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What is the Importance of Religious Translation?

By: Ricky vela Posted on Mon, 16-05-2022

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Religion holds an important role in one’s life. It tells people how to lead life according to the instructions given by God. Moreover, it gives people the ray of hope that there is a God that can solve their problems whenever they pray to them.

The people that don’t believe in God are called atheists. These people are often pessimists because they believe that there is no God who can solve their problems. In each era, people have followed different religions.

These religions are revealed to different nations in specific languages. The Sufis and priests of these religions spread their religion around the globe.

The religious doctrine of every religion is in a different language. Therefore, to understand the religion and to strengthen the belief translation services are mandatory.

Significance of Religious Translation

We usually follow the religion of our ancestors and do not study other religions. This is because religious doctrines are in different languages. You can study and understand other religions easily if you take the assistance of religious translation services.

Translation plays a significant role in the lives of people. Religion is a very sensitive topic. People get emotional and get offended when anyone tries to speak against their religion.

Sometimes it leads to blasphemy. Therefore, it is necessary to understand other religions as well so that you can understand the feelings of other religions and can save yourself from blasphemy. It is possible with the help of translation services.

Translation of Bible

The emotions of the people that run religious institutions are very rigid. However, all religions teach the lesson of humanity and peacefulness. In the 1500s, William Tyndale in England translated the Bible into the language of their people which is Hebrew and Greek.

He had made the mistake of including people in the translation of Holy doctrine. Therefore, he was killed and considered a skeptic. After 100 years, people recognized his work and many scholars used it with other resources to come up with a version of the King James Version of the Bible. A

t that time, the priests of the church became against him because they thought the translation would have errors that could shatter the faith of the people. These people were not aware of the importance of translation.

Translation of Quran  

After Christianity, the most important religion in the world is Islam. The holy doctrine of Islam is Quran. Muslims follow strict rules in reading their Holy book.

Muslim scholars are of the view that translation of the Quran in any language, other than Arabic, which it is revealed would be an approximate translation. Thus, they don’t consider the importance of translation.

The Arabic version of the Quran depicts the official status of this religious doctrine. Because of the growing rate of Muslim communities in English-speaking countries, Quran has been translated into the English language too.

According to Muslim scholars, the English translation can give only a basic understanding. However, Arabic gives the true essence of the religion.  In this regard, many translators faced the problem of conveying the intended message.

Therefore, they had to do extensive research to describe the different interpretations of the text. For this purpose, they look for scholars from both ancient and modern schools of thought so that their translations are accepted.

Differences Between Different Religions

In the West, different religions grew together like Jewish, Christianity, and Islam.  Muslims worship a single immortal God and follow a strict code of conduct according to the divine book Quran. Hinduism and Buddhism are religions of the East.

In contrast to Islam, Hinduism looks forward to external divinity. While Buddhism refers people to looking inside them for seeking enlightenment.

Origins of Different Religions

Islam emerged in the Arab region in the 7th century. It is said that it is the latest version of Christianity and Judaism. Muslims believe in all prophets along with Hazrat Muhammad PBUH that came with the message of Allah and that message is with the Muslims in form of the Quran.

Islam spread from Arabia to Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia and then to the rest of the world. As the Holy sculpture of Muslims is in Arabic so people go for translation services to get aware of this religion. At present Islam is the second-largest religion in the world.

Buddhism

The advent of Buddhism started around 500 B.C when Siddhartha Gautama tried to seek enlightenment. According to Buddhist belief, all the sufferings of the people are because of their desires.

Approximately 376 million people follow the Buddhism religion around the globe. The people that are following the Buddhist religion spoke the Pali language.

This language is mutually intelligible with Sanskrit. Moreover, it is the major language of Buddhist scriptures. Pali language is mutually intelligible with Sanskrit.

Additionally, it is one of the major languages of Buddhist scriptures. They have been using this language for over 2000 years and believed that Buddha spoke this language.

To understand this religion, people should go for translation services to get the know-how of this religion.

It is very difficult to identify Hinduism. It is a diverse religion and does not follow a single source. The history of Hinduism is dated back thousands of years.

The culture that developed in the Indus valley resulted in the emergence of the Hindu religion and culture. They don’t follow a single God and a single leader.

The Faith in Divine

The fundamental of Islam is worshiping one God. Allah is one God that has made the entire universe and everything in it. Muslims are of the view that their trust in God is not different from Judaism. People will be given rewards and punishments according to their deeds on the day of judgment.

Buddhists do believe in the existence and presence of God. However, they don’t focus on them because their scholar Buddha was an ordinary man.

They go for self-awareness for seeking enlightenment. Buddha meditated to find the meaning of life and deal with the difficulties of life. Therefore, Buddhists don’t turn to God because they follow Buddha.

Hindus worship God in different forms. The names of these Gods are also different. Some names are Kali, Vishnu, and Shiva. 

Different Worship Practices

Muslims abide by the five pillars of Islam. Their chant is that there is one God and Prophet PBUH is his last messenger. Secondly, they pray five times a day.

Thirdly, they help poor and needy people in the name of Zakat. Fourthly they fast in the month of Ramzan. Moreover, they make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

People can understand all the practices of Islam when they translate the Arabic text into the language that they understand.

Buddhists practice meditation to follow the legacy of Buddhism. The Zen sect doesn’t follow textual teachings. They too believe in meditation practices.  To understand Buddhist practices, people need to go for translation services in their native language.

Hindus worship God in three ways. They worship images of Gods, and animals and recite mantras. They repeat mantras while worshiping different idols.

They also offer food to idols. Many Hindus have also built little temples in their houses. For understanding the Hindu religion and practices, again you need translation services.

Wrapping Up

Around 7139 languages are spoken around the world. People of different religions and different cultures speak different languages. Moreover, different religions also emerged in the world with distinct languages.

To follow your religion, it is recommended to learn the language of religious doctrine. If you can’t do this then the best way is to take the assistance of professional translation services.

With the help of religious translation, you can know your religion well and can lead your life according to the ethical practices that are taught by your religion. 

The legacy of following the religion of the ancestors should be addressed. People should understand the dynamics and fundamentals of the different religions with the help of translation services and then should embrace the religion.