Insha Allah [James 4:15]

In a unique translation of the Holy Book, 3,000 carefully chosen verses show the common ground between the Quran and the Bible

After the first English translation of the Quran was published in 1733, there have been over 200 translations in English so far. But ‘The Quran with reference to the Bible’ by Dr Safi Kaskas and Dr David Hungerford stands out for its novel way of approaching the holy text. It serves as a ‘bridge’ between the two major Abrahamic religions — Islam and Christianity.

A product of decade-long research, the new translation includes more than 3,000 parallels between the Quran and the Bible. For each verse from the Quran, a similar verse from the Bible has been given as a footnote. It opens up wide vistas of common ground between two religious texts which have been largely unexplored so far. The first-of-its-kind attempt by the authors was widely appreciated in the West and soon it was translated into Italian. A copy of the text was presented to Pope Francis I in 2016 soon after it was published in the US, and it found a place at his official reference library in the Vatican. “It’s a product of my years of interaction with various Christian denominations in the US, especially after the September 11 terror episode. It’s a tool for finding common ground between major Abrahamic religions instead of highlighting differences in the holy books,” Kaskas says in his introduction to the book. What makes the translation unique is the contribution of Dr David Hungerford, an orthopaedic doctor by profession and a Bible scholar. He is also the founder of ‘A common path alliance’, an organisation that works to build a bridge between Muslims and Christians.

Now, a Malayalam version has been published by Thrissur-based Vicharam books and translated by KC Saleem, a former bureaucrat and writer with several books to his credit. “It is a unique attempt to explore the common ground between two religions. There are over 25 Quran translations in Malayalam but none of them addresses the ‘people of the book’, a term Quran uses to describe Jews and Christians,” says Saleem. “One of the basic premises of the Quran is that it reaffirms the divinity of previous scriptures, the Torah, Psalms and Gospel and positions Quran as the logical conclusion of revelations. Christians and Muslims constitute nearly half of the Kerala population. If we explore the common ground between these scriptures it will be a major fillip to the social harmony of Kerala,” he explains. Fr Paul Thelakat, noted theologian and former spokesperson of the Syro-Malabar Church, concurs. “Safi Kaskas is making a new translation with ‘a tool of reconciliation between Muslims and the followers of other Abrahamic religions. He uses the tool for this translation which becomes a hermeneutical tool, I hope the Muslim world will accept his translation. The word Jihad was the bone of contention even in the present debate in Kerala, but I see the new translator telling us that equating Jihad with violence is untrue,” he says.

The book throws up several striking similarities such as ‘Insha Allah’ (God willing) a very common usage among Muslims in their day-to-day life. The Quran says “Never say of anything, ‘I will do that tomorrow,’ without adding ‘God willing.’”(18:23-24). The authors quote the equivalent of it from Gospel of James 4:15, “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” For Al Fatiha, the first chapter of Quran, at least six similar verses have been quoted from Psalm (25:4-6), Luke (4:8), Deuteronomy (10:14), Mathew (12:36), Deuteronomy (6:25), Deuteronomy (7:12, 13), Mathew (6:9-14). An-nas, the last chapter of Quran reads: Say: “I seek refuge with the lord of people, the king of people, the God of people, from the evil of the insidious whisperer who whispers (evil) into the hearts of people from among the jinn or people. And similar verses from the Bible read: But I will sing of your might; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been a fortress for me and a refuge in the day of my distress. (Psalm 59:16). For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. (Romans 10:12) For God is the king of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm. (Psalm 47:7) See, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too hard for me? (Jeremiah 32: 27) The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever (Timothy 4:18).

One of the major hurdles for non-Muslim readers of the Quran is the style and structure of the text. It doesn’t follow the conventional book form — it’s neither thematically written nor chronologically explained and it leaves most of its non-Muslim readers perplexed. Most translations follow a verse by verse method as they are primarily meant for Muslims. Here, instead, the text of each chapter is divided into paragraphs following the meaning and subject matter to help the reader follow the text like reading any other book without breaking its flow. Rather than a word-by-word translation, the author focuses on the meaning and message of the verses.

“There was a tradition of serious interfaith dialogue among religions in Kerala. People like late Father Dr Albert Nambiar Parambil were known across the world for his attempts to reach out to other religions. Kaskas’ book can help revive such positive traditions of mutual respect and understanding,” says VA Kabeer, an Islamic scholar and editor of Calicut-based Islamic Publishing House.