The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary

«The meaning, the language, and every word and letter in the Quran, its sound when recited, and its text written upon various physical surfaces are all considered sacred.» — y extiende lo sagrado a todos los estratos del libro a la vez: el sentido, la lengua, cada palabra y cada letra, el sonido al recitarlo y el texto escrito sobre cualquier superficie.

«Considered the Book (al-Kitāb) by all Muslims, it has many names, such as al-Furqān (“the Criterion”) and al-Hudā (“the Guide”), but its most commonly used name is al-Qurʾān, which means “the Recitation.» — Nasr enumera los nombres del libro y traduce el que más se usa: al-Qurʾān, *la Recitación*.

«The Quran is the constant companion of Muslims in the journey of life. Its verses are the first sounds recited into the ear of the newborn child. It is recited during the marriage ceremony, and its verses are usually the last words that a Muslim hears upon the approach of death.» — y sitúa el libro en el ciclo entero de una vida: sus versículos son los primeros sonidos recitados al oído del recién nacido y suelen ser las últimas palabras que un musulmán oye al acercarse la muerte.

«The Quran is an ever present source of blessing or grace (barakah) deeply experienced by Muslims as permeating all of life.» — Nasr nombra lo que del libro se recibe con un término propio, *barakah*, y lo da por experimentado como algo que permea la vida toda.

«This Book, according to Islam, was revealed by Gabriel to the Prophet during the twenty-three years of his prophetic mission on different occasions during night and day, in both Makkah and Madinah, in such a manner that, although the words of the Quran came out of his mouth, its Author is God.» — Nasr enuncia la doctrina de la autoría con la distinción que la sostiene: las palabras salieron de la boca del Profeta y el Autor es Dios.

«The Prophet was the instrument through which the reality of the Quran, which existed with God on a level of reality beyond time, in what Muslims call the Preserved Tablet (al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ; 85:22), was revealed to men and women in this world.» — y sitúa la realidad previa del libro en la Tabla Preservada, al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ, con remisión a la aleya 85:22; el Profeta figura como instrumento.

«That is why revelation itself is often described as “descent” (tanzīl), which means that the Quran was a reality before its revelation or descent to the Prophet and therefore not his own words, as claimed by those who have denied the revealed nature of the Quran over the ages.» — de ahí, dice Nasr, que la revelación se describa como *descenso*, tanzīl: el Corán era realidad antes de descender, y por eso no son palabras del Profeta, contra lo que sostienen quienes han negado su carácter revelado.

«And yet something of the reality of the Prophet’s soul is present in the Quran, and that is why, when asked about his character, his wife ʿĀʾishah replied, “His character was the Quran.”» — Nasr matiza la distinción anterior citando la respuesta de ʿĀʾishah sobre el carácter de su marido: algo de la realidad del alma del Profeta sí está presente en el libro.

«The Quran contains above all a doctrine about the nature of reality on all its levels, from Absolute Reality Itself, that is, the One God, to the reality of creation both macrocosmic and microcosmic.» — al enumerar los grandes temas del libro, Nasr pone primero una doctrina sobre la naturaleza de lo real en todos sus niveles, de la Realidad Absoluta a la creación macrocósmica y microcósmica.

«God is One, at once impersonal and personal, transcendent and immanent, majestic and beautiful, beyond all that we can conceive and yet nearer to us than our jugular vein, as the Quran itself asserts so poetically (50:16).» — y dice el modo de esa unidad por pares que no se excluyen: impersonal y personal, trascendente e inmanente, majestuoso y bello, más allá de lo concebible y más cercano que la vena yugular, con la remisión a la aleya 50:16 dentro del propio paréntesis del impreso.

«The Quran also reveals a galaxy of Divine Names and Qualities, which by virtue of being revealed are sacred and provide the means of not only knowing God, but also of returning to Him.» — Nasr sostiene que los Nombres y Cualidades divinos, por ser revelados, son sagrados y son medio no solo de conocer a Dios sino de volver a Él.

«Islamic doctrine based upon the Quran distinguishes between the Divine Essence, which is beyond all names, qualities, attributes, and descriptions;» — y traza la distinción de tres planos con que la doctrina islámica ordena lo divino, empezando por la Esencia, que queda más allá de todo nombre y atributo; el tramo se corta en el punto y coma del impreso, y los otros dos planos son los Nombres y los Actos.

