SHAFAQNA- Sheikh Ilyas Wang Jingzhai, one of China’s leading Muslim scholars, made the first translation of the meanings of the Holy Quran into Chinese to spread Quranic concepts among Muslims.
The first person to fully translate the meanings of the Quran into Chinese was none other than Sheikh Ilyas Wang Jingzhai. Sheikh Ilyas Wang Jingzhai translated the meanings of the Quran so that the concepts of this divine book could be properly transmitted to Muslims and the Quranic contents would be expanded.
Sheikh Ilyas Wang Jingzhai was born in 1880 in the northeastern Chinese city of Tianjin. His father and grandfather were among China’s Muslim Scholars, and his mother was a Religious Scholar.
Sheikh Ilyas Wang Jingzhai studied Islamic sciences in China and graduated in 1905, and then he became involved in the activities and propaganda of Islam as the Imam of the congregation. During this period, he realized the importance of Muslims’ need for religious books, so he focused more on translating religious books into Chinese.
Sheikh Ilyas Wang Jingzhai, a preacher and translator, had a great desire to meet the scholars of the Islamic and Arab worlds to acquire their knowledge, so in 1922, the fifth decade of his life, he traveled to Egypt to acquire knowledge and joined Al-Azhar University and then left for Mecca to perform Hajj. After that he traveled to Turkey and he returned to China in 1924 with 600 books.
After Jingzhai returned to China, he translated the books and spent nearly 40 years translating them. “Arabic Chinese Culture”, “Islam and Christians” and “Modern Chinese-Arabic Dictionary” are among these books. For 30 years, this dictionary was the only reference in both Arabic and Chinese; Until the Arabic-Chinese culture of Muhammad Makin was published.
Sheikh Ilyas Jingzhai’s greatest scientific contribution is the publication of the first complete translation of the meanings of the Holy Quran into Chinese, which took nearly 20 years. He started translating the Quran in 1914 and completed it in 1932. Three copies have been published, the first in Beijing in 1932, the second in Yinchuan in 1942, and the third in Shanghai in 1946.
Despite the difficult conditions of the time due to the war of resistance against Japan, Sheikh Ilyas Wang Jingzhai eagerly scrutinized every meaning and word and had the greatest desire to complete this translation regardless of its cost.
The importance of translating the meanings of the Holy Quran by Sheikh Ilyas Wang Jingzhai is that this was the first complete translation of the Quran into Chinese, as only some chapters of the Quran had been translated before.
Sheikh Ilyas Wang Jingzhai died in 1949. He dedicated his life to serving Islam and Muslims. For this reason, he has a special place among Muslims.
This news is originally published by Shia News Persian and translated by Shafaqna English.