Recordings › Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 · 26 Jun 2020 › Segment 3 of 36
Why did Edip Yuksel write a reformist translation of the Quran?
hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis ahaadith masjid masjed masaajid masajid sunna sunnat sunan prophetic practice quraan al-quran khalifah caliph khulafa khilafah khilafat caliphate khilafa ahl al-sunnah ahl as-sunnah ahlus sunnah ahl al-sunna sunnis shiah shi'i twelver ithna ashari 'alim aalim salam as-salamu alaykum assalamu alaikum assalamualaikum salaam salaams salam alaykum wa alaykum as-salam greeting deen al-din ad-deen ad-din ibadah ibada ibaadah ibadatThe reformist translation: working with Rashad Khalifa and what the guest calls the Sunni religion
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What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenThe guest describes translating the Quran with Rashad Khalifa and says the Sunni religion distorted the message, beginning with adding Muhammad's name to the shahada; he calls Sunni and Shia translations deliberate distortions and says the Quran was betrayed through hadith.
In more detail
Asked whether there is a need for a reformist translation and about the project, the guest says he worked with Rashad Khalifa from 1989 until Khalifa's assassination in 1990; Khalifa was a mentor, friend and father figure who led him to give up what he calls the Sunni religion. He says his father was a top clergyman in Turkey, that he was a schoolmate and party colleague of the current Turkish president, whom he once outranked in the party, that as a street activist he promoted an Iranian-style revolution in Turkey, and that his brother [?] was killed by nationalists and is a legend among Turkish Islamists. He describes translating side by side with Khalifa in the mosque in Tucson seven days a week, each giving feedback and neither following the other blindly, and finding years later that both translations had errors because the Sunni culture affects people without their knowing. Asked what he means by the Sunni religion, he says the distortion begins with the shahada, to which Muhammad's name was added though according to the Quran it was only la ilaha illa Allah, since no messenger put his name next to God's and the Quran forbids distinguishing between messengers; even the name Islam has become a brand, whereas it means peacemaking and all earlier monotheists were Muslims. He says Khalifa's translation is far more accurate than the Sunni ones, while Sunni and Shia translations contain deliberate distortions that turn the Quran into a book of idol worship, and that the Muslim world betrayed the Quran through hadith and sunnah.
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machine12:57 to 21:29 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
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This segment states a view in order to discuss it. It is recorded as a quoted view, not as a position held.
it on internet everywhere like academia and many other places but I would like to organize all of them somewhere all be downloadable right now my 19.4 is revamped and I will put almost all of them there whichever is available for free I see I see but you've definitely got the a bit about each one on your website on 1900 I can see it there so yeah ok so professor right so this whole your one of your groundbreaking works a reformist translation
of the quran right first of all is this something you feel that there is a first first and foremost a strong need for this and secondly tell us a bit about this project well I did the work with dr. Rashad Haditha in 1989 to 1990 until he was assassinated yeah he was a mentor to you yeah he was a mentor and we were friends too and he was he acted like a father figure he helped me out and he
was do I really caused me to give up from Sunni religion which I bested pretty much and my father was the top clergyman in Turkey and I was friends close friends with the today's Turkish president aired on or double Tolu the former prime minister and many of the right you are the most friends with Erdogan of course we were from both neighborhood we were friends from the school we graduated from the same school high school and also in the party we were together I was above him in rank in fact way first time when he was got
arrested he followed one of my basically rallies and he was arrested because of that but at that time also we had differences he was morally mostly involved with the merchants he was collecting money organising house meetings for the party that time I was an activist on the streets and talking the bosses and theaters to people promoting irani like Islamic Revolution in Turkey and my brother got killed that time by nationalist racist in Turkey you
call them fascists yes and he's a he's a legend among Islamists in Turkey his name making you excel if you put it you will see hundreds of thousands of pages on him but my father was very well-known scholar top scholar in Turkey therefore I come from that family when I rejected the Sunni religion I was best-selling author in church here and there is some noise going on what's going on my dear friend it's that is that I think that's coming on from this past okay let's come to the
