Laleh Bakhtiar on the Misinterpretation of
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ม.ค. 2011
- This is an interview with Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar on the reasons why Chapter 4 Verse 34 in the Quran has been misinterpreted for over 1400 years. She is the first woman to do a critical translation of the Quran. Her translation is entitled The Sublime Quran, available from Kazi Publications, Chicago. Video by Abnoos Productions
Why would you blame God the Most High? His words are clear. It is men who have chosen to misinterpret them. The blessed Prophet understood the word as God had intended. Some men have chosen to ignore following the sunnah of the Prophet. They prefer following the sunna of the grammarians. God forbid that the men who beat their wives should understand Arabic better than the blessed Prophet.
You are extremely right
Unfortunately you have been misinformed. I studied classical Arabic at the PhD level and then with a private Egyptian teacher for many years. Islamic studies is not a requirement to be able to translate the Quran. None of the popular translators of Urdu, Persian, Turkish or English had been students of Islamic studies including Yusuf Ali, Marmaduke Pickthall, Muhammad Asad, etc.
subhanallah!!!! this lady deserves all the respect in this world, mashallah, may dear god give her all the blessings in this life and here after. Amen :)
Ms Bakhtiar, I have so much respect for you. As a passionate Muslim I have always believed the Quran is perfect and my beloved Prophet pbuh the finest example, and I refused to believe that either Allah would say such things or the Prophet pbuh would say such contradictory to Quran things. And I have always believed in this translation, and I thank you for dedicating your life to studying the Quran and arabic to be able to provide this official translation for us. Inshallah Muslim women around the world will have access to these corrected verses and can stand up for themselves. Allah loves not the oppressors and thank you for being brave enough as a Muslim female to stand up against them in truth and justice.
According to Quran Muhammed is not the finest example. God ordered Muhammed to say that he is not different from ANY OTHER MESSENGER.
Read QUran before you make claims like this.
Say (O Muhammad), "I am not different from other messengers. I have no idea what will happen to me or to you. I only follow what is revealed to me. I am no more than a profound warner” Surah 46 ayat 9
According to the Quran true muslims should not make any distinction between the messengers
The messenger believes in what was sent down to him from his Lord. And the believers, all who believe in God, and His angels, and His Scriptures, and His messengers: "WE DO NOT MAKE ANY DISTINCTION between any of His messengers"; and they said: "We hear and obey, forgive us O Lord, and to you is our destiny." Surah 2 ayat 285
You are a magnanimous example of ignorance.
watch debate (the quran and the Bible in light of science) between dr Zakir Naik and dr. William Campbell
@@babansif brother, It doesn't mean that Prophet Muhammed is not the finest example, Prophet teach us to respect other messengers as well..
There is no cause to be rude. As two Muslims we should be able to have a polite conversation the way that the blessed Prophet taught us. First of all, whether you say: go away from them in Urdu or Persian, the verb remains transitive. It is only in English that you have to add a preposition. Secondly, it is a command in the Quran. You degrade the blessed Prophet if you say that he did not carry out God's command. But when you realize that he did carry out God's command
Okay but why did every companion and early scholar say it referred to non violent, physical contact
but his wives did not be disobedient so that he would have to carry stage 1, stage 2, and then stage 3 progressively as the command says? I don't understand this argument..
Agree sister, the word has other meanings but wahabi sect used the extreme ones
He actually had instances I believe of his wives making him angry and being disobedient but he never once layed a finger on them. Instead he separated @@Warboss777
May she rest in peace and glory and may Allah have mercy on her
because he understood the word to mean go away from them which he did. He went away from his wives when there was domestic unrest. He did not beat Hazrat Aisha, God forbid, in the incident that happened, but waited for a Quranic verse to come, a verse that did come and declared her innocence. The Quran even admonishes the believers for why they even thought such a thing about someone. This shows that God would not have sanctioned domestic violence and wife beating.
Thank you for your comments. I guess we have to agree to disagree. When I find an issue clarified in the Quran, I do not go to the hadith. On this particular issue, there are hadith going both ways so the hadith do not bring clarity to the issue whereas I believe the Quran does so there is no need to go to the hadith. May God continue to bless your journey. Peace.
