying to let people understand a bit of the message of the Quran.

The Quran itself is a miracle and Allaah is The Most Subtle, very detailed.  Every fallen leaf on this earth, is in a Clear Record.   Nothing is accidental or missed out in the Quran.   If it is there or not there, there is a reason, or if the words may lead to multiple intepretations - there is a hikmah.   Allaah knows best.

So, back to the translation - one of the sisters tried to find out more about the translation and came across a feedback on Quora, which was quite strongly against this translation.  

The feedback on quora regarding this translation - he mentioned 'serious errors' and 'going against Islamic creed and aqidah', then he went on to quote - what I believe is to him, a very good example of a 'great error' - which is 'use the shrine of Abraham as a place of prayer'. 2:125

Other translators have indicated use the place where Abraham stood, as a place of prayer, or 'where Abraham stand'.

Perhaps the person giving feedback, was affected by our common usage of the word shrine - which almost always refers to a grave.   However, that is not so.   If we look up the dictionary, the word shrine simply means a place regarded as holy because of it's associations with divinity or a sacred person, marked by a building or other construction. 

Maybe his choice of word used in this instance, is scaring some people, but it's not utterly wrong.

That ayat does refer to a place where Abraham A.S. stood and we are asked to do 2 rakaat prayer after tawaf there, near the Kaabah.   

So based on only that example, so far.. i don't see him as having greatly deviated. 

Also, if we are in doubt about the translations, we can always refer back to the various translations and the arabic text or corpus, that explains the word.  As he mentioned also, this is not an exegisis or tafsir - it's just a translation from the Arabic, as is.  If we want to find out more - we can read the tafsir or ask a scholar.

AND on top of all that - as in ALL translations, we have to bear in mind, that it is not THE word of Allaah.  This is their translations, to their understandings, in their words - of what Allaah said in Arabic.  

So we always have to read any translations with a pinch of salt.

Update / Sep 2021 

We are almost half way through reading the Quran and Talal Atani's translations.    Perhaps because I have read other translations  (Asad, Yusuf Ali, Pickthall, Sahih etc), there are some areas, although the meanings may not be too off, for choice of words, but I do get the feeling of it having less weight.  A matter of personal feel.  

There is one place, where the word Jin is used in Arabic, but he chose to use the word devil, and he used the word Gehenna, to translate Jahannam (Hell), which I personally will read as Jahannam or Hell, in translation.  So far those are the two things that I'm not comfortable with. 

We are continuing with his translation, but I sometimes have the desire that we go back to using the Sahih translations.  We'll see how.

The Bani Israel - now, I see.

Why didn't I really ponder over it?  I've never thought that understanding the family tree of the prophets was really that necessary,  I've read the Quran and translations and whenever I come across the Bani Israel, I only thought they were the people that Pharoah tortured, and Moses saved.  

However, yesterday, alhamdulillaah - someone asked, who are the Bani Israel?

Only then, I started to wonder and went to look for answers.  They are the descendants of Yacob A.S.  Yacob A.S. was also known as Israel. 

Yacob A.S. the grandson of Ibrahim A.S.   Yacob A.S who had 12 sons, including Yusuf A.S - whose story appeared as a whole chapter in the Quran. Subhanallaah.  I've never once linked them.   

Now that I've understood this, more of what I've read in the Quran became clearer.

Only now, I begin to grasp and understand a little bit the enormity of Allaah's favours upon the Bani Israel.  They were blessed with many prophets to guide them and clear signs given to them.  And also the enormity of the disobedience of some of them even after all this.    

It's not like this was totally never mentioned to me before. Maybe even when I was a kid, we've probably learned it in weekend madrasah - but during those times, all of those information, were just a jumble of words and stories that I don't really remember.

The information can be all around us, even under our noses - but the knowledge will come to us, only when Allaah wills.   Alhamdulillaah, for some clarity.