«The testimony of faith in Islam, that is, the first shahādah, lā ilāha illa’Llāh (“There is no god but God”), a phrase that was revealed in the Quran itself (37:35; 47:19), is not only the supreme statement concerning Divine Unity and Transcendence, but also the means of reintegrating all positive qualities back into the One.» — Nasr lee la primera shahādah en dos registros a la vez: enunciado supremo sobre la Unidad y la Trascendencia, y medio de reintegrar toda cualidad positiva en el Uno.

«Metaphysically it means that there is ultimately no reality but the Divine Reality.» — y saca de ahí la formulación metafísica: en última instancia no hay más realidad que la Realidad divina.

«No sacred scripture of which we have knowledge speaks more about the cosmos and the world of nature than does the Quran, where one finds extensive teachings about cosmogenesis, cosmic history, eschatological events marking the end of the cosmic order as it now exists, and the phenomena of nature as revealing Divine Wisdom.» — Nasr enuncia una comparación entre escrituras y la acota a lo que él conoce: ninguna habla más del cosmos y del mundo natural que el Corán, con enseñanzas sobre cosmogénesis, historia cósmica y fin del orden cósmico.

«In fact, the Quran refers to these phenomena as āyāt (“signs,” or symbols), employing the same word that is used for the verses of the Sacred Book.» — y señala que el libro llama a los fenómenos de la naturaleza con la misma palabra que a sus propios versículos, āyāt, *signos*.

«That is why they have so often referred to the cosmos as “the cosmic Quran” (al-qurʾān al-takwīnī), the meaning of whose “verses” can only be understood by means of “the written Quran” (al-qurʾān al-tadwīnī), that is, the book of the Quran, which is Islam’s sacred scripture.» — de ahí, dice Nasr, la fórmula de los sabios musulmanes: un *Corán cósmico*, al-qurʾān al-takwīnī, cuyos versículos solo se entienden por el *Corán escrito*, al-qurʾān al-tadwīnī.

«Of course, as many traditions of the Prophet (aḥādīth, sing. ḥadīth) have indicated, the Quran possesses an outward meaning (ẓāhir) and an inward meaning (bāṭin), in fact several inner meanings, the most inward of which is said, according to tradition, to be known only to God.» — Nasr consigna, apoyado en los ḥadīth, la doctrina de los dos sentidos: uno exterior, ẓāhir, y uno interior, bāṭin, con varios sentidos internos, el más interior de los cuales la tradición reserva a Dios.

«Grasping the multiple levels of meaning of the Quranic text is essential for learning to “read” the cosmic book and for the full understanding of all of its teachings, including the metaphysics, cosmology, science of the human state, eschatology, and spiritual life of which the Quran speaks.» — y hace de la captación de esos niveles la condición para *leer* el libro cósmico y para entender la metafísica, la cosmología, la ciencia del estado humano y la escatología de que el libro habla.

«it is important to emphasize that the Quran is the fundamental source of Islamic Law (al-Sharīʿah) and that, although historically the Prophet has been called, like Moses, a legislator, the ultimate legislator is considered in Islam to be God» — Nasr sitúa el libro como fuente fundamental de la Ley islámica y distingue dos legisladores: al Profeta se le ha llamado legislador como a Moisés, y el legislador último es Dios; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue con el nombre al-Shāriʿ.

«Himself, who is often called al-Shāriʿ, “the Legislator.” A few hundred Quranic verses deal in a concrete manner with law, while others deal with principles upon which revealed laws are based.» — la frase sigue en la plana siguiente nombrando a Dios al-Shāriʿ, *el Legislador*, y reparte el material legal del libro: unos cientos de versículos tratan la ley de modo concreto y otros los principios en que las leyes reveladas se fundan.

«In fact, for Muslims the Islamic Sharīʿah, or Divine Law, is the concrete embodiment of the Divine Will as elaborated in the Quran for the followers of Islam; and from the Islamic point of view the scriptures of all divinely revealed religions, each of which possesses its own sharīʿah (see 5:48), have the same function in those religions.» — y extiende la función a toda revelación: para los musulmanes la sharīʿah es la Voluntad divina hecha concreta, y desde el punto de vista islámico cada religión revelada tiene la suya, con remisión a la aleya 5:48.

