Dictionary of The Holy Quran — Page v
Publisher's Note For the translation and preparation of a commentary of the Holy Quran in English, Hadrat Sahibzada Mirza Bashirud Din Mahmood Ahmad Khalifatul Masih II constituted a board in 1942 comprising the following: 1. Hadrat Sahibzada Mirza Bashir Ahmada (МА) ra 2. Hadrat Maulawi Sher Alita (BA), translator of the Holy Quran 3. Hadrat Malik Ghulam Farida (MA), Ex-Missionary Germany and the UK The first volume of translation and commentary of the ten parts of Holy Quran was prepared and published in 1948. Hadrat Maulawi Sher Ali passed away in 1948 and Hadrat Sahibzada Mirza Bashir Ahmadta was given by Hadrat Khalifatul Masīh other important task. Hence Hadrat Malik Ghulam Farida was made responsible for completing the rest of the work which he, with the Grace of Allah, completed in 1963. And the complete work was published in five volumes. Later Hadrat Malik Ghulam Farida abridged all the five volumes in one volume, making minor changes in translation and providing the commentary in abridged form given as footnotes. Having finished this work Hadrat Malik Ghulam Farida compiled an Arabic English lexicon of the Holy Quran. He supplemented this lexicon with other words and phrases derived from the roots of the words of the Holy Quran, in order to explain and illustrate different uses and nuances of words and phrases. The whole project was based on standard dictionaries of Arabic language such as Lisan-ul-Arab لسان العربj-ul- urus )تاج العروس(Almufradat Ligharibilquran of Imam Raghib (اقرب الموارد) Aqrabul Mawarid المفردات لغريب القرآن) of Isfahan and Arabic-English Lexicon by E. W. Lane.