| المستخلص: |
Research Topic The research focuses on evaluating, critically and comparatively, the six (6) English translations of the Qur’an of the 21st century (published in between 2002- 2019) by the native Arabs-namely Tarif Khalidi (2002/ 2008), Abdel Haleem (2005 [2004]), Muhammad Mahmud Ghali (2008), Ahmad Zaki Hammad (2009 [2007]), Mustafa Khattab (2016), and Waleed B. Amri (2019)- on several (non-) linguistic fronts. Research Objective The study highlights the issue of ‘loss of meaning’/ the ‘errors’ in translation by focusing comparatively on the selected verses from Q. 1 3, by utilising/ applying the works/ theories of Mir (1989), Abdul-Raof (2006 [2001] and 2019), Al-Jabari (2008), Abdulwahid (n.d.), and others. The samples, selected, have been taken from different categories, like Gharib/ Ghareeb al Qur’an = ‘Extraordinary’ Vocabulary of the Qur’an, ‘Euphemism’, ‘Ellipsis’, and ‘Idioms’/ ‘Idiomatic Terms’. It also evaluates Surah al-Fatiha (Q.1) in the context of ‘Argumentation structure in Qur’anic discourse’; the ‘Throne Verse’ (Ayat al-Kursi, Q. 2: 255) in the context of ‘deductive argument’ and ‘coherence and cohesion’; and Q. 3: 78 in the context of ‘(flouting) cohesion’ of the Qur’anic discourse. It also analyses the methodology and approach of each translator as well as makes a comparative analysis of their introductions on Q. 1-3. Research Problem The study aims to highlight the problem of ‘loss of meaning’ in translating the noble Qur’an; to identify how the rendering, variedly by different translators, is a problematic issue; and to show the inadequacies in delivering the proper meaning of a word/ phrase from the source language (SL) to target language (TL) by following comparative and critical methodological approaches. Research Findings The study reveals that (i) the linguistic and hermeneutical issues pose serious questions to the ‘translatability’ (ii) the Qur’an as a central Text inclines to cause very serious and severe complications and difficulties for translators in terms of understanding, interpreting, and translating certain theological/ doctrinal and linguistic/ semantic concepts/ words due to the language erudition and semantic sophistication of the Arabic language used in the text on the one hand, and the theological, socio-cultural, psychological, spiritual and melodic dimensions of the Divine Writ; and (iii) in order to copiously comprehend the connotation and denotation of the SL, each and every lexical item must be contextualized and then translated into TL.
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