D. S. Dannawi

Born in Tripoli, Lebanon, D. S. Dannawi came to the USA in 1960 to study engineering and graduated in 1964 from the American Institute of Engineering and Technology in Chicago with a degree in electrical engineering. Upon his return, he got a job in Saudi Arabia as a communication engineer. In 1970, he immigrated to Toronto, Canada and landed a position as a product specialist in industrial controls and electrical mining products. In 1977, he and his wife took an astronomy course. The teacher was interested in what religions taught about the universe and asked him to read the Quran to see if it contains any reference to astronomy and the creation of the universe. Being secular and a nominal Muslim at the time, he did not have a copy of the Quran, so he asked his brother-in-law, who was coming to Canada, to bring him a copy of the Quran. A week after starting to read it, he came across verse 30 of Surah 21, The Prophets: “Have those who disbelieved not seen that the Heavens and the Earth were sewn together and WE tore them asunder?” To him, this describes the Big Bang. he transmitted this information to the teacher, who asked him to continue reading. Then he came across verse 47 of Surah 51, The Scatterers: “WE built Heaven with a mighty force and WE are expanding it.”

The Big Bang and the expansion of the universe theories were not known to a man in seventh-century Arabia. The more he and his wife read of the Quran, the more they were convinced of its divine nature, and they went from being secular to being believers. This is when their first child was born, and they decided to take a sabbatical and get away from their past. So he resigned his job and sold his belongings, and went to Egypt, and from there to Algeria, where he landed a position as an electrical engineer in a phosphate mine in the middle of the Algerian desert, where their second child was born. A year later, in 1982, they returned to Toronto, and he started a company to manufacture power resistors.

The business took off in 1988 when the company landed a big order from the largest electric utility company in Canada. Same year, the third child was born. In 1992, the company became the leading manufacturer of power resistors in Canada and opened a branch in Cincinnati, Ohio. That year, the company was chosen by the federal government as one of the 10 best small manufacturers and number one for innovation. Shortly after the company was sold to a multinational organization, which freed him to pursue his passion for the study of religion and history.

After the event of September 11, he began his translation of the Quran, 24 years later with the encouragement of his daughter and the help of his grand son, the job was done.