First Maguindanaoan translation of the Koran launched

COTABATO CITY – Devout Muslim politicians vying for different elective positions had a brief respite from campaigning Sunday when they joined clerics in launching the first ever Maguindanaon translation of the Koran.

Islam was introduced in Mindanao 700 years ago by Shiek Karimul Makdum and, subsequently, by Shariff Mohammad Kabunsuan, but it was only in 1991 when clerics translated the Koran into Cebuano. It was eventually translated into the Maranaw dialect in 1998, and this year in the Maguindanaoan vernacular.

Maguindanaoan is the dialect of the native inhabitants of Central Mindanao’s lower delta, the Maguindanao area, which means inundated because the area is often flooded by tributaries of big rivers, including what is now called the Rio Grande de Mindanao, which springs from as far as Bukidnon province.

Muslim scholar Mohammad Sulaiman, who was responsible for the translation of the Koran in the Maguindanaoan dialect, tearfully told guests, during a symbolic launching at Estosan Hotel here, that it took him 15 years to translate what Muslims consider a "sacred book."

The 60-year-old Sulaiman studied Arabic as a child through the Madaris education in the barrios. In 1976, he earned a scholarship grant at the Imam Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he studied Islamic theology, Arabic language and Middle Eastern literature.