I have a comment on the translation of Jury Zafrullah Khan Sahib. Writing? Yes. I think he referred to the other verse which is mentioned in Surah Tawbah about the believers in Ghazwah Tabuk who did not have anything to write on and they came to the Holy Prophet ﷺ asking for something to write on and he answered and he said according to the Holy Qur’an la ajidu ma ahmilakum alayhi the word ahmilakum literally could be translated carry on but also to ride on with to offer you something to ride yes to ride from the same root is word hamla yes I agree it is expedition of people who ride together to go forward so tahmilhu could also be riding with him in this sense no she was.
Here the reference is to her yes so any translation which forgets this is wrong tahmilhu zameer is referred to Hazrat Maryam yes so that translation does not mention that at all what it means is whether Hazrat Maryam is carrying the child in her lap or travelling with him on some carriage or even on a horseback but it is she who is doing it and the sun is dependent upon her for all this procedure that is the picture created by the Holy Qur’an but the translation does not convey this picture what does it say? she accompanied him to her people while he was riding this is wrong I think maybe riding fine it could be she accompanied him to her people while riding not he was riding this is wrong, this is what the Holy Qur’an does not say moreover it was the child who was accompanying the mother tahmilhu yes means that she was going and the child was attached to her.
So whatever the mode of travel be that is not in question I don’t have any objection against the mode of travel that could be riding as well but the style of the translation does not create the picture as painted by the Holy Qur’an it says the mother is the one who took certain means of travel and took the child along that is the exact picture painted by the Holy Qur’an yes but in the translation it is the other way round as if the child was going somewhere riding and the mother went along accompanied by his mother she accompanied him that is exactly, she didn’t accompany him.
He accompanied her according to the Holy Qur’an he accompanied her tahmilhu refers to the mother yes sir but she was the chief she was the person who undertook a journey and Jesus went along with her yes, she accompanied him is the translation of fa’atat bihi no, I am talking of tahmilhu, just refer to that tahmilhu could be while riding tahmilhu does not refer to Jesus number one, tahmilhu does not refer to Jesus at all the word who refers, tahmilhu does not refer who is the subject of tahmilhu is Hazrat Maryam yes it is ta’nees, obviously yes so any translation which makes the subject of this verb to be Hazrat Isa A.S. and Hazrat Maryam is wrong so it can be translated while she was riding with him that can be, yes while she took him along while she was riding yes during her ride.
She took him along that can be the correct translation yes and then why to pinpoint the mode while the holy Quran doesn’t describe it it could have been any other mode you see the word tahmil is an open word yes which may be understood in so many ways you should not translate it in a manner as to fix the meaning in one particular mode of travel moreover it may mean the child was so young, so small that he was carried bodily by the mother now we of course as a tafseer we explain that this was not so so it should be translated like this yes but as far as the word is concerned it has, it can accommodate that meaning.
So when you deviate from this and fix the meaning to a very narrow space that is not doing justice to the holy Quran the holy Quran should be translated in as wider terms as possible for the language in which you are translating it and explanatory notes can be added as footnotes so here although this would be right that she was riding while she was riding she took her child along this is the correct translation but not riding while she was taking a journey on some mode of travel while she was journeying she took her child along that is open and the mode of travel is not unnecessarily fixed to one particular mode because Tamil may mean, of course I agree may mean a horse ride on horseback or camel or camel yes or donkey and more likely donkey there in that area they generally travelled by donkeys they preferred donkeys and as we said As-Salaam-Alaikum is also shown to be riding a donkey so anything or a carriage driven by a donkey or a horse or some other beast right?
yes sir please please I would like to venture a further comment on the reasons probably of his saying riding because she is trying to protect herself and the child and as much as she was they accused her of being not chaste the reason is just simple Chaudhary Zafrullah Khan Sahib later Zafrullah Khan Sahib knew that this verse does not refer to a period when Hazrat Isa A.S. was a small child who could be carried bodily now he wanted to avoid that translation which created a wrong picture of the actual incident so he deviated from that but went to another side without caring much of how what he chooses as an alternative.
Because he wants to say he says later on that how can we speak to this child so he wants to say it can’t be a child because if he is riding a horse he must be quite grown up then this is what I mean he wants to convey the picture of a grown up child in doing so he is right there that here when you read it as a whole the word tamilo could not refer to Hazrat Maryam really literally carrying the child in her lap but because earlier translators or mufassereen who commented on the Holy Quran had taken this view in view of certain other words used which denoted the small the age of childhood.
They had translated it so Hazrat Jaizullah Khan Sahib wanted to rectify that mistake in doing so he deviated from that and didn’t pay much attention to using what alternative word there seems to be more discrepancy in this same portion because he is talking of Maryam as Aaron’s sister but she didn’t have any brother Aaron yes but that is a different thing altogether that has been explained also again mentioned in the same part no it is mentioned but has the translation attempted to solve this problem no so also it requires an annotation such things.
This is what I mean instead of trying to solve everything in translation in certain passages we should better adopt a policy of annotations adding a footnote explaining the situation that this is what it means you know the word Aaron’s sister is a taunt on Hazrat Maryam and that has been explained at length by Hazrat Musleh Maud in Tafseer-e-Kabir so a short note of that could be prepared and added as a footnote she didn’t have any brother Aaron yes that is correct what does it mean I have already told you it was a taunt indicating that you have as bad a character as the sister of Aaron had which was of you know which was allegations were heard against her as well of you know having a doubtful character things so that sort of you know this is just common in every country in every language this happens.
So Hazrat Musleh Maud has explained this at length and told what they meant and why this was she was called sister of Aaron that was in quotes and quotes not that Allah was telling calling her sister of Aaron it was the enemies who said sister of Aaron with the connotation that you are as bad in character as that lady was why even she was not bad they were wrong even then thank you
