A Critical Study Of Pashto Poetic Translation Of The Qur'an By Syed Jaffar Hussain Shah

Abstract

This study contains on the critical study of Pashto poetic translation of Quran by Syed Jaffar Husain shah. He did literal translation of the Holy Qur’an in Pashto in Mathnavī form. This translation was published from Peshawar in 1968. The literal translation in poetic form asks for technicalities which this work lacked perhaps. This study surfaces errors which are identified during the study. In this article, many things have been discussed regarding the Pashto poetic translation of the Qur'an by Jaffar Husain Shah. This is the only poetic translation of Pashto. This is a literal translation. The poetry of this translation is weak. In some verses the verses are not translated. Unfamiliar and obsolete Pashto words are used. In the translation, sometimes some extra words have been   added and sometimes have been reduced from the words of verses. Mistakes have also been made in the writing of the Quranic text. Some verses have not been translated. Mistakes have been made in pronouns in the translation of some verses. Similarly, there is a difference in the meaning of some verses and its translation. All these issues are discussed in this article and evaluated. This article also explains how much the poets succeeded in presenting the message of Qur’ān. The merits and demerits of the translations have been highlighted.