End of the Quran English translation 1st & 2nd drafts

[AhmedBahgat]

Salam all

Alhamdulellah, Lord of the worlds. If I keep praising Him for the rest of my life, it won’t be enough for His mighty help enabling me to finish such mountain weight of a task of translating the Quran, I still have to go through it all over again, but with a difference this time.

The second and final draft will be aimed at the following:

1) Consistency
2) Accuracy
3) Typos
4) Comas, semicolon, and similar characters
5) Additional notes in brackets (will try to keep it minimum)
6) Verses that continue in the following verses, I need to adda a charcter at the end to imply as such
7) Adding individual words to database with the English translation of each then search the database as the Arabic word is repeated to make sure that all instances will be the same unless I need to use a synonymous English word
8) Checking all verb tenses in Arabic and rectify as appropriate under English
9) Making sure that all repeated sentences are translated the exact same.

This is the phase I was waiting for over two years since I started phase 1 in 29/5/2007, the first phase was really tough, however as I progressed through it, I gained very valuable experience which helped me putting some dots over the letters (an expression which means that I managed to be in control)

I knew that it will be very hard, especially it was never in my plans nor even dreams that I will ever take on such task, it all happened by itself as explained below:

When I started debating religions on the net many years ago, possibly in 2001, I found that the enemy of Islam who speak no Arabic bring very flawed translations on the table to support their wishful thinking and Barbie arguments, so for me to reply to them I had to almost every time provide my own translation, of course I never documented the verses that I translated in my refutes, later on, when the debates got intense and I found that I was translating every verse they bring in, I thought about translating the Quran, such thoughts and plans went on for a year exactly without doing anything, just evaluating if I will be a right person to do so, as well I considered if what I was planning to do will be anything new, or just another flawed translation from the many found currently.

I honestly feared to do it, however my dear friend and brother Life from Norway kept putting pressure on me by encouraging me to do it, and possibly a few others including some kafirs who were attacking Islam

So I sat down and made up my mind while surely asked Allah to help me through such gigantic task, knowing that I am not perfect in English but also knowing that I was a very good student of the Arabic language between the age of 8 and 17, this is when I finished my high school and went on to study Civil Engineering which certainly took me away from the Arabic Language that I loved and mastered during those 9 years, I remember the days when I was 14 years old at year 9 and the Arabic teacher used to choose me to represent the school competing against other students from high schools and even universities, and I always won, this is because I indeed loved such tough language and managed to crack its tough grammar, this fact encouraged me to take on such task of translating the Quran.

Another point that I evaluated was my relationship with the Quran since I was about 14 years old, at such time my Arabic teacher who used to choose me to compete against others, inserted in me the love of the Quran someway or another, I honestly cannot remember now, bear in mind that currently I am almost 45 years old.,so we are talking about things that happened over 30 years ago, from that point onwards, I never looked back, as when I started to read the Quran, I was stunned with its Arabic style, honestly and from the bottom of my heart, I was stunned really bad, this is because I was so good in such language, as well was addicted to reading since I was 8, and all of a sudden I read something in the same language but totally sounded like it is not by anyone on earth, it sounded for me as if it is from a different planet, bear in mind that as such time I did not know exactly what is the true belief and true submission to Allah, I just considered myself a Muslim as all Muslims do, but in reality was I a Muslim?, now I can say with certainty that no way that I was at such age, I found it impossible that any one at such young age can comprehend the whole picture and understand it perfectly then totally submit to Allah and His will

What happened in the following few years, some where between the age of 15 and 20 and for about 3 to 5 years, I thought that in no way the Quran is free from errors, so I decided to find an error, bearing in mind my strong knowledge in Arabic. Yet, for almost 5 years I could not find any, but I was fair, I did not look at it from a believer or a non believer perspective, I looked at it as being a different creature with the only weapon that I have, was my fluency in Arabic, in fact I remember that at least a couple of times I thought that I found a mistake then after deep evaluation, it turns out not to be, during those years my love to the Quran has intensified, seeing how it shuts me down decisively while at the same time reading more and more of its beautiful Arabic language.

