The Qur’an: A New Translation by Thomas Cleary
Posted: February 26, 2022 Filed under: Islam 2 CommentsFinally completed a seventeen year mission: to read the Quran.
The Opening:
I am no expert on the Quran. Any statement about the Quran is in danger of inviting disputation. With respect, I offer here the modest fruits of my studies in case they prove useful to you.
Recite
The first thing to know about the Quran is that like Shakespeare, it is not intended for you to read it. It’s intended for you to hear it. In Arabic.
The first word of the Quran is often translated as “recite.” (Good Quora post about the first word).
About the meaning of the term `Quran`, there are two famous opinions:
1) it is driven from al-Qar` meaning `to collect`.
2) It is driven from `Qara` (to recite).
So says Ask the Sheikh.
The idea of whether the Quran can even be translated is a question with centuries of discussion and commentary and argument on it.
Regrettably, learning Arabic at this time proved not practicable for me.
The problems surrounding the nature of the Quran are so many that this guy:
barely even gets to the content of the book. This book focuses on the unique place of the Quran within Islam, and the sort of meta-questions of the Quran itself. And I’m told Prof. Michael Cook is a leader in the field of English language Quranic interpretation.
This one I found more useful for basic setup:
A monologue
The Quran is a sort of monologue by Allah delivered through the angel Gabriel (Jibril).
In the Bible God doesn’t actually talk that much. Nor is He (Bible God) quite as firm as Allah on the importance of getting His exact words right.
Allah put forth this monologue in seventh-century Arabic. Even if I spoke Arabic like a native 2022 Saudi, Quran Arabic would be difficult for me to understand.
To put it mildly, a lot of thinking has gone into translating the Quran. Here is a sample of some the various translations for 6:32:
Some translations of the Quran are so stiff as to be almost incomprehensible. I cannot think this is correct, because the sounds and rhythms of the Quran from the time of its first recitings convinced so many.
Reciting it is the key. So the Quran must flow, right?
But what do I know, maybe Allah wanted to sound stiff.
Cleary’s translation
The translation I chose is done by the mysterious and astounding Thomas Cleary.
source, cannot confirm this is really him
from the only interview I can find of Thomas Cleary:
Sonshi.com: According to a recent LA Times story, you were with the Dalai Lama. The news reporter incorrectly described you as a Harvard professor. Could you tell us more accurately what happened?
Cleary: I am not a Harvard professor, as the LA Times article says. All the other representations and their implications are likewise fictitious. I was not onstage with the Dalai Lama, and did not flank him at any time. I was not among those sporting the silk scarf he bestows. My work is not connected to any personal, political, or sectarian associations or alliances. My message that day had no relation whatsoever to the Art of War, and I was not introduced or identified that way.
As I have already translated both Buddhist and Islamic scripture from their original Sanskrit and Arabic, I was requested to address that assembly. I just recited some scripture as an amicus mundi, friend of the world.
These are the passages I presented.
Qur’an:
The Age
By the age, man is indeed at a loss, except those who have faith and do good works and take to truth and take to patience.
The Atheists
Say, “O atheists, I don’t serve what you serve, and you don’t serve what I serve. And I won’t serve what you serve and you won’t serve what I serve. You have your way, and I have my way.”
Assistance
Do you see the one who repudiates religion? That is the one who rebuffs the orphan and does not encourage feeding the poor. So woe to those who pray yet are inattentive to their prayer: those who put on the appearance and yet are withholding assistance.
Good enough for the Dalai Lama, good enough for me.