«The Quran is also a book of ethics. It provides the criteria for discernment between not only truth and falsehood, beauty and ugliness, but also good and evil.» — Nasr añade el registro ético y dice qué discierne: verdad y falsedad, belleza y fealdad, bien y mal.

«Although it emphasizes that human beings should use their God-given gift of intelligence (al-ʿaql) to discern what is true, beautiful, and good, it also insists that it is necessary to have faith in the revelation that provides the final judgment as to what is true and good and in fact allows human intelligence to be fully operative rather than becoming atrophied by human passions.» — y ordena inteligencia y fe sin oponerlas: al-ʿaql discierne, y la fe en la revelación es lo que permite a esa inteligencia operar plenamente en vez de atrofiarse por las pasiones.

«This sacred history confines itself almost completely to the Abrahamic tradition and the Israelite prophets, although some Arab prophets not found in the Bible are also mentioned.» — sobre la historia sagrada del libro, Nasr señala que se ciñe casi por entero a la tradición abrahámica y a los profetas israelitas, con algunos profetas árabes ausentes de la Biblia.

«For Muslims, the sacred history narrated in the Quran was revealed by God to the Prophet; it is not simply a compilation of reports heard from Jewish or Christian sources.» — y consigna la posición de los musulmanes sobre el origen de esa historia: revelada por Dios al Profeta y no compilación de informes oídos de fuentes judías o cristianas.

«the Biblical accounts have a more historical nature, Quranic sacred history is more ahistorical and is revealed primarily to teach ethical and spiritual lessons. Quranic sacred history is seen more as events within the human soul rather than as just historical events in the world.» — Nasr traza la diferencia entre los dos relatos: el bíblico de naturaleza más histórica y el coránico más ahistórico, revelado sobre todo para enseñar lecciones éticas y espirituales y leído como sucesos dentro del alma.

«All human beings possess within their being, for example, the qualities of Moses and those of Pharaoh, the beauty of Joseph and the conniving of his brothers; this sacred history is a means of teaching Muslims about their own souls as well as about good and evil and the ultimate triumph of good over evil, if one takes recourse in God, seeks His Help, and has confidence in Him throughout the trials of life, as did prophets of old.» — y da la regla de lectura que se sigue de eso: cada ser humano lleva dentro las cualidades de Moisés y las del Faraón, la belleza de José y la intriga de sus hermanos.

«The Quranic conception of the march of time is in a sense cyclical: each cycle is marked by the descent of a message from God through a prophet, the gradual forgetting of that message by the particular people to whom it was sent, and usually the occurrence of a Divinely willed calamity, followed by the coming of a new prophet.» — Nasr describe la marcha del tiempo como cíclica y dice el ciclo: descenso de un mensaje por un profeta, olvido gradual del mensaje, calamidad querida por Dios, y venida de un nuevo profeta.

«But these cycles of prophecy are not endless. Rather, the Quran announces that the Prophet of Islam is the Seal of prophets (33:40) in the chain of prophecy and that after him will come not another prophet, but eschatological events that mark the end of this world and present-day humanity.» — y pone término a la serie: el Profeta del islam es el Sello de los profetas, según la aleya 33:40, y tras él no viene otro profeta sino los sucesos escatológicos.

«The Quran expresses these eschatological realities in a most powerful, concrete, and at the same time highly symbolic language.» — sobre el lenguaje de la escatología, Nasr lo da a la vez poderoso y concreto y altamente simbólico.

«Moreover, Quranic language is at once concrete and sensuous, to be understood by the simplest believers, and symbolic and metaphysical, to satisfy the needs of sages and saints.» — y hace de esa doble lectura un rasgo del lenguaje coránico entero: concreto y sensual para el creyente más simple, simbólico y metafísico para sabios y santos.

«The paradisal delights described in the Quran are not sublimations of earthly delights, as some have claimed; but earthly delights, both those that are permissible to Muslims in this life and those, such as wine, that are not, are presented as earthly reflections of paradisal realities.» — Nasr objeta la lectura que hace de los deleites del Paraíso sublimaciones de los terrenos e invierte la relación: los terrenos son reflejos de realidades paradisíacas.