Now, you must consider this fact, there was one subject in my Arabic language study that I really hated bad, it never made any sense to me and found it really hard to understand, it is the Arabic Poetry, man, I hated that subject really bad, not just its crap and unrealistic metaphors, and many times, useless messages, but also its Arabic vocabulary is really hard, it is like reading Arabic words from a different planet, yet the Quran sounds like clear cut poetry BUT I just loved it and found it so easy to understand, this fact was so strong in my mind that it had one conclusion, that the Quran is not a poetry, then I read in the Quran that it declares itself a non poetry, how amazing, indeed almost everything religious that I managed to understand on my own, I found it later on written in the Quran, even Pascal Wager (an idea that I support hard), I found it in the Quran, how amazing, this is when I stopped studying the Quran for the purpose of finding a mistake, I just conceded to myself that it does not have, nor it will have in the future whatever the future has in its bag.

I just went on studying it trying to understand its message, this happened before the days of the computer, or should I say, I did not start using a computer by that time, I remember well when I migrated to Australia in 1991, I spent about 2 years writing all the Quran notes and verse numbers in so may papers, too slow process of course, have I ever thought at that time that I will design an awesome Quran software? No way, it was not even in my wildest dreams

Therefore, two important points I found that I possess which made my decision to take on the task, a go, firstly, my fluency in Arabic, secondly my relationship with the Quran which is going on for years alhamdulleah and just by fitrah, I always kept my self away from those confused Ulamaa, Imams, Mullah, Shiekhs and Muftis, all of them mean and still mean nothing to me, of course that is when they start talk Bukhari Springer hadith.

For the negative fact of my non fluency in English, after looking at such issue very carefully, I found that it should not be of any problem, firstly, the internet is there for me to find an answer for any English language question, I can also ask others if I am stuck, but I believe my English is good enough to take on the task. Yet, to really tackle my weakness in it, I took the decision to do another draft based on the first draft, this is when I will fix all such English inshaallah, I am hoping that such phase takes no more than a year, I just want to see such translation finished before I die, in fact I believe that I am living for such important cause (do not forget that most Muslims are non Arabic speakers)

But I have to add that as long as I am living, the hadith worshippers won’t escape me, this is another cause that I am living for, to expose such confused Muslims with no mercy, why I have to do it with no mercy? because simply I had enough of their crap, as well I am sure that they will have no mercy for me, so why should I have it for them? I won’t and I will stay as aggressive as I can be and the more is the better with such people who try hard to shut you up with crap, lies and manipulations

If you really want my honest opinion, these people are the true enemy of our great religion, it is not the kafirs who call Mohammed a pedophile and a thug or whatever insult, it is those criminals from among the Muslims who have given a reason on a plate of gold for the kafirs to do so

Now I thank the kafirs who indirectly made me aware of all such crap promoted by the Muslims themselves, this means that indeed, the kafirs are not my enemy, my enemy are those Mushrik Muslims who have succeeded over 1200 years in fuking up our religion after they submitted to Satan, now it is about time to turn the table over them and confront them with no fear except from Allah

Sorry about such boring story, I thought I had to write something after finishing phase one of the Quran translation, and here you have it

Can’t wait till I start phase two, but I say, I should have a small break while outlining what exactly that I will be doing and how I get into a rhythm to do it efficiently and without wasting any time

Finally, happy Eid to everyone, may Allah make it the best for all

Salam

[AhmedBahgat]

Salam all

Alhamdulellah, Lord of the worlds. If I keep praising Him for the rest of my life, it won’t be enough for His mighty help enabling me to finish such mountain weight of a task of translating the Quran, I still have to go through it all over again, but with a difference this time.

The second and final draft will be aimed at the following:

1) Consistency
2) Accuracy
3) Typos
4) Comas, semicolon, and similar characters
5) Additional notes in brackets (will try to keep it minimum)
6) Verses that continue in the following verses, I need to adda a charcter at the end to imply as such
7) Adding individual words to database with the English translation of each then search the database as the Arabic word is repeated to make sure that all instances will be the same unless I need to use a synonymous English word
8) Checking all verb tenses in Arabic and rectify as appropriate under English
9) Making sure that all repeated sentences are translated the exact same.

