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So here's the new Saudi translation of the Qurʾān into Hebrew, published in 2018 by the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an in Medina.
I came across it last summer shortly after it was made available online, but didn't look into it much as my knowledge of Hebrew is unfortunately still nearly non-existent. But little did I know that I was sitting on a controversy waiting to happen!
Thanks to @tafsirdoctor I just learned that it's been in the news the last few days. Against the shaykh's wise advice, I decided to immediately look it up—and have found that the reports are false, as far as I can tell.
So what's the controversy? Aside from sensationalist headlines (e.g. 'Saudi accused of "Judaising" the Quran'), the reports claim that the translation has over 300 errors, and specifically that it omits the Prophet's name and al-Aqsa Mosque from the text. alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2…
Obviously, we can't look for the 300 alleged errors without being told what they are, but it took me barely a minute to check the other specific claims. Incidentally, I'm working this week on some traditions related to Q 17:1, so that was the first stop.
Here is the translation of Q 17:1 from Sūra al-Isrāʾ, where you can see it clearly does NOT omit the phrase "masjid al-aqṣā" but rather translates it and then includes a transliteration (אל-מסגיד אל-אקצא) in parentheses.
What about the four times the Prophet is mentioned by name in the Qurʾān? Well, here's Q 3:144 from Sūra Āl ʿImrān. You don't even need to know Hebrew to see that it does NOT omit the name Muḥammad (מוחמד).
Let's look at another instance, Q 48:29 from Sūra al-Fatḥ. The text clearly translates the opening of the verse: "Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah" (מוחמד השליח של אללה). N.B. the text leaves "Allāh" transliterated, rather than attempt a translation.
I can't speak to the quality of the translation as a whole, but I think that's sufficient evidence for now to dispel the specific false accusations currently circulating in the news reports and on social media.
For those of you who read Hebrew, you can take a look at it yourself. A scanned copy of the translation is available online via the Waqfeya repository, here: waqfeya.com/book.php?bid=1…
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