«The Quran is also a book of knowledge, and for Muslims it contains the roots of all authentic knowledge as traditionally understood, not as seen by some modern scientistic commentators who seek to identify various verses of the Noble Book with this or that recent scientific theory or discovery.» — Nasr llama al libro también libro de conocimiento y acota en la misma frase contra qué: contra los comentaristas cientificistas que identifican versículos con teorías o descubrimientos recientes.

«In traditional Islamic civilization, all the Islamic sciences, from jurisprudence to astronomy, from theology to medicine, were considered to have their root in the Quran; in fact, all Islamic thought and art can be viewed as commentaries on it.» — y da la fórmula de la civilización tradicional: todas las ciencias islámicas, de la jurisprudencia a la astronomía y de la teología a la medicina, tienen su raíz en el libro, y el pensamiento y el arte islámicos pueden verse como comentarios suyos.

«Not only was the Quranic message foundational for the development of the Islamic sciences, but it was and remains the essential reality in the creation of the Islamic arts, whose principles derive from the ḥaqīqah, or inner truth, of the Quran.» — sobre las artes, Nasr deriva sus principios de la ḥaqīqah o verdad interior del libro.

«The fact that Islamic civilization has produced so much outstanding poetry, but practically no sculpture of consequence, and the fact that calligraphy is so central to Muslim life, are directly related to the Quranic message, in both its form and content.» — y liga al mensaje, en su forma y en su contenido, dos hechos de la civilización: mucha poesía y prácticamente ninguna escultura de consideración, con la caligrafía en el centro.

«The message of the Quran concerning religion is universal. Even when it speaks of islām, it refers not only to the religion revealed through the Prophet of Islam, but to submission to God in general.» — Nasr sostiene la universalidad del mensaje y la funda en el propio término: islām nombra también la sumisión a Dios en general, no solo la religión revelada por el Profeta.

«Therefore, in the Quran Abraham and Jesus are also called muslim in the sense of “submitter.”» — y saca la consecuencia sobre dos nombres de la historia sagrada: Abraham y Jesús son llamados muslim en el sentido de *sometido*.

«The Quranic message is based on the universality of revelation, and the Sacred Text states explicitly that there are no people to whom God has not sent a messenger, as in 16:36: We indeed sent a messenger unto every community, “Worship God, and shun false deities!”» — Nasr apoya la universalidad de la revelación en la aleya 16:36, que cita en la traducción del propio volumen: no hay pueblo al que Dios no haya enviado un mensajero.

«SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR (Editor-in-Chief), University Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University, is an international authority on Islamic philosophy, mysticism, art, and science as well as comparative religion and religion and ecology.» — la solapa del Editorial Board presenta al editor en jefe: profesor universitario de estudios islámicos en la George Washington University; texto editorial del volumen, no voz de la obra.

«CANER K. DAGLI (General Editor), Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, is a specialist in Sufism, Islamic philosophy, interfaith dialogue, and Quranic studies.» — y a uno de los tres editores generales como especialista en sufismo, filosofía islámica, diálogo interreligioso y estudios coránicos; solapa editorial.

«MARIA MASSI DAKAKE (General Editor) is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University, specializing in Shiism, Sufism, Islamic philosophy and theology, the Quran, interfaith dialogue, and issues related to women and the feminine in classical Islam.» — la misma solapa presenta a la segunda editora general por sus campos: chiismo, sufismo, filosofía y teología islámicas, el Corán y las cuestiones de las mujeres en el islam clásico.

«JOSEPH E. B. LUMBARD (General Editor) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Arabic and Translation Studies at the American University of Sharjah and an Associate Editor for the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān (in progress). A specialist in Quranic studies, Sufism, Islamic philosophy, comparative theology, and Islamic ecotheology,» — y al tercero, situado en el Department of Arabic and Translation Studies de la American University of Sharjah; solapa editorial.

«MOHAMMED RUSTOM (Assistant Editor), Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Carleton University, specializes in Sufism, Islamic philosophy and theology, and Quranic exegesis.» — la solapa cierra con el editor asistente, especialista en sufismo, filosofía y teología islámicas y exégesis coránica.

«Caner K. Dagli wrote the commentary for sūrahs 2–3, 8–9, and 21–28, was the primary translator for sūrahs 2–3, 8–9, and 22–28, and was an editor for the remainder of the translation and commentary; he also conceived and supervised the design of the book.» — Editors' Contributions reparte el trabajo por suras: Dagli comentó las suras 2-3, 8-9 y 21-28 y tradujo las 2-3, 8-9 y 22-28, y de él es la concepción del diseño del libro.