This is the phase I was waiting for over two years since I started phase 1 in 29/5/2007, the first phase was really tough, however as I progressed through it, I gained very valuable experience which helped me putting some dots over the letters (an expression which means that I managed to be in control)

I knew that it will be very hard, especially it was never in my plans nor even dreams that I will ever take on such task, it all happened by itself as explained below:

When I started debating religions on the net many years ago, possibly in 2001, I found that the enemy of Islam who speak no Arabic bring very flawed translations on the table to support their wishful thinking and Barbie arguments, so for me to reply to them I had to almost every time provide my own translation, of course I never documented the verses that I translated in my refutes, later on, when the debates got intense and I found that I was translating every verse they bring in, I thought about translating the Quran, such thoughts and plans went on for a year exactly without doing anything, just evaluating if I will be a right person to do so, as well I considered if what I was planning to do will be anything new, or just another flawed translation from the many found currently.

I honestly feared to do it, however my dear friend and brother Life from Norway kept putting pressure on me by encouraging me to do it, and possibly a few others including some kafirs who were attacking Islam

So I sat down and made up my mind while surely asked Allah to help me through such gigantic task, knowing that I am not perfect in English but also knowing that I was a very good student of the Arabic language between the age of 8 and 17, this is when I finished my high school and went on to study Civil Engineering which certainly took me away from the Arabic Language that I loved and mastered during those 9 years, I remember the days when I was 14 years old at year 9 and the Arabic teacher used to choose me to represent the school competing against other students from high schools and even universities, and I always won, this is because I indeed loved such tough language and managed to crack its tough grammar, this fact encouraged me to take on such task of translating the Quran.

Another point that I evaluated was my relationship with the Quran since I was about 14 years old, at such time my Arabic teacher who used to choose me to compete against others, inserted in me the love of the Quran someway or another, I honestly cannot remember now, bear in mind that currently I am almost 45 years old.,so we are talking about things that happened over 30 years ago, from that point onwards, I never looked back, as when I started to read the Quran, I was stunned with its Arabic style, honestly and from the bottom of my heart, I was stunned really bad, this is because I was so good in such language, as well was addicted to reading since I was 8, and all of a sudden I read something in the same language but totally sounded like it is not by anyone on earth, it sounded for me as if it is from a different planet, bear in mind that as such time I did not know exactly what is the true belief and true submission to Allah, I just considered myself a Muslim as all Muslims do, but in reality was I a Muslim?, now I can say with certainty that no way that I was at such age, I found it impossible that any one at such young age can comprehend the whole picture and understand it perfectly then totally submit to Allah and His will

What happened in the following few years, some where between the age of 15 and 20 and for about 3 to 5 years, I thought that in no way the Quran is free from errors, so I decided to find an error, bearing in mind my strong knowledge in Arabic. Yet, for almost 5 years I could not find any, but I was fair, I did not look at it from a believer or a non believer perspective, I looked at it as being a different creature with the only weapon that I have, was my fluency in Arabic, in fact I remember that at least a couple of times I thought that I found a mistake then after deep evaluation, it turns out not to be, during those years my love to the Quran has intensified, seeing how it shuts me down decisively while at the same time reading more and more of its beautiful Arabic language.

Now, you must consider this fact, there was one subject in my Arabic language study that I really hated bad, it never made any sense to me and found it really hard to understand, it is the Arabic Poetry, man, I hated that subject really bad, not just its crap and unrealistic metaphors, and many times, useless messages, but also its Arabic vocabulary is really hard, it is like reading Arabic words from a different planet, yet the Quran sounds like clear cut poetry BUT I just loved it and found it so easy to understand, this fact was so strong in my mind that it had one conclusion, that the Quran is not a poetry, then I read in the Quran that it declares itself a non poetry, how amazing, indeed almost everything religious that I managed to understand on my own, I found it later on written in the Quran, even Pascal Wager (an idea that I support hard), I found it in the Quran, how amazing, this is when I stopped studying the Quran for the purpose of finding a mistake, I just conceded to myself that it does not have, nor it will have in the future whatever the future has in its bag.

