A Poet’s Inspirational Dream and Kashmiri Translation of Quran
Andrabi, who hails from Ratnipora area of south Kashmir’s Pampore district had taught children to read and recite Quran all his life but he said he was inspired to translate the Quran in Kashmiri when, during a night of 1993, he dreamt elderly men reading Quran.
“I thought it was a sign for me to start the Kashmiri translation of Quran,” Andrabi told Rising Kashmir in an interview.
For seven years, he did the translations and for the next six years he worked for getting the first print of the translation of the Holy Quran in Kashmiri published in three volumes.
“I started the translation work in September 1993 and completed the work on publishing in 2006,” Andrabi said.
He said the idea of translating the Holy Quran had stuck him initially when he was pondering over the fact that everyone has to leave this world.
Andrabi said he wanted to leave behind something and there could be nothing better than translating the Holy Quran in his mother tongue.
Before Andrabi, Mirwaiz Muhammad Yousuf Shah had already done Quranic translation and Quranic exegesis in Kashmiri.
“People would tell me that they were not able to comprehend the Moulana Yousuf Shah’s Quranic translations in Kashmiri,” Andrabi said. “I wanted to do a translation of Quran that would be easy for anyone in Kashmir to read at home without consulting anyone.”
So Andrabi did the word by word translation besides the sentence (Ayat) translations.
The first publication of his translation of Quran in Kashmiri ‘Aijaz-ul-Quran’ had three volumes while the second and third publications have two volumes.
Andrabi is now working on publishing his Kashmiri translation of Quran in just one publication.
“I have done the literal translation of the Quran in Kashmiri word by word and people can make out the exegesis as per their own understanding,” he said. “Resultantly, my Kashmiri translation of the Quran was taken well by all schools of thought.”
However, Andrabi is against reciting Nimaz and Quran in translations of Arabic in places like Turkey.
“It is incorrect as we have been stressed to offer Nimaz and read Quran in the Arabic language and translations are only for our better understanding,” he said.
“We have to read Quran in the same form Allah sent it that is in Arabic, which is also enjoyable.”
Going down the memory lane, Andrabi said, from 1954 to 1957, as a student, he used to recite Quran for the programs of Radio Kashmir Srinagar.
“Allah had given me a good voice and there was a dearth of Qaris then,” he said. “The authorities at Radio Kashmir Srinagar told me that they needed Kashmiri translators and so I started the translation works.”
Andrabi said initially he took help of Moulana Qasim Bukhari to learn the art of translation and then slogged it out by working hard.
He passed matriculation exam in 1954 in English and got his Moulvi Aalim degree from the Oriental College.
In 1957, Andrabi did his Moulvi Fazil course and did his honors in Arabic through the University of Kashmir.
Soon, he said he was offered a job at Radio Kashmir Srinagar but declined to do office work and just continued with the Islamic programs.
“Then I got a job of an Arabic teacher and taught at Government High School Anantnag where I joined on 8 June 1959 and retired on 31 March 1994,” he said.
Andrabi is also a poet and goes by the alias Aijaz. “Hence my Quranic translation Aijaz-ul-Quran,” he said.
Andrabi has written three poetry books ‘Nagme Allahu’ in Urdu, ‘Jasb-e-Hub-e-Rasool’ in Urdu and ‘Awaaz-e-Fitraat-e-Rubaiyat’ in Kashmiri.
Source: risingkashmir.com