Thank you for your message. However, it seems that you have forgotten the many stories of the various difficulties the Prophet had with his wives. One story is about the honey. He did not beat them but went away from them for a time so they would know how serious the situation was.
The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him did not have to carry out this commandment because his wives were never disobedient to him. This Command is for disobedient wives.
May Allah accept her in His presence. Bless her with Jannatul Firdous.
Ameen
Our so called Kat Mullahs & Sheikhs need to learn from this Great Woman . We are proud of you Sister ! You are indeed a true Scholar of Islam because you are intelligent & honest.
Thank you for your comments. The translation is called The Sublime Quran and you find it at either the Kazi Publications website or amazon.com
Thank you so much for your work!! It has been so helpful to me as someone born into a Muslim family who holds these beliefs but is also from a non-Arabic speaking country and so finds it hard to defend such beliefs. May Allah give you much baraka; you have no idea how much help you are to me!! :)
I’m glad your alive my sister to share this knowledge thank you so much may Allah bless you for all your hard work
Thank you for your efforts. I am inspired by your work and talk.
Edward Grabczewski your brain wash
Edward Grabczewski people who don't want to understand will dismiss anything and would prefer to keep hate within their hearts.
Don't get embroiled in their stupidity. This lady speaks a lot of truth.
Subhanallah. Thanks Dr. Bakhtiar for finding and publishing these. I am reading a translation (Yusuf Ali) of the Quran and came across this verse in Surah Al-Nisa and didn't know what to make of it. I think the beauty and perhaps part of the reason the Quran was revealed in Arabic was for this purpose. That the same word may have different meanings and each makes sense. We are to use our own reasoning, as the Quran also says, to find the best interpretation, while leaving the Arabic untouched.
the reason the Quran is in Arabic because Mohammad spoke only Arabic, period.
Thank you. May God continue to bless your efforts.
Thank you. May God continue to bless your journey.
Laleh Bakhtiar, you are remarkable! Thank you for spreading the truth! Peace and blessings to you! Allahu Akbar!!!
Thank you! May God continue to bless your journey.
MaShaAllah Laleh Bakhtiar very happy it was time someone translated the Quran Verses into its proper meanings and context and taking into account Prophetic traditions, I agree if Prophet didn't beat his wifes ever why should any other man has the right to do such vile and disrespectful action and hope this wife bettering will stop which I have witnessed a lot in my life. may Allah reward you for your excellent works.
in addition, 2:231 says that a husband who is going to divorce his wife cannot harm her. So then if you say daraba means “beat”, a Muslim wife who is being divorced cannot be harmed, but a Muslim wife who wants to remain married does so under the threat of being beaten. This will not promote marriage and discourage divorce from the victim's point of view. This is not the fairest interpretation of the Quran.
You are correct madam. " Prophet Muhammad pbuh sent as mercy to whole universe " . Islam encompasses time, race, nationality and everything we human created. Quran is word of Allah the most high, the ever living.
Thank you for your comment! I compeletly agree.
Dr. Laleh, Many thanks for all your painstaking efforts and patience to render this great holy book- The Quran.
The criticism you received is part of the success your achieved. Please keep up you awesome passion and spirit and dedication to this religion. Btw, I have just ordered 3 of your translation books of Al Ghazali. I will keep you informed of my opinion once i finished reading the books.
May Allah Bless you for enlightening us with very good points.
Many translator now translated it as ‘go away’ or ‘separate’. Considering the context & spirit of the Quran as well as the example of our Prophet (pbuh) it can’t be ‘beat’. Thanks.
Which translation? Because all the translations support the translation of 'beat.'
Thank you. May He continue to bless you as well.
I adhere to Sunni interpretation of Islam, but i will say upon coming into Islam i spent some time in jail. They had a limited amount of qurans, and i prayed an pleaded to the point i became manic, lo an behold Allah Azzawajal blessed me with the only two copies of the sublime Quran in the whole jail. You hold a very special place in my heart Mrs. Bakhtiar. An May Allah bring you blessings.
