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The Noble Qur'an (with those words understood here as referring to this particular translation, rather than the Quran itself - also commonly called 'Noble' by Muslims) is a translation of the Qur'an by Muhammad Muhsin Khan (Arabic: محمد محسن خان, muḥammad muḥsin khān) and Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali (Arabic: محمد تقي الدين الهلالي, muḥammad taqiyyu-d-dīn al-hilālī).
This English translation comes with a seal of approval from both the University of Medina and the Saudi Dar al-Ifta. It is also the most widely distributed version, of the Qur'an in the English language. The Saudi-financed translation is interspersed with commentaries from Tabari, Qurtubi, and Ibn Kathir. The translation has been described as being steeped in Wahhabi theology and has been criticized by a number of Muslim scholars and academics.
Criticism
The Hilali-Khan translation has been criticized for inserting the interpretations of the Wahabi school directly into the English rendition of the Qur'an. It has been accused of inculcating Muslims and potential Muslims with militant interpretations of Islam through parenthesis, as teachings of the Qur'an itself.
Dr. Ahmed Farouk Musa, an academician at Monash University, considered the Hilali-Khan translation as being a major cause of extremism and a work of propaganda distributed by Saudi religious authorities with money from its oil-rich government. Similarly, Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, head of Bethesda's Minaret of Freedom Institute, has claimed that the translation is a Wahabi rendering of the Qur'an and is not accepted by Muslims in the US.
A number of academics have also criticized the Hilali-Khan translation on stylistic and linguistic grounds. Dr William S. Peachy, an American professor of English at College of Medicine, King Saud University at Qasseem considered the translation "repulsive" and rejected by anyone outside of Saudi Arabia. Dr. Abdel-Haleem, Arabic Professor at SOAS, London University, noted that he found the Hilali-Khan translation "repelling".
The Director of King Fahd International Centre for Translation, King Saud University, Riyad, Dr. A. Al-Muhandis, expressed his dissatisfaction with the translation’s style and language, being too poor and simplistic.
The Hilali-Khan translation has also been criticised by several prominent Western Muslim academics as well. Khaleel Mohammed, Sheila Musaji, Robert Crane, and Khaled Abou El Fadl has taken the translation to task for supposed Muslim supremacism and bigotry.