It's not a surprising fact to the muslim society that translating terms, verses and words from muslim texts could be very difficult. But a term or a phrase we are obligated to use, should at the starting point be perfectly translated.
We translate "Sal'lal'laahu a'laihi wa sal'lam" as "peace be upon him". I was shocked to discover that not was this translation just wrong, it did'nt give the same meaning as the real translation. My source "Muhammed, The Messenger" written by Abdurrahman Al-Sheha, takes a quite hard approach to the wrongly translated term wich should be essential to know for every muslim.
The translation of Sal'la'laahu a'lihi wa sal'lam should be
"May Allah exalt his mention, and render him and his household safe and secure from every derogatory thing"
I'm sure we can find more of these wrongly translated terms. Even if it is not as different as the example above, deen translated to religion and Ibadah translated to worship is also unclear at the edge of incorrect.
The most secure and right way to find the true meaning of arab terms is to do our research ourselfs. The scholars and the learned are blessed and full of righteous knowledge, but are'nt they human beings, as well? They do make mistakes. I think we depend ourselfs to much to translations made by others. And we stand back passive and blinded. The preachers themselfes even say at the end of each lecture to study and research their theme of the day!
We translate "Sal'lal'laahu a'laihi wa sal'lam" as "peace be upon him". I was shocked to discover that not was this translation just wrong, it did'nt give the same meaning as the real translation. My source "Muhammed, The Messenger" written by Abdurrahman Al-Sheha, takes a quite hard approach to the wrongly translated term wich should be essential to know for every muslim.
The translation of Sal'la'laahu a'lihi wa sal'lam should be
"May Allah exalt his mention, and render him and his household safe and secure from every derogatory thing"
I'm sure we can find more of these wrongly translated terms. Even if it is not as different as the example above, deen translated to religion and Ibadah translated to worship is also unclear at the edge of incorrect.
The most secure and right way to find the true meaning of arab terms is to do our research ourselfs. The scholars and the learned are blessed and full of righteous knowledge, but are'nt they human beings, as well? They do make mistakes. I think we depend ourselfs to much to translations made by others. And we stand back passive and blinded. The preachers themselfes even say at the end of each lecture to study and research their theme of the day!