As of late i have noticed the sunni world waking up to this issue, but they give no credit to you, i always be sure to inform them that all credit should go to you an any other person is stealing your work
That is why knowledge and learning is so important
Alhamdulillah I finally found something about the verse now which makes sense .
That is why Prophet (pbuh) said that the scholars might make misinterpret the Quran
..thank you ma'am for letting us know!!
ﷺ
This is a fascinating argument Dr. Bakhtiar. Thank you for your contribution.
Dear Sister, the same translation has been done by Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr. Muhammad Tahir=ul-Qadri in his Irfan al-Quran translation:
"But those women whom you fear will disobey and defy, admonish them; and (if they do not amend) separate them (from yourselves) in beds; and (if they still do not improve) turn away from them, striking a temporary parting. Then if they become cooperative with you, do not seek any way against them. Surely, Allah is Most High, Most Great."
Thank you. God bless.
@lalehbakhtiar Dear Laleh khanum, I am so happy to hear from you! Kheli mamnun for you video's! I recently had a discussion with a person who has a negative vieuw on islam, due to vers 4:34 and I didn't have a answer, now I do!!! :D I would like to ask you something concerning verse 2:230. It speaks of a divorce for the 3th time, does the honorable way of divorce also aplly for the first 2 times?
The correct meaning for dharaba has always been "split". Which I can understand why so many understood split as a synonym for beat, as in to split a rock, or split something apart. Rather than, split meaning seperate. Split makes more sense.
Thank you so much for this!
Is there a link to download this copy as a Pdf file??
The Prophet had no trouble understanding what the word meant. He understood it to mean “go away” and let the emotions subside. In addition, God uses three other words in the Quran to mean strike or hit. Why didn't He use one of them in this verse? If you want to read the arguments I present as to why the word means “go away” you can go to the kazi.org website and get a free copy of the Introduction to the Sublime Quran emailed to you.
Miss Bakhtiar: Who is the verse 4:34 addressing? is it addressing the Man inside a marital relationship or is it addressing people outside this relationship?
Hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Nice video.. I got familiarised to you via your book on Sufi Enneagram..
Please make more such videos.. as it seems our younger generations have started reading less books and watching more youtube videos.. Hopefully the same good points of the book end up to them thru videos here..
Also an advise from my own experience..
DISABLE Comments on your videos..
You will only get bombarded by trolls and mischief makers with no brains at all..
Sincere feedbacks should only be given to you thru personal correspondence or email.
Not video comments.
Thank you so much for this video! It brings me a lot of relief that is means "leave them" - please can you explain why God didn't make this clearer ?! so many people think it means to hit and that is very disheartening
When are you going to translate اضرِبوهنَّ
Does it mean strike BEAT? It means forth
I'm not sure what you mean.
In the video, I was waiting for the time
when you were going to translate اضرِبوهنَّ.
The time never came and now you're telling
me you don't even know what I mean. Wow.
Sunnism EXPOSED: The Hidden Sect ..Lol! Watch the video.. wake up! lol..
amazing - thank you sister
Interesting! We both agree: I said: WHEN THE CONTEXT ALLOWS.
Peace be with you.
I like your point about inclusive/exclusive, excess baggage. Nice analogy, and explanation!
Actually the verse is being interpretated correctly now. A traditional and important scholar called Dr Tahir Al Qadri has translated the verse as leave as well.
Thank you for letting us know this.
Laleh Bakhtiar no problem. He's a very deal and it's a very big deal for him to say this. His translation is called the glorious quran.
khaileh mutashakor am khanom Laleh,
Very nice and understandable explanation of the verse. I totally agree with you that the translators mistranslated some English version of the Holy Quran and I totally appreciate your effort on this important subject. Would you please let me know where to find the new translation ,and under what name I can search? Merci
Thank you MrTurk0001. Laleh
Salaam, I came across this video when I found your name on wikipedia under "muslim female scholars". I'm really happy to see women teaching Islam! I'd love to see more lectures from you.
