Dr. Latif’s father was a member of the Qadriah silsila. He became furious to know about his boy’s admission to the Government school. The boy was confronted one day with a fierce question by his father, “What are you going to do by learning English?” Lean and short-built boy replied resolutely, “After learning English I shall translate Qur’an into this language”. Dr. Abdul Latif’s translation is ranked among the three foremost translations of Qur’an from Arabic into English.
The other two standard translations are that of Abdullah Yousuf Ali’s first published in 1934 and Muhammad Marmaduke Pikthal’s Meaning of the Glorious Quran published in 1938. Dr. Abdul Latif was a professor of English at Osmania University, Hyderabad, India during the Nizam’s period. He wrote several books and scholarly treatises.His main contribution is translation of the Holy Qur’an into English. Moulana Abul Kalam Azad, was a renowned scholar turned political leader and one of the foremost freedom fighters. |
His commentary of the Qur’an ‘Tarjuman al Quran’ is a masterpiece in Urdu language. Moulana Azad became the Education Minister after independence. He could, of course, find a number of learned men to translate his work into English such as ‘Ghulam us-Sayyidain or, ‘Humayun Kabeer’. But his choice fell on Dr. Abdul Latif. Dr. Latif was not only an Aalim (Muslim theologian) but he was also an Institution in himself at the same time. |