I just went on studying it trying to understand its message, this happened before the days of the computer, or should I say, I did not start using a computer by that time, I remember well when I migrated to Australia in 1991, I spent about 2 years writing all the Quran notes and verse numbers in so may papers, too slow process of course, have I ever thought at that time that I will design an awesome Quran software? No way, it was not even in my wildest dreams

Therefore, two important points I found that I possess which made my decision to take on the task, a go, firstly, my fluency in Arabic, secondly my relationship with the Quran which is going on for years alhamdulleah and just by fitrah, I always kept my self away from those confused Ulamaa, Imams, Mullah, Shiekhs and Muftis, all of them mean and still mean nothing to me, of course that is when they start talk Bukhari Springer hadith.

For the negative fact of my non fluency in English, after looking at such issue very carefully, I found that it should not be of any problem, firstly, the internet is there for me to find an answer for any English language question, I can also ask others if I am stuck, but I believe my English is good enough to take on the task. Yet, to really tackle my weakness in it, I took the decision to do another draft based on the first draft, this is when I will fix all such English inshaallah, I am hoping that such phase takes no more than a year, I just want to see such translation finished before I die, in fact I believe that I am living for such important cause (do not forget that most Muslims are non Arabic speakers)

But I have to add that as long as I am living, the hadith worshippers won’t escape me, this is another cause that I am living for, to expose such confused Muslims with no mercy, why I have to do it with no mercy? because simply I had enough of their crap, as well I am sure that they will have no mercy for me, so why should I have it for them? I won’t and I will stay as aggressive as I can be and the more is the better with such people who try hard to shut you up with crap, lies and manipulations

If you really want my honest opinion, these people are the true enemy of our great religion, it is not the kafirs who call Mohammed a pedophile and a thug or whatever insult, it is those criminals from among the Muslims who have given a reason on a plate of gold for the kafirs to do so

Now I thank the kafirs who indirectly made me aware of all such crap promoted by the Muslims themselves, this means that indeed, the kafirs are not my enemy, my enemy are those Mushrik Muslims who have succeeded over 1200 years in fuking up our religion after they submitted to Satan, now it is about time to turn the table over them and confront them with no fear except from Allah

Sorry about such boring story, I thought I had to write something after finishing phase one of the Quran translation, and here you have it

Can’t wait till I start phase two, but I say, I should have a small break while outlining what exactly that I will be doing and how I get into a rhythm to do it efficiently and without wasting any time

Finally, happy Eid to everyone, may Allah make it the best for all

Salam

[parvez_mushtaq]

[BMZ]

Congratulations, Ahmed

Jazakallah.

And now begins the toughest part of editing, checks and fine-tuning.

Do let me know, if you need any help.

Salaams & Eid Mubarak to you, family and all.

BMZ

[BMZ]

Congratulations, Ahmed

Jazakallah.

And now begins the toughest part of editing, checks and fine-tuning.

Do let me know, if you need any help.

Salaams & Eid Mubarak to you, family and all.

BMZ

[AhmedBahgat]

Thank you dear brothers

For BMZ, yes mate, I will need a lot of help from you. When I will have a question for you, I will raise a thread for you

Cheers

[AhmedBahgat]

Thank you dear brothers

For BMZ, yes mate, I will need a lot of help from you. When I will have a question for you, I will raise a thread for you

Cheers

[BMZ]

[BMZ]

[zack]

[AhmedBahgat]

Salam all

For brother BMZ, yeh man, as I said it is a gigantic of a task, I myself do not know how I managed to do phase one, I believe it is all in the hands of Allah, I am actually a non patient person by nature, how I have been that patinet and still to be?, I don't know, however that is another lesson for me that I learnt from the Quran translation, which is to be patient and Allah will never nullify your good deeds

For brother Zack, this is what I need man, I need people with better English than mine, I will take care of the Arabic part and most of the English part, but I need people like you to fine tune my English part

Take care

[AhmedBahgat]

Salam all

For brother BMZ, yeh man, as I said it is a gigantic of a task, I myself do not know how I managed to do phase one, I believe it is all in the hands of Allah, I am actually a non patient person by nature, how I have been that patinet and still to be?, I don't know, however that is another lesson for me that I learnt from the Quran translation, which is to be patient and Allah will never nullify your good deeds

For brother Zack, this is what I need man, I need people with better English than mine, I will take care of the Arabic part and most of the English part, but I need people like you to fine tune my English part

Take care

[zack]

[shindeiru]

Salaam ahmed and congratulations. May Allah reward you.

there is an interesting discussion going on here http://uiforum.uaeforum.org/forumdisplay.php?f=2, the forum of the notorious understanding-islam.com site.
it is a discussion going on on several threads in which i had a participation, on the validity of the hadith books as a source of religion. since i almost never openned the hadith books, i can hardly expose some of their absurdities, contrary to you who studied them. i use mainly Quran arguments to show that those books were never sanctionned by Allah, but if we could also give examples of contradictions within the hadith books as well as some absurd reports we could really nail the issue.
some very knowledgeable participants of both sides are contributing, maybe you could join in.

