Translating Prophetic narrations to other languages Fatwa No: 92304
- Fatwa Date:10-8-2006
Is it permissible to translate the narrations of the Prophet, sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam, word by word to English or to German or to any other languages?
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
Yes, it is permissible to translate the narrations of the Prophet to languages other than Arabic provided the translator understands correctly the Arabic meaning of the narrations, in addition to mastering the target language so that he will be able to render the meaning correctly and accurately. The majority of the scholars are of the view that it is permissible to report the narrations with its meaning (i.e. not with the exact wordings), which proves the permissibility of translating the Prophetic narrations to another language provided the exact and correct meaning is rendered.
Allaah Knows best.