Whose baton am I carrying forward? Whose work am I carrying on?

Shen Hsia-huai, author of a recently published new translation of the Qur'an into Chinese entitled Clean and Pure River, often asks himself these questions. Shen, born into a Muslim lineage, studied engineering in school and is of an introverted character. With these questions prodding him on, he used free time and weekends to complete a 100,000 character long translation of the Qur'an, and see it through publication and proofreading. The concrete manifestation of his dedication finally came out at the beginning of this year; it is the second Chinese translation of the Qur'an published in Taiwan.

Work hard, work hard, work hard....

Shen's entr嶪 into translation of the Qur'an was a little indirect. His earliest translation of a sacred text was the Gospel of John of the Bible. At that time he was taking a correspondence course on the Bible. In his ten-month course he came to feel that Christianity and Islam are of one family. In particular, Jesus' "spirit of accepting God, accepting His will, and loving and glorifying God" as depicted in the Gospel of John "is the true spirit of Islam."

In his period of study, Shen concluded that the Chinese translation of the Gospel of John was not vernacular enough, lacking the emotional power of the English translation, and so he decided to re-translate the Gospel John.

With this experience behind him, about six months later he got a copy of an elegantly translated version of the Qur'an and started on the great task of translating it. That was June of 1983. In his notebook, he wrote "Work hard, work hard, work hard." Words to push himself forward.

Islam came to China over 1000 years ago, but the first Chinese language Qur'an-translated from a Japanese version by a non-believer named Tie Zheng-only appeared in the early Republican era.

Compared to the Bible, which has over 2000 translated versions, there are only 60-plus translated versions of the Qur'an. The key reason is that the main Muslim nations still use Arabic, the language of the original Qur'an, so there has been little need for translations. Scholars and linguists who understand Arabic feel the original is gracefully and concisely written, like a series of poems, and it is virtually impossible for translations to do justice to the original. In fact, among Muslims, many oppose any translation of the Koran at all.

Wang Jingzhai was the earliest Muslim to translate the Qur'an into Chinese. As a young man preparing to become an imam, he studied Arabic while refusing to learn Chinese, to insure that his interpretation of the Qur'an was unadulterated. After a trip abroad, he discovered that Chinese Muslims had little understanding of their own religion's doctrines, and were in dire need of an accurate Qur'an and other materials for interpreting it. He thus spent more than 20 years translating three Chinese texts altogether: one in classical Chinese, one in jingtangwen (an old form with specific religious terms left in their original form, that is, not translated into a common equivalent), and one in the vernacular.

Sadly, the war with Japan had just ended and the Civil War was underway, and in these turbulent times Wang's books-considered the most accurate translations-did not receive wide circulation. No one brought a copy to Taiwan. It was only later that Mohammad Sourour, secretary-general of the Muslim World League, discovered that there was a copy of Wang's jingtangwen version in Jeddah; he sent someone to bring it to Taipei, and donated money for the Chinese Muslim Association to print 2000 new copies. This highlights just how severe was the shortage of sacred Muslim books in Taiwan back then.

This situation not only worried Muslims; scholars of Islam felt this would hamper understanding of Islamic culture. Wang Shu-huai, an Academia Sinica specialist on the Muslim rebellion in Yunnan in the mid-Qing period, doesn't mince words: "Neither the Chinese Muslim Association nor the Taipei mosque even had a library, so how could Muslim culture be disseminated?"

Since Muslims do not proselytize, and people have little understanding of Islam, naturally misconceptions occur. Wang says that the repression by local officials that caused Muslim-Han conflicts in the late Qing was mostly due to gaps in understanding. The Qianlong era Muslim Jin Tianzhu said: "Other religions have found us inexplicable for thousands of years. Some say we are unorthodox, and have made up our rules. They say we speak strangely, wear strange clothes, and have a strange diet. They don't know which god we worship. They say we meet at night, and break up in the morning, that men are mingling with women. These doubts are all because there have been no explanations." The reason for the misconceptions was that "People haven't studied our books."