«Maria Massi Dakake wrote the commentary for sūrahs 4–7 and 16–19, was the primary translator for sūrahs 4–7, 10–12, and 14–21, and was an editor for the remainder of the translation and commentary.» — Dakake comentó las suras 4-7 y 16-19 y tradujo las 4-7, 10-12 y 14-21; el comentario de la sura 4, que este tramo recorre entero, es suyo.

«Joseph E. B. Lumbard wrote the commentary for sūrahs 1 and 29–114, was the primary translator for sūrahs 1, 13, and 29–114, and was an editor for the remainder of the translation and commentary.» — Lumbard comentó la sura 1 y las suras 29-114 y tradujo la 1, la 13 y las 29-114; el comentario de la Fātiḥah, primera sura de este tramo, es suyo.

«Mohammed Rustom wrote the commentary for sūrahs 10–15 and 20 and contributed to editing other parts of the commentary and the translation.» — Rustom comentó las suras 10-15 y 20 y colaboró en la edición del resto del comentario y de la traducción.

«Major funding for The Study Quran was provided by: The Institute for Religion and Civic Values The El-Hibri Foundation» — los Acknowledgments declaran de dónde salió el financiamiento principal del volumen.

«Our special thanks go to HarperOne and its editors Eric Brandt, who helped launch the project, and Mickey Maudlin, who has guided the project to» — y nombran a la casa editora y a sus dos editores sucesivos; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue en *completion*.

«A list of abbreviations for the commentators cited in this work is to be found on pages lvii» — la nota al pie de las Abbreviations remite la lista de siglas de comentaristas a las páginas impresas lvii a lix, que en este EPUB reflowado se reparten entre las planas 54 y 69: es el único rastro de folio impreso que el troceo conserva y no da fórmula constante.

«In transliteration, the hamzah (ء, see above) is not represented at the start of a word, but is elided into the following vowel, e.g., iḥsān, not ʾiḥsān.» — la guía de transliteración fija que el hamzah no se representa al principio de palabra.

«Another important instance of the connecting hamzah is the first letter of the Divine Name Allāh. For example, one writes lā ilāha illa’Llāh, not lā ilāha illā Allāh, with the capital “L” taking the place of the first letter of the Divine Name.» — y fija la forma en que el volumen escribe el Nombre divino cuando va elidido, con la L mayúscula en lugar de la primera letra.

«When spoken or recited, the l in the definite article al- takes on the sound that follows it in the case of certain consonants, traditionally called “sun letters”: t, th, d, dh, r, z, s, sh, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ẓ, l, n. For example, al-nūr is pronounced an-noor, not al» — la misma guía distingue letras solares y lunares por lo que le pasa a la l del artículo, y advierte que la diferencia no se refleja ni en la transliteración ni en la escritura árabe; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana.

«The history of the composition of The Study Quran began some nine years ago when the publisher HarperSanFrancisco (now HarperOne) approached me and asked me to become the chief editor for a volume that would be called The Study Quran and complement The HarperCollins Study Bible, which this firm had already published.» — Nasr cuenta el origen del encargo: la casa editora lo buscó para dirigir un volumen que hiciera juego con The HarperCollins Study Bible.

«I therefore accepted with humility on the condition that this would be a Muslim effort and that, although the book would be contemporary in language and based on the highest level of scholarship, it would not be determined or guided by assertions presented in studies by non-Muslim Western scholars and orientalists who have studied the Quran profusely as a historical, linguistic, or sociological document, or even a text of religious significance, but do not accept it as the Word of God and an authentic revelation.» — y declara la condición que puso al aceptar: que fuera un esfuerzo musulmán y que no lo guiaran las tesis de estudiosos occidentales no musulmanes que no aceptan el libro como Palabra de Dios.

«Rather, it would be grounded in the classic Islamic tradition in order to provide readers access to the many ways in which the Quran has been understood and explained by Muslims for over fourteen centuries.» — y dice contra qué se pone en su lugar: el fundamento en la tradición islámica clásica, para dar acceso a los muchos modos en que los musulmanes han entendido el libro.