Have you translated the whole of Ghazali's Alchemy of Happiness?
Thanks. Do you recommend it? Is it accurate?
at 9:50, you said that the prophet pbuh understood the meaning and that is "what he did" without wondering any other semantic meanings that could be derived.
what is the historical/seerah proof that he did "what he did"? i'm not getting the point. thanks in advance
I will have to buy your translation as well. :)
Amazing! I wish they would address the arguments you have put forth. Salam!!!
Thank you ❤
@lalehbakhtiar I now see the reply button. Thanks.
Beating means beating, no excuses.
It has 26 different meanings if u look at the theasarus of the verse
I love ur work
The verse does not refer to adultery. It just says: accuse the ones who are . . . In addition, you do not seem to be familiar with verse 24:60: And women who are past child-bearing, those who hope not for marriage, there is no blame on them if they lay down their garments, not as ones who flaunt themselves and their adornment, and that they have restraint is better for them. I am a grandmother! You will be responsible on the Day of Judgment for slandering a believer.
GOD bless your soul and give you a beautiful garden in the next life
🙏
Rest in peace Dr Bakhtiar. You were a gift to the world.
Don't you think that the same people are being addressed in 4:34 and 4:35? notice the و in the beginning of 4:35.
it is mono and not stereo, make sure you have both speaker/headphones tested
I was sent this email by floyde91: ok so if Allah wanted us to understand it as " separate from them" or "divorce them" why did He choose a word which lead to so much misinterpretation instead of using a word that everyone would have properly understood ? and replied to it below.
Sorry if it appeared as so. I did not intend to be rude. In regards to the sunnah, I have heard hadith involving the prophets explanation of what "dharb" meant but being that neither of us are qualified islamic studies experts it'd be hard to bring forth evidence without extensive research.
if 4:34 is addressing the husband then who is 4:35 addressing?
I can't hear anything :(
i love u
you are truly a real muslim
and separate is the right translation
Excellent program
I wonder what God will do to someone who insults a Muslim. May He guide you to the sunnah of the blessed Prophet.
It surprises me that at least the Ahmadiyya or the Submitters have not yet adopted your findings in their translations, they should. It reminds me of the discovery some years ago that the Sphinx in Gizah is at least twice as old than previously assumed, yet all the textbooks used for the "scholars" examinations still repeat the old dating. (cont)
@airpickone
I guess you are not familiar with the Quran. Chapter 24 verses 23-24, to be specific say: Truly, those who accuse the ones who are free, unwary, chaste female believers are cursed in the present and the world to come and for them will be a serious punishment on a Day when their tongues and their hands and their feet bear witness against them as to what they had been doing.
Dear Dr.Bakhtiar,
Salam
I have just come across your inculsive approach and i share the same point view as yours . Thanks for explaining that to none Arabic speakers . Though , Arabic speakers also need "Tafssir " to understand the Quran as well .
I don't do to the hadith. The Quran is enough for me and the Sira of the Prophet. The word daraba has 26 meanings in the Form 1. One of the meanings is: go away.
Hello, can you please tell me the 26 meanings of daraba?
Thank you so much. I always felt uncomfortable reading the translation of this aya. It never made sense as prophet always encouraged kindness.
have you read the passage talking about how infidels have a blaze waiting for them? but if they convert its ok. because allah is merciful?
+Firestarthe God could be merciful. That's the point.
Exactly!
I completely agree with you Laleh
Thank you mam
Ms bakhtiar I downloaded your translation of the Quran from archive.org ,are you okay with it ?
Thank you Bilal for letting me know. I did not authorize achieve.org to put the translation on their website, but it says that it is for the blind. Inshallah it will help them be able to have it read. My only concern is that it may not be the latest edition. At any rate, after you have time to read it, please let me know your comments.
Laleh Bakhtiar thank you for replying ma'am, actually I have made the decision to buy it,once bought and read I will share my thoughts p.s it wasn't the Quran that was available to download but it was the "concordance of the sublime Quran" apologies for the misunderstanding,again thank you for the reply and God bless you ma'am.
