Ali Quli Qarai

I am an Indian-born translator and writer who served as the editor-in-chief of the English quarterly, Al-Tawhid, for 14 years.

My father, Syed Muhammad Quli Khan, was a lecturer at the College of Education, Osmania University. I was born in Hyderabad, where I went to school, first at Madraseh Aizza and later at Madraseh Aliya.

After graduating from Osmania University with a B.E. in 1970, I went to the U.S., where I got my graduate degree in Business management (M.B.A.) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

From 1983 to 1997 I worked as Executive Editor and later on as Chief Editor of Al-Tawhid, an English quarterly of Islamic thought, in which job I had the opportunity to translate many Arabic and Persian writings on various Islamic subjects.

My major work to date is my phrase-by-phrase English translation of the Qur’an. For the past two decades, I have been associated with the Tarjuman-e Wahy Cultural Institute as a translation consultant.

List of Select Translations

o Mafatīḥ al-Jinan, a book of prayers and observances in 2 volumes based on the Imami tradition.

o Bidayat al-Hikmah: The Elements of Islamic Metaphysics, by Allamah Tabataba’i.

o Forty Hadith: An Exposition (Sharh-e Chehel Ḥadith) by Ayatollah Khomeini)

o Seyri dar Nahj al-Balaghah, by Ayatollah Motahhari.

o The Kernel of the Kernel (Lubb al-Lubab) by Allamah Tehrani.

o Risaleh-ye Sayr o Suluk (A treatise on spiritual wayfaring ascribed to Bahr al-Ulum)

o Awsaf al-Ashraf , by Khwajah Nasiruddin Tusi.