topic Quran when I look at the eye I said I work with Russia Khalifa and together he was being revising his own translation and I started doing the Turkish translation in 1989 we were next to each other in the same master Tucson from morning until until the night and we spent the seven days a week together and we were discussing each other's translation and giving feedback or debating on how the more accurate one should be therefore though I I learned a
lot from him at the same time I followed what I myself see it is important not to follow anyone blindly and he appreciate that one you also learn from me at the same time we were learning together but afterwards years later I found out there were some errors in our translations or when we first with time I'm learning because the Cheniere religion and culture has so much effect on us without even knowing we blindly kind of follow some things we understand differently you know wait for the viewers when you
say the Sunni religion you broke away from the Sunni really now because the only thing is so fast what is the key the key feature is about hadith is this what it is or do you mean something else well soon your religion means basically it starts from the Kelly the Kelly made it to hate or Shahada the distortion started with that they added Muhammad's name into it according to the Quran according to Muhammad it was later la la la la la la and period nothing Mohammed is ISA Musa
was not added to the name the messengers did not come to put remove the previous messengers name next to God and ISA did not come saying hey people it is no more like a shadow la ilaha illallah WA and Moosa Rasool Allah it is no more monstas name I am going to put down mooses name and I am going to put my name in the sign now the name of the story is God plus Issa and the Muhammad's didn't come saying well it says name next to God no
more put my name next to them they didn't compete with each other they don't fool each other in fact they said we we are all the same the Quran says do not make distinction among messengers they are all humans like you do not put them in competition therefore even the name Islam is changed distorted Islam today when we say it as if it is a brand name it is in capital letter we write now that is one of the major problem with the what is a think it is a it is named it is made as if it is a new thing not according to the Quran the previous
all the messengers of God all the monoface they were Muslims they were peacemakers you know Islam means peace making therefore when someone ask your religion don't say Islam in Arabic you are not speaking Arabic if you speak in Arabic say Islam means peace making in English peace making in Turkish I am Boris chair in Kurdish or shitty whatever anyway when I saw errors in my in translation Russia's transmission in my early translation I decided work on it and with time I I thought that it's very
important there was some very major errors and also in the footnotes when you say is so errors professor you mean errors by people in general who awesome were they specific people or you're saying everywhere these errors were widespread well in Russia Russia's transition is pretty accurate it is not come you cannot compare it with the Sunni translations therefore Prashad when try to understand the quran based on the Koran alone had opened the understanding of the Quran of course it
takes the time because our mind the broadcasting of the Quran is very clear but already it is not tuned well or in the background there are some or the battery is which it is because of us it takes some time to understand the verses clearly like the early Muslims into temp some kind the same with us and after a shot when I look at it there were also some errors in our translation and I decided to make it of course the Sunni or Shiite translations are filled with
major errors they are not mistakes accidental mistakes minor mistakes they are deliberate distortion they wanted to distort the message of the Quran turn it to a book of idol worship and ignorance it is absolutely the Muslim so-called Muslim world betrayed the Quran through Hadees and soon a fabrication of Hadees and Sunnah is major yes just just to what audience may be thinking these are some harsh words here that they betrayed
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Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2020-06-26-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zmirskjob4o/s/3/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2020, June 26). Why did Edip Yuksel write a reformist translation of the Quran? [Video, segment 2020-06-26-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zmirskjob4o/s/3/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2020. "Why did Edip Yuksel write a reformist translation of the Quran?" Video, segment 2020-06-26-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded June 26, 2020. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zmirskjob4o/s/3/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2020-06-26-S03, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Why did Edip Yuksel write a reformist translation of the Quran?}}, year = {2020}, month = {6}, date = {2020-06-26}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zmirskjob4o/s/3/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zmirskjob4o/s/3/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2020-06-26-S03, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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