«For the reasons mentioned above, I chose only Muslim scholars to collaborate with me in this task. At the same time, I did not want the work to be confined or limited confessionally, ethnically, or geographically. It was to be universal and at the same time traditional, that is, expressing traditional Islamic views and therefore excluding modernistic or fundamentalist interpretations that have appeared in parts of the Islamic world during the past two centuries. I set out to produce a text that reflects how Muslims have understood the Quran during their long history and how those Muslims who remain traditional, which means most of them, do so today.» — Nasr declara el criterio de selección y sus exclusiones: solo estudiosos musulmanes, obra universal y a la vez tradicional, con las interpretaciones modernistas y fundamentalistas de los dos últimos siglos dejadas fuera.

«We have consulted each other at every turn, and in cases of scholarly disagreement between the editors, I have been the final judge and arbiter.» — Nasr dice cómo se resolvieron los desacuerdos entre editores: la consulta mutua constante y él como juez y árbitro final.

«The primary contribution for the translation is as follows, by sūrah: Caner Dagli: 2–3, 8–9, 22– 28; Maria Dakake: 4–7, 10–12, 14–21; Joseph Lumbard: 1, 13, 29–114. The primary authorship of the commentary, which also includes a great degree of collaboration among all of the editors, is as follows, by sūrah: Caner Dagli: 2–3, 8–9, 21–28; Maria Dakake: 4–7, 16–19; Joseph Lumbard: 1, 29–114; Mohammed Rustom: 10–15, 20.» — la Introducción General repite el reparto por suras de la traducción y del comentario, y coincide con el de Editors' Contributions de la plana 11.

«The translation of the Quran into a Western language has a nearly thousand-year history going back to its translation into Latin ordered by Peter the Venerable in the eleventh century. The earliest translation in English appeared in the seventeenth century.» — Nasr data el arranque de la traducción a lengua occidental en la versión latina mandada hacer por Pedro el Venerable, y la primera inglesa en el siglo XVII.

«Most of the earlier translations were made by non-Muslims, many in order to refute Islam. In more recent decades, however, many translations have been made by Muslims themselves.» — y señala el cambio de manos: las primeras traducciones las hicieron no musulmanes, muchas para refutar el islam, y en décadas recientes las hacen musulmanes.

«there has never been nor can there ever be a single “official” or perfect translation of the Quran, even one approved by Muslim authorities, such as the religious authorities (ʿulamāʾ) of al-Azhar University.» — Nasr niega que haya o pueda haber una traducción oficial o perfecta del libro, ni siquiera aprobada por los ʿulamāʾ de al-Azhar.

«Our aim in the translation has been, first of all, to be as accurate and consistent as we could within the possibilities of the English language and with full consideration of the different “fields of meaning” that many words, both Arabic and English, possess, fields that often overlap only partially, and are not completely equivalent.» — el criterio declarado de la traducción es la exactitud y la consistencia dentro de lo que el inglés permite, con los *campos de significado* de cada palabra que solo se traslapan en parte.

«This effort included the creation of hundreds of secondary indexing documents and an enormous spreadsheet to track the use of individual words, phrases, and roots appearing in the translation.» — y Nasr describe el aparato de trabajo con que la consistencia se sostuvo: cientos de documentos de indexación secundaria y una hoja de cálculo para rastrear palabras, frases y raíces.

«Since we had the opportunity to explain in the commentary unfamiliar idioms or turns of phrase in the Quranic text as well as to expand upon the broader ranges of meaning that are alluded to in its verses, we could provide more literal translations in many instances.» — Nasr explica por qué la traducción pudo ser más literal: el comentario se hace cargo de los giros no familiares y de los rangos de sentido.

«Moreover, literal translation of certain Quranic verses or phrases is often necessary to make sense of the traditional commentaries on these verses, many of which offer substantial spiritual interpretations based upon philological or grammatical analyses of the verses.» — y da la segunda razón, que es de método: sin literalidad no se entienden los comentarios tradicionales, muchos de los cuales construyen su interpretación espiritual sobre análisis filológicos o gramaticales.

«Numerous commentaries have been written on the Quran over the ages not only in Arabic, but also in many other languages. Among the traditional commentaries some have been primarily grammatical and linguistic, and some historical, mostly in the sense of sacred history. Others have been legal, theological, philosophical, cosmological, scientific, metaphysical, esoteric, or mystical, and some several of these at once.» — Nasr clasifica los comentarios tradicionales por su registro: gramaticales y lingüísticos, históricos, legales, teológicos, filosóficos, cosmológicos, científicos, metafísicos, esotéricos o místicos, y a veces varios a la vez.

