Question

Greetings,

How does the term used for "love" differ in this version from other translations? I have been told that the Koran does not contain the word "love," but that this translation does.

Thank you.

Answer

And we send our greetings to you also. 

It appears that someone has misinformed you.  The word love does indeed exist in the Qur’an, and many times.  The Arabic word for “love” (hubb ) occurs in many different verb and noun forms in the Qur’an.  For example:  

A translation of the explanation of the meaning is: And [yet], among the people are those who take other than Allah as equals [to Him].  They love them as they [should] love Allah. But those who believe are stronger in love for Allah. 2:165

We have the verb to love in the “they” form in:    which means, “they love them.”  In the same section, we have a noun form of the word “love”:

Allah informs us many times in the Qur’an what he loves and does not love.  For example: 

 The translation of the explanation of the meaning of this phrase is: Allah loves those who are constantly repentant and loves those who purify themselves. 2: 222

Again, the verb for “he loves” is

An example of the opposite case, where Allah informs us of that what He does not love is:

 

The translation of the meaning is: Indeed, Allah does not love traitors.  8:58

Again the same word for he loves
 (  ) is used, but now with the negative “not” ( ) before it.   

It is quite strange that someone would say that the word love does not appear in the Qur’an.  The word for love in Arabic is well known and as we pointed out, used numerous times in the Qur’an.  All the translations of the explanation of the meaning of the Qur’an that we checked (four different ones) used the English word “love” for these same variations of “hubb,”  and we could not imagine someone using a different word to convey the meaning of the true Arabic Qur’an. 

An added bit of information: The different translations of the explanations of the meanings are not called “versions”, since the only “version” of the Qur’an is the original revelation from Allah to the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, in Arabic.  The different translations of the explanation of the meaning are simply called  different translations of the explanation of the meaning of the Qur'an.

 You are most welcome.