On Friday 8th April, we hosted an iftar dinner at the British Muslim Heritage Centre in Manchester (UK) to introduce the work we have been doing to place the Qur’an and its message in the public sphere.
Our keynote speaker was the Chair of our Trustees, Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem, known worldwide for his best selling translation of the Qur’an published by Oxford University Press.
He gave an insight into his early life in Egypt and his motivation to become a translator: most of his students at the beginning of his career in the 70s as a lecturer at SOAS weren’t Muslim and this motivated him to translate pages and work with his students to improve the English text to make it clearer and more accessible to a wider audience.
Lamaan Ball, PQC director, then described the work done thus far and the future projects to bring the Qur’an to the public space. The event has been filmed and will be uploaded on YouTube at some point insha’Allah.
Professor Abdel Haleem was also available to sign copies of his paperback Qur’an translation, and many guests took this rare opportunity to chat and ask questions with the eminent Professor.
Official mosque representatives were also able to order copies of the Qur’an free of charge to place in their mosque for public use.