«In a sense the whole of the Islamic intellectual tradition is a commentary upon the Quran. Moreover, the sīrah literature (works dealing with the life of the Prophet), his Sunnah (or wont), and the Ḥadīth (traditions) are the first commentaries upon the Quran.» — y ensancha la categoría: la tradición intelectual islámica entera es comentario del libro, y la sīrah, la Sunnah y el Ḥadīth son sus primeros comentarios.

«Even the great works of Islamic architecture from the Dome of the Rock to the Taj Mahal may be said to be commentaries upon the Quran in stone. And lest one forget, the greatest mystical poem produced in Islamic civilization, the Mathnawī of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī, has been called “the Quran in the Pahlavi [i.e., Persian] language.”» — Nasr llama comentarios en piedra a la arquitectura islámica, del Domo de la Roca al Taj Mahal, y recuerda el nombre que se ha dado al Mathnawī de Rūmī: el Corán en lengua persa.

«To this end I chose three editors, all American, all with doctorates in Islamic studies from leading American universities, and all with direct experience of the Islamic world, familiarity with the traditional Islamic sciences, and mastery of classical Arabic.» — Nasr describe a los tres editores generales: estadounidenses, con doctorado en estudios islámicos de universidades estadounidenses de primera línea, con experiencia directa del mundo islámico y dominio del árabe clásico.

«To preserve diversity, I chose two men and one woman, two of whom, Joseph Lumbard and Maria Dakake, are American Muslims of Christian background, and one of whom, Caner Dagli, was born, in America, into a Muslim family of Circassian origin.» — y dice el criterio de diversidad con que los eligió: dos hombres y una mujer, dos de ellos musulmanes estadounidenses de origen cristiano y uno nacido en familia musulmana de origen circasiano.

«In our translation we have often consulted some of the best-known English» — Nasr declara que la traducción consultó las versiones inglesas más conocidas; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y la lista sigue en la siguiente.

«translations such as those of Yusuf Ali, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, Muhammad Asad, A. J. Arberry, ʿAlī Qūlī Qarāʾī, and Muhammad Abdel Haleem, but our rendition is based on the Arabic text itself and not on any previous translation.» — y en la plana siguiente nombra esas versiones —Yusuf Ali, Pickthall, Muhammad Asad, Arberry, ʿAlī Qūlī Qarāʾī, Abdel Haleem— dejando dicho que la suya se hizo sobre el texto árabe y no sobre ninguna de ellas.

«As for the commentary, many Quranic passages are cited in it, because these citations play a major role in understanding the manner in which particular Quranic passages are related to and elucidate one another.» — el volumen explica por qué su comentario cita tanto el propio texto: las remisiones muestran cómo unos pasajes se relacionan con otros y se elucidan entre sí.

«The use of this method is itself traditional, and many commentators over the ages have composed works based on commenting upon the Quran through the use of the Quranic text itself.» — y sitúa ese método dentro de la tradición: hay comentaristas que compusieron obras comentando el libro por el propio libro.

«When one reads the King James Version of the Bible, one is not only reading an expression of the English language, but also a text that has itself been a major factor in the formation of modern English as far as symbols, metaphors, proverbs, turns of phrase, and certain styles are concerned, not to mention religious ideas and their formulations.» — Nasr plantea la dificultad de traducir al inglés comparándola con la King James, que además de expresión del inglés fue factor en la formación del inglés moderno.

«One of the goals of The Study Quran is to help close this gap and to take a step toward transforming English into “an Islamic language,” of course not in an exclusive manner, but like Bengali, which is both a Hindu and an Islamic language.» — y declara una meta del volumen: acercar el inglés a ser *lengua islámica*, no de modo excluyente sino como el bengalí, que es a la vez hindú e islámico.

«In our commentary, therefore, we have endeavored to render the Arabic without importing a particular interpretation of its meaning into the text, that is, insisting that a word or phrase that is allusive in its meaning and full of different implications in Arabic be made explicit and unequivocal in English.» — el volumen declara su regla frente a la glosa interpretativa: verter el árabe sin meter en el texto una interpretación, sin volver explícito e inequívoco en inglés lo que en árabe es alusivo.