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Dear Joseph Islam,

A colleague of mine who believes in the hadith suggested to me that the Quran was not the only means by which information was transmitted to the prophet. He cites 66:03 of evidence of other communications to the prophet which, he believes, has been captured in the books of hadith.

This verse does seem to suggest to me that extra Quranic communications with the prophet has happened. I've always somehow assumed that the Quran was the only method through which information was transmitted to the prophet - that what we read and understood is what he and his people read and understood. But this seems to me to be not the case.

What is your opinion on this?

Dear Joseph Islam,

I have been looking at the website: www.islamawakened.com which shows the various translations of the Quran.

I notice that the translations can be widely divergent. For example consider the end of the verse of:
http://www.islamawakened.com/quran/2/183/default.htm

The possibilities are:

1. "...so that you might remain conscious of God"
2. "...that ye may ward off (evil)"
3. "...that ye may (learn) self-restraint"
4. "... so that you may do your duty"
5. "...so that you might become righteous"
6. "...that you may increase awareness"
etc.

Each translation seems quite different from next.

I understand that the Quranic Arabic can be rich with meaning, but do you recommend any translators, in your opinion, that capture the meaning better than others?

Also what would be the best interpretation of the end of verse 183?