The cover of a Koran. Photo: Wiki Commons.

An Israeli Arab has just completed a translation of the Koran into Hebrew, Israeli Circassian site Adiga Bisman reported on Monday.

Sobhi Adaoui, a Muslim from the village of Tur’an in the Galilee, is calling his work “Koran in a Different Language.”

Adaoui, who has taught Hebrew for 40 years, explained the motivation behind his endeavor. “Every person, regardless of his language, has a right to know what God says and demands in the last book that He revealed to humanity,” he said.

Adaoui noted that translations of the Koran abound — even into African dialects — and said Hebrew-speakers also have a “full right to know the words of God.”

Though Adaoui admits that his is not the first translation of the Koran into Hebrew, he says it is different from previous ones, in that it is an entirely literal translation. “The book is a faithful copy of the original wording of the Koran,” he said.

He also points to a stylistic difference from previous Hebrew translations which, he argued, “are written, for example, in a manner [more closely resembling] the Hebrew Bible that is familiar to the Jewish community.”

In the introduction to the book, Adaoui tells readers that the Hebrew version is presented “plainly and without disguise, without falsifications or distortion.”

In his interview with Adiga Bisman, Adaoui did not specify whether the book is meant to facilitate the conversion of Israeli Jews to Islam or simply to expose the Islamic holy book to Israel’s Jewish population, in order to build bridges for inter-religious understanding.

However, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency said Adaoui’s book was a “bid to introduce Islam to the Jewish community worldwide, specially (sic) in [Israel], after recent studies showed a fast growing interest among Jews to know Islam.”

Fars claimed that a report in Haaretz substantiated the assertion, saying the Israeli daily “reported that the Jews of [Israel] are more inclined towards Islam,” despite the conflict with the Palestinians.