Q7: Urdu to English translation

Understanding the topic

The examiner is testing whether you can carry an image across a language rather than substitute words one at a time, and this passage runs a single extended metaphor from beginning to end.

Model translation

Al-Ghazali, the twelfth-century Muslim theologian and philosopher, is the most misunderstood thinker of them all. He argued that the Qur'an is open to as many interpretations as there are drops of water in the sea. "Do you not know that the Qur'an is like an ocean?" he asked. You have every right to voyage across its endless sea of meanings, and by diving into its depths you may bring up rubies and pearls and make yourself rich. He goes further and asks: "Why do you lie contented on the shore, satisfied with the surface?" By this he means that it is permissible for Muslims to question, to move forward and to differ. Al-Ghazali is the finest blend of tradition and innovation.

How to handle a passage like this

Keep the metaphor whole. The passage runs one picture: the Qur'an as ocean, interpretation as a voyage, insight as pearls brought up from the depth. Translate it as a single image. If the ocean becomes a "vast body of water" in one sentence and a "sea" in the next, the picture breaks.

Keep the rhetorical question as a question. Turning "Why do you lie contented on the shore?" into a statement about complacency loses the challenge in the original voice.

Do not over-explain. The final sentence is short and flat in the Urdu and should stay short and flat in English. Adding a clause to explain who Al-Ghazali was would spoil an ending the writer deliberately left bare.