Even today, with people so highly educated, most Chinese have no deeper impressions of Muslims than "they can't eat pork" or "a sword in one hand, the Qur'an in the other." Indeed, says Shen Hsia-huai, even many Muslims don't understand Islamic doctrine very well, for several reasons: Traditionally the main language of Friday prayers was Arabic; although the imam would repeat in Chinese, the short, once-a-week speech could only convey a very limited amount of information. Moreover, Islam does not strictly require believers to attend juma (sabbath day) meetings, and many people don't pay close attention to the sermons. Thus, if they don't study on their own, even for those who are sincere and practice the "five obligations," is not their faith a blind one, without deeper spiritual progress? Moreover, Islam's greatest emotional power is in the Qur'an."It clears the mind and teaches the true way," he says.

The faithful believe that the Qur'an is a record of what the Prophet Mohammed received from Allah. Mohammed was illiterate; the Qur'an was compiled by his successors based on what Mohammed told them, and completed after his death, in the seventh century CE.

The Qur'an is divided into 30 chapters, so, reading it over the course of a month there is about one chapter per day. It is subdivided into 114 sections. Each section has a separate title, though these are not necessarily revealing about the subject matter, so that someone who has never read the Qur'an before might feel a little lost. Chapter 1 in the Qur'an is a simple prayer; other chapters are arranged according to length, not in the order in which they were written.

The Qur'an comes from Mohammed's teachings, delivered in segments rather than all in one sitting. Early on he was in Mecca, and later moved to Medina, so there was a major change in the environment in which he spoke. For example, in Mecca he emphasized the uniqueness of the one true God, His relationship to mankind, stories of the prophets, the duties of believers, and so on. In Medina, as the Islamic community grew, he discussed more explicitly the laws, rituals, and norms for interpersonal relations in the new society; he focused on very pragmatic considerations like inheritance, marriage, the status of women, and so on.

Permeating the whole text is Mohammed's special style. The Encyclopedia Americana says that when delivering his revelations, Mohammed spoke in a very moving style-in a joyful manner, with great power and lyricism. The fact that his mode of speech was not ordinary is one reason why it is so hard to do justice to the original in translation.

In Taiwan, it is only in the last few years that there have been vernacular Chinese translations available. Most of these were done by Muslims in mainland China. When Shen was beginning his translation more than 10 years ago, the most widespread Qur'an on the market was Huakang Publishing Company's Mandarin Qur'an. But that was not very widely circulated. Shen feels that ideally a translation of the Qur'an should capture the moving power and lyricism of the Arabic. "It should feel like the kind of thing you'd hear from your Mom and Dad," so it can capture the original's special intimacy and emotional power.

Thus Shen decided to make a new translation, as close as possible to the original and suited to the reading habits of Chinese. He felt a great sense of mission: Being a well-educated Chinese Muslim in a difficult time, he felt he had to bring this treasure of Muslim culture to the broad mass of Chinese society, and he knew he would always regret it if he did not do so. Wanting to use language familiar to ordinary people, he broke with tradition and used names from the Christian Bible for personages. He also dispensed with annotations, so people could understand the Qur'an in their own way.

Happy and moved by the fruits of labor, besides being happy and moved, he hopes to have more readers, whatever their faith. "Anyone interested in the truth should have a look at this book, so that they have at least some understanding of Islam." If this brings people to the faith, naturally that is good, but it's enough to satisfy his hopes if people will read the Qur'an, "to give Islam a chance to show itself for what it is."

In 1980, the late Sheikh Mohammed Ali Harakan, then secretary-general of the Muslim World League, came to Taiwan. When visiting the Xuan Zang Pagoda in Sun Moon Lake, he was told that Buddhism entered China only 30 years earlier than Islam, and that its later sweeping success in China was due in no small part to the monk Xuan Zang bringing back sacred texts from India and translating them into Chinese. Harakan said that it would be good for Muslims to do the same, and he asked Ting Chung-ming to translate a broadly accessible Qur'an. At that time Shen Hsia-huai expressed his desire to help. Being too busy, Imam Ting only translated the first few sections, but Shen didn't give up, completing his own translation.

Religion is the most profound aspect of human culture. Of the many great transmitters of religion in history, Shen Hsia-huai is the most recent to take the relay baton for Islam in Taiwan. He has reached one finish line, but wants to continue on. Undoubtedly the flame of Islam in China will continue to be passed from generation to generation.

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For Shen Hsia-huai, author of a new Chinese translation of the Koran, spreading the message of Islam in China is a mission. (photo by Diago Chiu)