The concerns and observations outlined in this paper are largely the result of teaching and otherwise attempting to communicate the Qur'an and its meaning to English-speaking undergraduates and others with no first-hand knowledge of the Arabic Qur'an. Among the many possible aims of Qur'an translations (e.g. conveying the music or poetic impact of the Arabic recitation, providing a captivating and pleasing text for ritual purposes [cf. The King James Bible], preserving the jafrī/mathematical dimensions of the Arabic calligraphy, etc.) one important need – especially in contexts relating to Islamic Studies – is to provide a more ‘literal’ version of the Qur'an that would help the non-Arabist reader to grasp the inner connections between the Qur'anic text itself and the multiple dimensions of its inspiration and impact in all the relevant areas of the Islamic humanities; not only in subsequent literary interpretations and elaborations (the Arabic religious and legal sciences, philosophy, cosmology, spirituality, ‘sectarian’ readings), but also in other aesthetic domains (poetry, music, architecture, visual arts). Such a version clearly does not yet exist (in any major European language, to the best of my knowledge). This paper reviews a number of fundamental considerations which should be kept in mind in the process of creating a serious student's English version of the Qur'an, more accurately conveying the actual meanings and structures of the original Arabic.