The first project is the translation of the Holy Qur’an into Chinese and the second will be a pioneering work of translation of Musnad Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal into English.
The pledge to extend all support to Darussalam was given by Al-Asheikh, while inaugurating the refurbished office of Darussalam in Riyadh Friday evening. After taking a round of Darussalam offices with Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Mahtaz, chairman; Abdul Malik Mujahid, managing director; and Mohammad Arif Sarwar, commercial manager, the minister appreciated the role of this local publishing house, which has produced some 1,000 titles on Islam.
Al-Asheikh said the project to translate Musnad Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal was a very important assignment. Imam Hanbal (AD780-855), founder of the Hanbali School of Fiqh, was a top Muslim scholar and theologian of repute in the Islamic world. Among the works of Imam Hanbal is the great encyclopedia of traditions called Musnad, compiled by his son from his lectures and amplified by supplements, containing over 28,000 traditions.
Referring to the proposed project to translate Qur’an into Chinese language, the minister said: “I am happy to learn that Darussalam was working to publish 100,000 copies of the translation of the Holy Qur’an in Chinese, which will be available in near future.”
The project is significant keeping in view the fact that about 1.15 billion people understand and speak Chinese worldwide.
Al-Asheikh said that Darusslam had also the distinction to translate and publish several books of Hadith and best-selling biographies of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) besides other books that teach manners and morals.
“Muslims live and work in America, Europe, South Asia, as well as other countries, and they are in need of Islamic books in English,” he added.
Speaking on his part, Mujahid thanked the minister for his visit.
“We have already finished two volumes of Musnad,” he said, adding that the ministry would be supervising the project. “We will go for Russian and Portuguese translations of the Holy Qur’an in future.”
Darussalam employs 260 scholars and support staff and has agents and distributors in more than 32 countries. All titles published by Darusslam can be purchased from the book stores around the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. Darussalam has been engaged from its very inception, in producing books on Islam in Arabic, English, Urdu, Spanish, French, Hindi, Persian, Malayalam, Turkish, Indonesian, Russian, Albanian and Bengali.