I’d like to refer to the chapter of Maryam in the Qur’an, and two things I have questions about. One is that, I think I’d better read it out so it will be exact. The translation of that is, she, that is Maryam, accompanied him to her people while he was riding. While he was riding? That’s the translation. That must be wrong. It says, while he was riding is a wrong translation, carrying him in her lap. That’s what I thought too, what the translation does say. Or, both of them were travelling in a carriage, that can also be translated.
Yes, but in this, in Chaudhry Zafrullah Khan’s translation, which I have a photo set here with me, it says, while he was riding. It’s not right, it’s not correct. It is an incorrect translation, unfortunately. What does it actually mean, tahmiluhu? Tahmiluhu, carrying him along. It may mean both, number one, in her body, in her lap, like children are carried, or if he is older of age, then if some lady is taking her son along in a carriage, even then the expression tahmiluhu can be applicable. So, that sort of picture is created. But in no way can it be translated as riding along or something. Would we have a correction in the next edition, maybe?
But the author is no longer alive. The author of this translation, I think. The next point is, after that, there’s various things. I hope you had pointed out earlier, then it could be… We never had these interesting discussions in the evening. Things in the rendering of the Holy Quran, always, you know, small things escape notice. Actually, when Chaudhry Sahib had prepared his translation, he requested Hazrat Khalifatul Masih Salih to appoint a board of Ahmadi scholars to go through all the translations along with him, so that if there are some mistakes committed, some, you know, omissions here and there, they could be attended to from the Ahmadiyya scholarly point of view. That was his intention.
So, Hazrat Sahib appointed a body of people who would help him, and among them, I was also one. So, it was composed of late Sheikh Bashir Ahmad Sahib, late Ghulam Khalid Sahib, and one or two others, and I was also one of them. So, he invited us to stay in the hall for a month or so, and we were his guests. Not that we were staying with him, but we went in the morning and returned at night, and all day long, we were at it, and we ate at his table and so on. It was a very interesting month we spent together, and we tried to improve upon things here and there, but mostly we found the rendering excellent. Yes, of course.
But still, because Tauhid Sahib was not a scholar in Arabic, or he was not taught in depth the Islamic teachings as some others were, like Sheikh Bashir Ahmad Sahib, he was not also a scholar in Arabic, but he was deeply associated right from his childhood. Malik Sahib, of course, was entirely associated with the Holy Qur’an. I think Malik Ghulam Khalid Sahib was also one of them, or if I remember rightly, maybe Muhammad Ahmad Sahib Jaleel. So anyway, it was a very useful session altogether. Not session, but I mean a useful exercise altogether. And I am surprised how this missed our attention.
Actually, there are quite a few such things, maybe. Later on, in fact what happened was that we were not able, all of us, to attend all the sessions. So there are certain missions here and there which might have been caught by others, but they were not present at the time.