[AhmedBahgat]

[AhmedBahgat]

[AhmedBahgat]

Salam all

Sura 1 & 2 second draft has been finished, there were plenty of mistakes, some were really silly, but all good now and I am really happy with the final outcome, I also started the second draft of sura 3

Thanks for brother Life for helping out. May Allah consider it one of his best deeds

Cheers

[AhmedBahgat]

Salam all

Sura 1 & 2 second draft has been finished, there were plenty of mistakes, some were really silly, but all good now and I am really happy with the final outcome, I also started the second draft of sura 3

Thanks for brother Life for helping out. May Allah consider it one of his best deeds

Cheers

[AhmedBahgat]

Sura 3 second draft is finished:

http://www.free-islam.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=591

Salam

[AhmedBahgat]

Sura 3 second draft is finished:

http://www.free-islam.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=591

Salam

[BMZ]

[BMZ]

[AhmedBahgat]

Salam all

Last night, I have finished Free Islam Quran translation’s second draft, thanking Allah zillions of times won’t be even enough, this is due to the fact that I have never dreamed to go through the Quran letter by letter in my life, rather quick reading and while skipping hard verses that will have no affect on the basics of belief in Allah, His messengers, His angels, His scriptures and the judgement day. These are the five pillars of Iman (belief), if I have to make pillars for it, i.e. if you believe in the following five, then you are 100% a believer (not yet a Muslim though):

1- Allah
2- His messengers
3- His angels
4- His scriptures
5- The judgement day.

The above was clearly stated in the Quran:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ آمِنُواْ بِاللّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَالْكِتَابِ الَّذِي نَزَّلَ عَلَى رَسُولِهِ وَالْكِتَابِ الَّذِيَ أَنزَلَ مِن قَبْلُ وَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِاللّهِ وَمَلاَئِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلاَلاً بَعِيدًا (136)
O you who have believed! Believe in Allah and His messenger and the book which He has sent down upon His messenger and the book which He sent down before. And whoever disbelieves in Allah and His angels and His messengers and His books and the last day, then he has certainly strayed into distant misguidance.
[Al Quran ; 4:136]

-> See what we need to believe in: وَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِاللّهِ وَمَلاَئِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلاَلاً بَعِيدًا , i.e. And whoever disbelieves in Allah and His angels and His messengers and His books and the last day, then he has certainly strayed into distant misguidance. No need to believe in such man made books of crap hadith, certainly they are not in the five listed above, unless al-Mushrikoon come and tell us that: وَكُتُبِهِ , i.e. and His books cover the books of Bukhari and Muslim along with the Quran. A shifty trick that is already expired and used by the associate of those Mushrikoon, their master Bukhari, see:

Bukhari calls the man made books of sunnah the book of Allah

Back to the first point I was trying to make which is the fact that translating the Quran twice made me go through it letter by letter while never skipping any hard verse or word, amazing experience I have been through that I wanted never to stop, eventually it has to stop then release Free Islam English translation to the public for free. That must be obvious from the word ‘Free’ in its title Free Islam English Translation.

At the beginning I planed to have two drafts, the first draft started on 2007-05-29 and ended on 2009-09-16 (the end of last Ramadan), it took 2 years, 4 months and 4 days (about 856 days), i.e. an average of 7.4 verses/day. It was really hard I have to say, I entered into an environment that was totally foreign to me from the experience aspect, but not from the qualification/knowledge aspects. I was and still and will always be attached to the Quran since I was 14 years old, always liked the Arabic language and its grammar and finally know enough English and possess so many helpful tools to help me out, these three important qualifications certainly increased my confidence to take on such massive task that I never dreamed of in 42 years of my life. Let me also repeat this, Free Islam English translation (FIET) was never planned to be just another English translation added to the existing 100 or so to make the numbers, rather it differs in five aspects:

1- As literal as possible by translating and not interpreting
2- The words order in English should be the same as Arabic words order as possible
3- Consistency of the English words and their Arabic equivalent should be as high as possible
4- Free of any preconceived understandings from the man made books of hadith and sirah as possible
5- Be put in a way leaving no room for the kafirs enemy of Islam to use English words to cook laughable arguments against the Quran Arabic words.

