Kur'an Gerçek (Ali Rıza Safa)

القرآن الحق ⁦(علي رضا صفا)⁩

A Turkish rendering of the meanings of the Qur'an by Ali Rıza Safa, first published in 2014 by Ileri in Istanbul, then in editions with introduction and commentary (2018) and text-only editions up to 2021 under the title Kur'an-i Kerim Gerçek; it deliberately replaces Arabic religious vocabulary with vernacular Turkish, its translator holds that the Qur'an may be read in Turkish in prayer, and scholars in Kayseri objected in 2016 that it distorts the text.

Summary

Kur'an Gerçek ("The True Qur'an") is a Turkish rendering of the meanings of the Qur'an by Ali Rıza Safa, first published in 2014 by Ileri in Istanbul, one of more than 150 Turkish translations published in Turkey over the last century. ¹

Editions

It has appeared in two forms: with introduction and commentary (2014 and 2018), and as text only, in editions up to at least 2021; later editions are titled Kur'an-i Kerim Gerçek and carry some corrections. ¹ Little is known about the translator, the editions say nothing about him, and he appears to have no links to the network of Turkish scholars trained in the theology faculties. ¹

What it contains

The translation deliberately replaces Arabic religious vocabulary with vernacular Turkish, down to the name of al-Masjid al-Haram, and is dedicated to Atatürk. ¹ In the 2018 introduction Safa argues that reading the Qur'an in Turkish in the obligatory prayers deepens them, and in his notes he rejects hadith qudsi. ¹

Reception

References

Mykhaylo Yakubovych, "Qur'an translation of the week #213", The Global Qur'an, 2025. ¹

Opinions on the question

The question: Does Kur'an Gerçek, and what its translator advocates, distort the meaning of the Qur'an?

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni (local scholars in Kayseri)Main reference

when the first edition was presented at the Kayseri book fair in 2016, a group of the city's scholars complained to the regional government that it distorted the text (tahrif) and asked for its distribution to be halted; no ban or legal action followed. ¹

More opinions (1)

Academic reading viewSecondary opinion

Mykhaylo Yakubovych sees the deliberate "de-Arabisation" as the reason for the objection and judges it a marginal work, though a useful one for understanding Turkey's contemporary debates between secularism and tradition. ¹

The Message of the Qur'an

Muhammad Asad's English rendering of the meanings of the Qur'an with his commentary in the notes, published complete in Gibraltar in 1980 by Dar al-Andalus after a partial edition of the first nine suras in Geneva in 1964; he declared his debt to Muhammad Abduh and drew on classical tafsir in the notes, many read it as rationalist, the Saudi Permanent Committee for Ifta criticised it, it has never been printed in Saudi Arabia, and it has been translated into German, Spanish, Bosnian, Turkish and Swedish, among others.

Kur'an Gerçek (Ali Rıza Safa)

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Summary

Editions

What it contains

Reception

References

Opinions on the question

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni (local scholars in Kayseri)Main reference

Academic reading viewSecondary opinion

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The Message of the Qur'an