Religious Foundations of Spanish Culture Used in Gonzales’ Translation of Quran

Jafar Gonzales has used religious foundations of the Spanish culture in his rendering the Holy Quran into Spanish.

There are 13 Spanish translations of the Quran the majority of whose translators were Christians. (Before Gonzales presented his work), only one of the translations was rendered by a Sunni Muslim with the cooperation of a Spanish native speaker.

None of the translations before Mr. Gonzales can be regarded as satisfactory because, among other things, they fail to explain such terms as Salat, Zakat, Hajj, etc. Without proper explanation, these terms are almost incomprehensible to non-Muslims.

Another reason why these renderings do not properly convey the Quranic concepts is because they mostly rely on sources that lack credibility.

Moreover, they have generally failed to convey the legal terms of the Quran, which make Islam’s legal system.

In addition, the translators have failed to appreciate the literary and figurative nuances of the Quranic verses and therefore failed to properly convey these nuances.

Therefore, the need for presenting a new rendition of the Quran into Spanish seemed obvious and that is why Jafar (Raul) Gonzales proceeded to meet the need.

He did the translation in 15 months using the previous Spanish renderings. It was published in 2007 by the Tarjoman-e Vahy (translation of Revelation) Cultural Institute.

Jose Cutillas, a professor of Persian literature and language at the University of Alicante, and Mikel de Epalza, an Islamic Studies scholar teaching at Spanish universities, have endorsed Gonzales’ translation.

Raúl González Bórnez was born in 1950 into a Marxist family in Madrid. He spent some years in nature contemplating on life and creations until God, the Almighty, saved him from darkness and led him to light.

 “I was honored to convert to Islam some 20 years ago. I have come a long way before arriving here, from studying electronic engineering to editing films and then giving up everything and resorting to nature. It was at that stage when I gained faith in God and monotheism and left the country of atheism and Marxism,” he says.

 “I was searching for God when I was living in mountains and nature. I asked God for guidance and established close relation with Him. After reading a book about Islam, I learned about the religion and after a while embraced Islam. At 33, I married a woman who had previously converted to Islam. In the year of Imam Khomeini’s (RA) demise (1989) I went to Iran and started studying seminary sciences. I studied Moghaddamat (preliminary courses) for three years at Saduq School and then Fiqh and Osul at Hojjatiyeh School. In 1995 I returned to Spain and began teaching there. It was at that time when I started translating the Quran.”

As well as the Holy Quran, Gonzales has translated the Lub-ul-Lubab Treatise by Allameh Seyyed Muhammad Hussein Husseini Tehrani and the book Iqtisaduna (our economics) by Ayatollah Muhammad Baqer Sadr into Spanish.

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