اُردو زبان میں ترجمۂِ قرآن: روایت، ضرورت اور تدریجی ارتقاء

The Translation of the Quran into the Urdu Language: Tradition, Necessity, and Gradual Development

Abstract

Translation is a highly intricate, delicate, and intellectually demanding discipline that cannot be regarded as an easy task under any circumstances. The transfer of meanings, stylistic features, and semantic subtleties from one language into another in a manner that preserves the spirit, purpose, and intellectual impact of the original text constitutes a major scholarly challenge. This challenge becomes significantly more complex when the subject of translation is the Quran an inherently divine text marked by linguistic inimitability, depth of meaning, and multilayered semantics. This article begins by examining the lexical and linguistic meanings of translation, followed by an explanation of its technical and terminological dimensions. In this context, it also delineates the essential scholarly qualifications required of a Quranic translator, including proficiency in Arabic language and literature, grammar and morphology, rhetoric, principles of Quranic exegesis, Hadith, and Islamic jurisprudence. From a historical perspective, the article traces the origins of Quranic translation into Urdu in the Indian subcontinent, noting that its early foundations were laid in South India.