Translation of a hadith

[SuBMiSSioN]

I was just reading through one of my Tafsir Ibn Kathir books and came across this hadtih..

بعثت إلى الأحمر والأسود

The English of this is translated as "I was sent to the white and the red" and it goes on to say that Mujahid commented, "Meaning, mankind and the Jinns".

Now.. with Ahmar = Red and Aswad = black..how did they get this to translate into white and red? Can anyone explain?

[Abu.Kauthar]

i don't get your question

[Abu.Kauthar]

i get the question now....

i think it's just a mistake in typing.

[SuBMiSSioN]

You mean a misprint in the translation of the hadith? So it's meant to read as 'I was sent to the red and the black?'

I'm just asking because I thought there may have been something to do with the grammar of the words and the way in which they were used.

[Abu.Kauthar]

i don't think a translation in this context and in this particular case would take grammer into consideration. at the very least there would've been a note explaining that.

but personally i think it's just a misprint, which is not strange with a book as big as Tafseer Ibn Kathir.

misprints and even skiping whole pages is something ordinary in such large volume books. especially in Arabic.

or.......

the misprint could've been in the original Arabic text that was translated from. usually such old large books have a lot of misprints and a lot of times even after authentication and revision by the publishers and the " Muhaqqiq " who did the job on the book you'd still find mistakes.

i haven't come across a single large volume old book that doesn't have such mistakes.

that's why.....

usually before students of knowledge buy their books especially when they're going to spend some money on them considering their value and size, they consult with other students or even with scholars to know which edition of the book is worth spending the money on.

and some scholars have dedicated links in their websites to comment on editions and one famous scholar is Sheikh Abd Al Kareem Al Khudair may Allah preserve him.

authentication of old books is a field in itself and some scholars spend years on a single book, and some even specialise in that field.

by the way...
what i mean by authentication, is generally taking the original hand written manuscript from archives around the world, either written by the authur himself or by his students or a copy with is old enough, and collecting different handwritten copies and then comparing them and reproducing them for printing.

and one quick example is the Musnad of Imam Ahmed done by Shu'aib Al Arna'oot and his friends which took them over 20 years to produce. but we're talking about 50 volumes, around 700 pages each.

of course this period also depends on the quality of the authentification since some add comments and explainations at the foot note.

this is why there is a massive portion of books in Islamic knowledge that is still in its original form and not available for us. what we have today between us is a fraction only.

sorry for all of this which doesn't relate to the topic, but just to give you an understanding of why you shouldn't be surprised if you find out that a book has misprints in it and even pages which don't exist in other editions.

[SuBMiSSioN]

Subhaan'Allaah. Sometimes it's hard to imagine the magnitude of the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes in getting these books to us.

for the explanation akhi. May Allaah accept your fasting and your prayers and allow you to be of those who enter Jannah through the gate of Rayann.

[Abu.Kauthar]

ameen and you.