Doing this with the mind alone is almost impossible, I needed technology to help me out to achieve the above, so making my living through technology came very handy indeed, it made my job so easy but yet very time consuming. It also made me innovative and design Access Quran software, which should come very handy through the final and third draft inshaallah.

I was planning to concentrate on the 5 items above through the second draft, however I was shocked with the amount of mistakes and typos I did (this is when I decided to make a third draft). I even left at least one verse untranslated; sorry guys, my eyes are not that strong somehow and they get really tired after sitting a couple of hours in front of a computer, however and just to let you know, I spend at least 10 hours in front of a computer for the last 15 years or so. So I decided to run the second draft as I ran the first draft, i.e. not concentrating on those 5 items whle not ignoring them at the same time, I did as much as I can through draft 1 and 2 but will kill it in draft 3 inshallah.

The second draft started on 2009-10-13 and ended on 2010-09-5 (the end of this Ramadan), it took 10 months and 24 days (about 329 days), i.e. an average of 19 verses/day. I am really happy with the outcome of draft 2, and I am looking forward for draft 3 inshaallah.

Draft 3 will run totally different to the first two drafts; firstly, a lot of verses will be done in one session inshaallah, somewhere between 50 and 100/day, about 130 days, just over 4 months, however I have planned 6 to 9 months for it because I will also be very busy doing the following multi tasking tasks:

1- Confirm the text of both the Arabic Quran with marks and without marks

2- Confirm consistency all around the Quran by creating a database to hold key words and sentences as I progress through draft 3, which is going to be very helpful and accurate way of increasing consistency.

3- Copy Free Islam English translation to Access Quran.

4- Copy Free Islam English translation to Free Islam Quran module which should also populate into the random Quran verse seen in the top right corner of Free Islam home page

5- Enhance Access Quran software and prepare it for public distribution.

6- Post all Quran MP3 files on Free Islam which will be used with Access Quran MP3 player

I am indeed excited and looking forward to finish the above massive work by August 2011 isnhaallah, may extend it to October 2011 if needed.

Finally I would like to thank my dear brother Life from Norway for giving me a hand in Free Islam English translation by running his own check from start to finish; his dates of checks are marked in orange text while mine are in red. I think he reached sura 12 so far. Thank you very much dear brother.

Happy Eid to everyone and will talk to you soon inshaallah after I have a little break.

Salam

[AhmedBahgat]

Salam all

Last night, I have finished Free Islam Quran translation’s second draft, thanking Allah zillions of times won’t be even enough, this is due to the fact that I have never dreamed to go through the Quran letter by letter in my life, rather quick reading and while skipping hard verses that will have no affect on the basics of belief in Allah, His messengers, His angels, His scriptures and the judgement day. These are the five pillars of Iman (belief), if I have to make pillars for it, i.e. if you believe in the following five, then you are 100% a believer (not yet a Muslim though):

1- Allah
2- His messengers
3- His angels
4- His scriptures
5- The judgement day.

The above was clearly stated in the Quran:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ آمِنُواْ بِاللّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَالْكِتَابِ الَّذِي نَزَّلَ عَلَى رَسُولِهِ وَالْكِتَابِ الَّذِيَ أَنزَلَ مِن قَبْلُ وَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِاللّهِ وَمَلاَئِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلاَلاً بَعِيدًا (136)
O you who have believed! Believe in Allah and His messenger and the book which He has sent down upon His messenger and the book which He sent down before. And whoever disbelieves in Allah and His angels and His messengers and His books and the last day, then he has certainly strayed into distant misguidance.
[Al Quran ; 4:136]

