Arabic to Malay and Maranao: Interlinear Translation in a Collection of Hadiths from Mindanao                                  

April 2025

Kawashima Midori

This blog post examines the characteristics of the interlinear translation found in a collection of hadiths produced by Islamic scholars from the Lanao region of the island of Mindanao in the Philippines (B7-Ms8, Collection of Sheik Muhammad Said bin Imam sa Bayang at the Imam As-Saadiq (A.S.) Library in Marawi City). The Lanao region is located around Lake Lanao in the central part the island and is inhabited by the Maranao people, a Muslim ethnic group in the Philippines who speak the language of the same name. Islamic books and manuscripts written in Malay in modified Arabic script were used by Islamic scholars and students in the region as primary sources of religious knowledge until the mid-20th century. Some of these materials include interlinear translations from Arabic to Malay. Maranao Islamic scholars adopted the practice of interlinear translation from Arabic to Malay and created an interlinear translation from Arabic to their own language, Maranao.

This hadith collection is unique because it has a Maranao interlinear translation, albeit partial, in addition to a Malay interlinear translation (see Figures 1 and 2). 

Figure 1: Kitāb al-ḥādīth. B7-Ms8, Collection of Sheik Muhammad Said bin Imam sa Bayang, Marawi City. ff. 23v-24r.

2a. f.23r.

2b. f.23v.

Figure 2: Kitāb al-ḥādīth. B7-Ms8, Collection of Sheik Muhammad Said bin Imam sa Bayang, Marawi City.

The Malay interlinear translation is provided throughout the work, whereas the Maranao interlinear translation is only provided for one hadith and is written in different handwriting and ink. The unique handwriting suggests that this Maranao text was written by Sheik Muhammad Said bin Imam sa Bayang (c. 1902–1974), for whom the collection is named, between 1930 and 1974.

The Arabic text and its English translation are as follows:

من تكلم بكلام الدنيا في خمسة مكان بعث الله تعالى يوم القيامة كصورة الخنزير

Whoever speaks worldly words in five places, Allah the Exalted, will raise him on the Day of Resurrection in the form of a pig.

The texts in the three languages and the English translation of the Arabic text are as follows.

 

The Arabic text has been translated word for word into Malay and Maranao, maintaining the original word order. The Malay words are written diagonally from top right to bottom left below the corresponding Arabic words and divided according to the Arabic spacing. The Maranao text is written below the Malay text, also diagonally from top right to bottom left. However, unlike the Malay text, the spacing is not always clear. Instead of clearly separating each word and placing it directly below the corresponding word, the Maranao text tends to be written continuously without spaces, as in the first line of this hadith. Consequently, the word dalem (in) is not written below the corresponding Arabic and Malay words fī and pada, but in the next line. The characters in the Malay text are much smaller than those in the Arabic text; however, the Maranao text is written in larger characters than the Malay text.

In the Malay and Maranao translations, words that frequently occur in the Arabic text are consistently rendered with specific words. For example, the Arabic prepositions bi and fī are often rendered with the Malay words dengan and pada, and the Maranao words sa and dalem, respectively, as seen in this hadith. The Arabic expression “man + verb” meaning “whoever does this and that” is consistently replaced by the Malay and Maranao expressions “barangsiapa (whoever) + verb” and “si/so taw (the person) a + verb,” respectively.

Maranao language has a unique feature not found in Arabic or Malay: it has many particles such as ligatures that link words (e.g., a, na) and determiners that mark the relationship between words (e.g., so, si, o, ko, sa). Therefore, if Arabic or Malay words were translated strictly word for word into Maranao without these particles, the relationships between words would not be indicated, resulting in disjointed sentences that are difficult to understand. The Maranao translator included these particles in the interlinear translation at the expense of not strictly following the Malay interlinear translation convention of writing the translation directly under the corresponding word. Thus, he was able to form coherent sentences within the limited space between the lines.

Was the Maranao text translated from the original Arabic text or the Malay translation? Since the contents of the Arabic and Malay texts are essentially the same, answering this question by comparing them is difficult. In the Lanao region in the mid-20th century, reformist Islamic scholars were increasingly interested in prioritizing the original Arabic text in Islamic learning. Given this contemporary social context, the translator probably based the Maranao translation primarily on the Arabic text to ensure that its meaning was accurately conveyed, while also referring to the Malay translation to verify the meaning.

This argument is supported by the text of another hadith in the same manuscript, which reads: Man fasada qalbahu gharaqa fī āfāti al-dunyā (Whoever has a corrupt heart will drown in the troubles of this world) (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Kitāb al-ḥādīth. B7-Ms8, Collection of Sheik Muhammad Said bin Imam sa Bayang, Marawi City. f. 24r.

The Arabic word āfāt is a plural form of afah (harm, damage, ruin), which is translated into Malay as pekerjaan (work, job). The Maranao translator was not satisfied with this translation and wrote down the Maranao word pakabinasa (it can bring destruction) as the meaning of āfāt. This single word, which could easily be overlooked as a meaningless scribble, proves that the translator did not simply accept the Malay interlinear translation, but critically examined and corrected it based on the Arabic language. Thus, by carefully reading between the lines, we can explore a realm that we would not have found from the main text alone.

 

References:

Fathurahman, Oman, Kawashima Midori, and Labi Sarip Riwarung (eds.). 2019. The Library of an Islamic Scholar of Mindanao: The Collection of Sheik Muhammad Said bin Imam sa Bayang at the Al-Imam As-Sadiq (A.S.) Library, Marawi City, Philippines: An Annotated Catalogue with Essays. (Occasional Papers No.27). Tokyo: Institute of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Studies, Sophia University.

Ricci, Ronit. 2016. Reading between the Lines: A World of Interlinear Translation. Journal of World Literature, 1: 68-80.

Photographs: Kawashima Midori et al., February 27, 2012.

I would like to thank Dr. Moctar Matuan for his advice on the Maranao language, although I take full responsibility for any errors.