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Introduction / About the translation Testimony of the Holy Quran is an English translation of the Urdu book Shahadat al-Qur'an by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (d. 1908), the greatest in the line of illustrious Muslim religious reformers who appeared in the history of Islam. This profound thinker, prolific author and inspired saint, produced a vast number of literary works dealing with the deepest and most fundamental questions concerning religion in general and Islam in particular. Besides such topics, Hazrat Mirza has also explained in his writings the nature of his own mission and the position he claimed to hold in Islam. Shahadat al-Qur'an is a book of this latter class. To understand the subject matter of the book, some background knowledge is necessary. To fulfil this need, an Introductory Note is provided. Readers will benefit from a perusal of that note before commencing a study of the main book itself. In Shahadat al-Qur'an Hazrat Mirza deals mainly with the issues of whether the Hadith reports prophesying the coming of the Messiah among the Muslims are trustworthy, and whether the Holy Quran contains any indications of such a prophecy and expectation for the Muslim people. We strongly feel that this discussion will be of much interest and advantage to the increasing number of Muslims now turning directly to the Quran as the final and binding authority over all the other sources of Islam. About the translation The writings of Hazrat Mirza are great classic works, in religious, historical and literary terms, and therefore I have tried to make the translation as close and faithful as possible to the original text, subject only to the requirements of modern English idiom. Another reason for close adherence to the original words is the unfortunate controversy and misrepresentation surrounding some of his statements. It is tragic that distortions and misquotations should have blurred the real message of this great Muslim Reformer. Within these limits, I have tried to make the English rendering as simple and readable as possible. The original Urdu book carries two appendices which are in the nature of public announcements by the author. Not being relevant to the subject of the book itself, they have not been included in this translation. In a few cases where extra words were required to make the translation clear, these are given within round brackets, thus: (...). Where it was found necessary to show the original term used by the author, it is placed within square brackets after its English translation, thus: [...]. All the main headings and the sub-headings have been inserted by the translator for ease of study, there being none in the original work. At certain points in the book, it was felt that most readers would require extra information in order to understand the text properly. To meet this need, I have provided explanatory notes, marked as links, as follows for example: {Note 1}. These occur at the end of each file. The author's own footnotes again are marked as links, thus: {See author's footnote}, again occurring at the end of each file. When the author quotes a passage from the Quran in Arabic, usually he explains the meaning in Urdu, while sometimes he merely gives the Arabic quotation. The convention adopted in this translation is that in the former case we reproduce the quotation in Arabic and then give the translation of his Urdu explanation. Occasionally, for clarity, we have inserted the literal translation of the Arabic text as well, within parentheses under the Arabic text. Where he merely quotes the Quran in Arabic without explanation, we replace the Arabic by a suitable translation. For every Quranic quotation, we have added within parentheses the reference according to modern usage, viz., the chapter number, followed by a colon and then the verse numbers. Zahid Aziz (Dr.) |
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