-> See what we need to believe in: وَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِاللّهِ وَمَلاَئِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلاَلاً بَعِيدًا , i.e. And whoever disbelieves in Allah and His angels and His messengers and His books and the last day, then he has certainly strayed into distant misguidance. No need to believe in such man made books of crap hadith, certainly they are not in the five listed above, unless al-Mushrikoon come and tell us that: وَكُتُبِهِ , i.e. and His books cover the books of Bukhari and Muslim along with the Quran. A shifty trick that is already expired and used by the associate of those Mushrikoon, their master Bukhari, see:

Bukhari calls the man made books of sunnah the book of Allah

Back to the first point I was trying to make which is the fact that translating the Quran twice made me go through it letter by letter while never skipping any hard verse or word, amazing experience I have been through that I wanted never to stop, eventually it has to stop then release Free Islam English translation to the public for free. That must be obvious from the word ‘Free’ in its title Free Islam English Translation.

At the beginning I planed to have two drafts, the first draft started on 2007-05-29 and ended on 2009-09-16 (the end of last Ramadan), it took 2 years, 4 months and 4 days (about 856 days), i.e. an average of 7.4 verses/day. It was really hard I have to say, I entered into an environment that was totally foreign to me from the experience aspect, but not from the qualification/knowledge aspects. I was and still and will always be attached to the Quran since I was 14 years old, always liked the Arabic language and its grammar and finally know enough English and possess so many helpful tools to help me out, these three important qualifications certainly increased my confidence to take on such massive task that I never dreamed of in 42 years of my life. Let me also repeat this, Free Islam English translation (FIET) was never planned to be just another English translation added to the existing 100 or so to make the numbers, rather it differs in five aspects:

1- As literal as possible by translating and not interpreting
2- The words order in English should be the same as Arabic words order as possible
3- Consistency of the English words and their Arabic equivalent should be as high as possible
4- Free of any preconceived understandings from the man made books of hadith and sirah as possible
5- Be put in a way leaving no room for the kafirs enemy of Islam to use English words to cook laughable arguments against the Quran Arabic words.

Doing this with the mind alone is almost impossible, I needed technology to help me out to achieve the above, so making my living through technology came very handy indeed, it made my job so easy but yet very time consuming. It also made me innovative and design Access Quran software, which should come very handy through the final and third draft inshaallah.

I was planning to concentrate on the 5 items above through the second draft, however I was shocked with the amount of mistakes and typos I did (this is when I decided to make a third draft). I even left at least one verse untranslated; sorry guys, my eyes are not that strong somehow and they get really tired after sitting a couple of hours in front of a computer, however and just to let you know, I spend at least 10 hours in front of a computer for the last 15 years or so. So I decided to run the second draft as I ran the first draft, i.e. not concentrating on those 5 items whle not ignoring them at the same time, I did as much as I can through draft 1 and 2 but will kill it in draft 3 inshallah.

The second draft started on 2009-10-13 and ended on 2010-09-5 (the end of this Ramadan), it took 10 months and 24 days (about 329 days), i.e. an average of 19 verses/day. I am really happy with the outcome of draft 2, and I am looking forward for draft 3 inshaallah.

Draft 3 will run totally different to the first two drafts; firstly, a lot of verses will be done in one session inshaallah, somewhere between 50 and 100/day, about 130 days, just over 4 months, however I have planned 6 to 9 months for it because I will also be very busy doing the following multi tasking tasks:

1- Confirm the text of both the Arabic Quran with marks and without marks

2- Confirm consistency all around the Quran by creating a database to hold key words and sentences as I progress through draft 3, which is going to be very helpful and accurate way of increasing consistency.

3- Copy Free Islam English translation to Access Quran.

4- Copy Free Islam English translation to Free Islam Quran module which should also populate into the random Quran verse seen in the top right corner of Free Islam home page

5- Enhance Access Quran software and prepare it for public distribution.

6- Post all Quran MP3 files on Free Islam which will be used with Access Quran MP3 player

I am indeed excited and looking forward to finish the above massive work by August 2011 isnhaallah, may extend it to October 2011 if needed.

Finally I would like to thank my dear brother Life from Norway for giving me a hand in Free Islam English translation by running his own check from start to finish; his dates of checks are marked in orange text while mine are in red. I think he reached sura 12 so far. Thank you very much dear brother.

Happy Eid to everyone and will talk to you soon inshaallah after I have a little break.

Salam