I Don't Deserve To Sign My Translation

I don't put my name under translations because I didn't translate it word for word and I just assembled and checked.

Wallāhi it's not that complicated.

لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله.

"Translated by" does not mean every English sentence was born from your private cave of linguistic originality.

It usually means:

I handled the translation work for this piece.

That can include:

• checking existing translations
•  selecting wording
• correcting phrasing
• adapting register
• joining excerpts into a coherent English flow
• deciding when to paraphrase
• deciding when not to paraphrase
• making the final text readable and responsible

That is still translation work. Unless we go down the pedantic road.

The issue is just normal attribution, not metaphysical authorship of every phrase.

Nobody reasonable thinks:

Translated by [someone]

means:

I personally originated every wording of every āyah translation, every ḥadīth translation, every cited phrase, every punctuation mark, and no resource touched this document except my lonely genius.

It means he prepared the English rendering.

The more balanced way would be:

Translated and prepared by [someone]. Qur'anic translations and ḥadīth translations were checked against available English renderings, with amendments where needed.

Done. Clean. Honest. No self-erasure theatre.

Even the use of tools like AI is not a justification for this mindset. Tools do not erase responsibility. If a carpenter uses an electric saw, we do not write:

Table by Makita [Japanese Manufacturer], assisted by Zayd.

If you select, check, shape, revise, and publish, then you are responsible for the final output.

The real question is not whether his name deserves ceremonial glory. It is whether the reader deserves traceability.

In daʿwah translation, traceability matters.

Because if there is an error, ambiguity, bad rendering, misleading paraphrase, or poor summarization, people need to know who handled it.

The concern about not stealing others' work has a valid seed, but don't overgrow it into thorn-bush logic. The answer is not to hide the translator. The answer is to use accurate attribution.

A little precision goes a long way.

Don't get trapped in the most literal sense of the word 'translation'. Look at the function it serves.

هدانا الله وإياكم.