Wolfgang H. Wörderer took this one
I found Cleary’s translation comprehensible and approachable. As far as I can tell he is a serious scholar with respect for the tradition. Here’s a very thoughtful review by a Muslim.
Don’t make fun of the Quran.
That’s one of the big messages in the Quran.
But there are some people
who vend amusing tales
to lead astray from the way of God
in the absence of knowledge,
making a joke of it;
there is a degrading punishment
in store for them.
My intention is not to make a joke of the Quran. For the most part it’s not funny. Much of it is very beautiful and clear-sounding.
People, an example is set forth:
so listen to it:
those to whom you pray instead of God
could not create a fly,
even if they all cooperated at it.
And if the fly should snatch anything from them,
they would not recover it from it.
The seeker is weak, and so is the sought.
Is it a sacrilege to compare the Quran to a series of long raps?
Several times in the Quran, 11:13 for example, Allah challenges anyone who doesn’t believe in the Quran to try and produce their own verses.
Segments
And We have divided the Recital
so you could recite it to people
in segments, with logical stopes:
We have discharged it
by sending down inspirations.
Say, “whether you believe in it or not, those to whom knowledge was given before you
fall on their faces humbly
when it is recited to them”
The Quran is organized from longest chapter to shortest. I can think of no other book organized this way.
Controversial passages
I can’t top this list. If you’re reading the Quran looking to condemn it, you might be disappointed. I find nothing in it that’s much worse than stuff you can find in the Bible.
62:5 says that “those who were charged with the Torah but then did not carry it out were like a donkey carrying books” which is a funny phrase.
Top quote?
So hard to pick. I won’t. I do like The Family of Imram:92 or 3:92:
You will not attain righteousness
until you give of what you care for
33:53 is funny, discusses how too much chatting annoys the Prophet.
How about 13:26:
God expands the provision
of anyone at will, and limits
Yet they delight
in the life of the world.
But the life of the world
is but a utensil
in respect to the hereafter.
Bold mine.
There’s the Quran, and then there’s the sayings of the Prophet
Whole other story.
I like this one.
Not sure what to do with this.
There’s the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet and then there are the interpreters
The Quran has had thirteen centuries of people interpreting it.
Graeme Wood’s surprisingly (?) entertaining book about the rise of ISIS is, in a way, about how study and interpretation and interpretation of interpretation of the Quran can lead to wild and wildly different outcomes, with ISIS being a no bueno example. Conversation with Graeme Wood much improved my Quranic studies.
Not scoffing
The Quran several times warns “scoffers” or disbelievers. Let me be clear: the Quran is nothing to scoff at.
Or do they say, “he made it up!”?
They simply don’t believe
Let them come up
with a story like it
Peace be upon the Prophet. I am happy to have had Thomas Cleary’s help in taking the first step towards understanding the Quran and recommend his translation.
The origin of algorithm
Posted: July 28, 2018 Filed under: business, Islam Leave a commentThe word “algorithm” comes up a lot these days. We’ve spoken before about the origin of this word, in the name of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, author of The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.
written around 820 CE in the city of Baghdad.
The man from Khwarizm.

source: Wiki user Fulvio Spada
The Khwarazam region today doesn’t look too great.
Arabic
Posted: January 30, 2017 Filed under: Islam, Islam, Middle East, politics, religion Leave a comment
The challenge:
How to react:
“The messenger of this incredible movement”
Posted: January 23, 2017 Filed under: Islam, politics Leave a comment
Muhammad leads Abraham, Moses and Jesus in prayer. from medieval Persian manuscript Source: ”The Middle Ages. An Illustrated History” by Barbara Hanawalt (Oxford University Press, 1998). Source.
is that
a) how Muhammad is described in the Quran
or
b) how Sean Spicer describes President Donald Trump?
Hadith
Posted: December 12, 2016 Filed under: Islam, Islam, religion 2 CommentsReading some of the sayings of The Prophet, the Hadith, in Thomas Cleary’s translation:
A word of warning for PEOTUS:
Pretty sure Trump is not a Muslim
Posted: September 21, 2016 Filed under: Islam Leave a commentfrom Thomas Cleary’s translation of the Koran / Qur’an, Surah 2 (The Cow), 38.
World’s oldest liberry
Posted: March 4, 2016 Filed under: Africa, books, Islam Leave a commentThe ancient al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez isn’t just the oldest library in Africa. Founded in 859, it’s the oldest working library in the world, holding ancient manuscripts that date as far back as 12 centuries.
so I learn from this interesting thing linked by Tyler Cowen.
The al-Qarawiyyin Library was created by a woman, challenging commonly held assumptions about the contribution of women in Muslim civilization. The al-Qarawiyyin, which includes a mosque, library, and university, was founded by Fatima El-Fihriya, the daughter of a rich immigrant from al-Qayrawan (Tunisia today). Well educated and devout, she vowed to spend her entire inheritance on building a mosque and knowledge center for her community.

picture of Fatima from this strange pseudo wikipedia: http://america.pink/fatima-fihri_1528345.html
Among the library hounds was Ibn Khaldun who wrote Muqaddim, The Introduction, which is full of interesting ideas:
Topics dealt with in this work include politics, urban life, economics, and knowledge. The work is based around Ibn Khaldun’s central concept of ‘‘aṣabiyyah, which has been translated as “social cohesion“, “group solidarity”, or “tribalism“. This social cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups; it can be intensified and enlarged by a religious ideology. Ibn Khaldun’s analysis looks at how this cohesion carries groups to power but contains within itself the seeds – psychological, sociological, economic, political – of the group’s downfall, to be replaced by a new group, dynasty or empire bound by a stronger (or at least younger and more vigorous) cohesion.

By م ض – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6287905
Perhaps the most frequently cited observation drawn from Ibn Khaldūn’s work is the notion that when a society becomes a great civilization (and, presumably, the dominant culture in its region), its high point is followed by a period of decay. This means that the next cohesive group that conquers the diminished civilization is, by comparison, a group of barbarians. Once the barbarians solidify their control over the conquered society, however, they become attracted to its more refined aspects, such as literacy and arts, and either assimilate into or appropriate such cultural practices. Then, eventually, the former barbarians will be conquered by a new set of barbarians, who will repeat the process. Some contemporary readers of Khaldun have read this as an early business cycle theory, though set in the historical circumstances of the mature Islamic empire.

By Khonsali – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4550966