@lalehbakhtiar Because I read something about woman having to wait, and men having a degree over them (woman)? Thank you for your time and your wisdom!
Rijal does not mean 'man' in the Quranic lexicon, nor does Nisa mean 'woman'. Rijal is the person who is upright and has the ability to lead. Thus Nisa follows the leader and is dependent on the leader. Thus Rijal could be men or women and Nisa could be men or women, depending on the social and circumstantial situation. Allah is not gender biased, and here He did not talk about men or women, but leader and dependent. It would be impossible to understand the Quran without understanding the Quranic lexicon. Allah not only preserved the pure written Quran, but also He attached and preserved the Quranic lexicon inside the Quranic stories and parables with its preservation. Thus with all the examples of the use of the word will reveal the lexicon of each word from the context, where none of the application of these words contradict with each other. When we try to translate the Quranic words according to the Qurayshi lexicon, we will find literally over 2500 contradictions inside the Quran. Thus Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar was going in the right direction and she had noticed the contractions, only she did not know that the pure written Quran had its own lexicon, and she needed to apply the Quranic lexicon to understand the Quran, how Rasullullah understood it in his time. That's why she got stuck. I wish she was alive today to know that the pure written Quran has no contraction when you apply Allah's chosen Quranic lexicon with the Quran. With the title Al-Rijal are those who show leadership qualities inside the house or outside in the world arena and with the title An-Nisa are those who follow their leader at home and the world arena. Naturally the world always will have the leader and followers relationship, thus these rules will be applicable to resolve those relationships. And of course you have to apply proper meaning to become a successful leader or follower to stay in harmony. Hope it helps.
chapter 4 verse 34 ...if there are 34 different translations / meanings to the Islamic word then we are left with a personal choice as to which one we wish to employ. Hardly the clarity of meaning you'd expect from a divinely inspired book meant to convey an unambiguous message. But you need only look to the clumsy expedient of the principal of abrogation to understand the real origins of the Quran.
may ALLAH bless you with jannah. I always thought, ALLAH is most just. how could it be? now I know, ALLAHs word is perfect but our human interpretation will obviously hold flaws.. and that too, all men have translated the quran and made us believe that their interpretation is the best.
Dr. Bakhtiar, you raise some good points, but I must take exception to your argument that the Prophet must not have followed the Quranic instruction if it indeed meant beating (even lightly) in the physical sense. Logically speaking, since the instruction is conditional, that means that certain behavior first has to emanate from the wife. Of course, his wives were the best of the believers and certainly wouldn't have elicited the sequence of responses outlined in the Quran.
Respect❤
God bless you, Dr. Bakhtiar.
it says an arab profit to an arab people with a book in arabic. or you have a different Quran ?
(cont) I guess that to change the direction of a car allready at high speed rushing down a mountain is difficult, if not impossible. At least we, the individual, can still get out of that car and change direction ourselves. God keep (khoda hafez).
Yes,
I am not sure what you mean by that.
Thank you. Unfortunately this is all I have for the time being.
Do you also reject Hadith? You seem very wise. Peace, Yasmin
I first go to the Quran. If you can show that an interpretation of a Quranic verse contradicts another verse, you have the strongest argument which another cannot refute. In addition, on this particular issue, the Hadith has both views from the Prophet so the Hadith does not help in this particular situation.
God is spelled with a capital G!
U can’t use beat them lightly to say Quran doesn’t mean to beat them, why not use prophets sunnah not to strike women physically but use other meanings the word allows
A good writer leaves no room for ambiguity.
@sirjambo please give evidence of what you say. What hadith are you referring to?
The verse addresses Muslim husbands, the man inside a marital relationship.
and in any case, Husband and Wife should have rights on the word of Nushuz 4:34 & 4:128.
But ibn abbas ibn kathir and even ibn jalalayn.....all of them are the most reputated quranic translations and has narrated this verse to forsake them and strike......so according to you they all are wrong?
I am not an expert on this, but I know that the Quran has discouraged slavery. One of the important acts of charity in early Islam was to free a slave.
Good job sister, salam from Palestine