I understand that the text here might seem a little long and boring, but please bear with me. This is important. If you must skim, please read the last few paragraphs.
About an year ago, I grew frustrated with the lack of a readily usable version of the Quran translation in Dhivehi. Back then, I wanted to be able to use the Dhivehi translation with Zekr; a free (as in freedom) versatile open source Quranic study tool that came standard with a multitude of translations, recitations, localizations and so forth. I wished that the Dhivehi translation was also included among these for everyone to benefit from. For this, I needed a standards compliant plaintext UNICODE version of the translation which, needless to say was not available.
I searched high and low to find such a text. The PDF's available on Presidency Maldives where just that. PDF's from which - despited many hours spent trying - nothing "useful" could be extracted. All the while, interest in the efforts grew, and a few of my friends (Bunyameen, his brothers, Nisham, Nadheem and so on to name a few) volunteered to help.
We approached the Islamic Ministry, the Presidents Office, and all our friends in nooks and crannies of the government trying to obtain in the very least, an MS Word document that we could work with. None of these people were willing to part with anything useful - officially stating the reason that the subject of the Quran Translation was too "volatile" for them to release it. That there were people looking for commercial/political/religious/social/etc gain from the text.
About an year ago, I grew frustrated with the lack of a readily usable version of the Quran translation in Dhivehi. Back then, I wanted to be able to use the Dhivehi translation with Zekr; a free (as in freedom) versatile open source Quranic study tool that came standard with a multitude of translations, recitations, localizations and so forth. I wished that the Dhivehi translation was also included among these for everyone to benefit from. For this, I needed a standards compliant plaintext UNICODE version of the translation which, needless to say was not available.
I searched high and low to find such a text. The PDF's available on Presidency Maldives where just that. PDF's from which - despited many hours spent trying - nothing "useful" could be extracted. All the while, interest in the efforts grew, and a few of my friends (Bunyameen, his brothers, Nisham, Nadheem and so on to name a few) volunteered to help.
We approached the Islamic Ministry, the Presidents Office, and all our friends in nooks and crannies of the government trying to obtain in the very least, an MS Word document that we could work with. None of these people were willing to part with anything useful - officially stating the reason that the subject of the Quran Translation was too "volatile" for them to release it. That there were people looking for commercial/political/religious/social/etc gain from the text.
