Translation of Islamic Texts and Ideology

Perspectives, 2023

The paper is constructed in a way that the impact of ideology or ideologies on translation of the meaning of the Qur'an has been studied from both the translatological and the theological retrospective. The discussion in this paper lends itself to a tripod of linguistic, cognitive, and cultural rules. In addition, different cases have been exemplified from different English translations of the meaning of the Qur'an wherever is relevant and needed.

2013

Translations of texts associated with the phenomenon known as 'political Islam' into English remain largely unexplored. The main objective of the current thesis is to develop a sociological model for the study of translations of Islamic political discourse, based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu. The basic assumptions of Bourdieu's sociological theory are adapted to formulate a methodology for the study of translations of Hassan al-Banna's Towards the Light, and Sayyid Qutb's Social Justice in Islam into English. The thesis discusses in detail Bourdieu's sociology of cultural production, its intellectual foundations, theoretical tools, and methodological relevance to both translation in general, and translation of Islamic discourse in particular. The research hypothesizes a field of activity which could be called 'the field of translating political Islam' in the Anglo-American culture. The dynamics of this field and its structure are premised on the notion of struggle over specific forms of capital between producers and co-producers of translation in this context. Bourdieu's key concepts of field, habitus, capital, and doxa, are used to both describe and interpret the activity in this field. They are also used to provide a sociological insight into the production and consumption of translation, as well as the translatorial agency within this field.

2017

In the translation of Qur’anic verses, lexical choices can illustrate gender ideologies of translators and, consequently, change the attitude of individuals towards Islam and the status of women in Islam. The purpose of this study is investigating the impact of the gender-based ideological perspective of translators with different orientations in translating women-related verses. Since most of the Qur’an translators have been men, this research seeks to determine the extent of the impact of patriarchal ideology in translating some verses of the Qur'an. In this regard, two Persian translations of the Holy Qur'an were selected, one translated by a female translator and one by a male translator. Also three English translations of some verses related to women in the four surahs of Nisa, Al-Ahzab, Noor and Mumtahanah, translated by an Iranian woman and male translators with Eastern and Western orientations in their translation of woman-related verses. The translations were analyz...

This research article aims to explore and critically examine six cases in which traces of ideology are explicitly or implicitly involved in the context of translating the Qurān into English. It attempts to answer questions pertinent to the nature and effect of traces of ideology on translating the Qurān in English and the way they shape the Qurānic message. The article employs a critical qualitative framework that allows for the researcher’s subjective interpretations of relevant texts. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is used for the analysis of data as this approach provides a convenient mode of critical thinking to carry out the present thesis. In this article, six texts across twenty versions of the Qurān in English are investigated in terms of their salient features that reflect peculiar ideological readings. Major findings indicate that complex traces of ideology may contribute to a particular choice in translating the salient features in the texts investigated. The case of Helminski, for instance, shows how cultural and linguistic backgrounds, Sufi doctrines, and feminist agendas all combine to produce a radical reading of the Qurān in English where she consistently refers to Allah (SWT) with the combination he/she. Sufi ideologies are crucial in translating some pronouns with controversial references in some Qurānic verses. As well, gnostic interpretations have their own legacy such as the alteration in Khalifa’s ‘authorized version’. Plus, Neo-Mutazilite and Qurānist traces of ideology significantly contribute to produce alien readings of some Qurānic texts as illustrated in cases (5) and (6) in this research article. Keywords: Qurān, traces of ideology, critical discourse analysis (CDA), sacred feminine, Sufi

Global Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL SCIENCE: G Linguistics & Education, 2019

Epistemology is a theory of knowledge, especially with regards to its methods, validity, and scope; it is an investigation of what distinguishes that which needs to be justified as belief or opinion. In explaining the monotheistic law, the religious perspective looks at the Quranic epistemology as a theory of knowledge which is an absolutely primordial and ineluctable precept of the oneness of God as the prior premise. In explaining knowledge formation based on emergent, events the contemporary Islamic scholars have failed to incorporate substantively the Quranic methodology worldview in the form of epistemological analytics and its function. How to understand Quranic epistemology? The prerequisite is an understanding of the Arabic language, including syntax, morphology, rhetoric, and the ability to recite the Quran. Without these, Islamization of knowledge would regards as academic rhetoric. This research critically discusses issues on some blockages facing the Islamization agenda. Abstract-Epistemology is a theory of knowledge, especially with regards to its methods, validity, and scope; it is an investigation of what distinguishes that which needs to be justified as belief or opinion. In explaining the monotheistic law, the religious perspective looks at the Quranic epistemology as a theory of knowledge which is an absolutely primordial and ineluctable precept of the oneness of God as the prior premise. In explaining knowledge formation based on emergent, events the contemporary Islamic scholars have failed to incorporate substantively the Quranic methodology worldview in the form of epistemological analytics and its function. How to understand Quranic epistemology? The prerequisite is an understanding of the Arabic language, including syntax, morphology, rhetoric, and the ability to recite the Quran. Without these, Islamization of knowledge would regards as academic rhetoric. This research critically discusses issues on some blockages facing the Islamization agenda 1

The paper aimed to investigate the role of translator's religious ideology on his/her translation of the Nobel Quran by focusing on English translations of four verses from Surah An-Nisa (Women), Surah Al-Ahzab (The Confederates) and Surah An-Nur (Light) which are mostly referred to with the aim of imagining Islam as a religion that oppresses women and abuses their rights. To this end, four English translations of the Nobel Quran by four translators from Muslim, Christian and Jewish backgrounds, with different ideologies, were selected as the corpus of this study. The research applied Farahzad's model of translation criticism (Based on Fairclough's approach to CDA) as the theoretical framework of this paper. Based on this framework, English translations of selected verses were compared with their original versions at the textual level and paratextual level. The result of this study demonstrated that it is difficult to conclude that there is relationship between translator's religious ideology and his/her translation of Quran.

Ancient Texts and Modern Readers, 2019

Jurnal Studi Ilmu-ilmu Al-Qur'an dan Hadis, 2021

Lessons from the Qur’an can be learned from its translation by those who do not understand Arabic, although the Qur’an does not state the meaning obviously. Still, some translators may interpret the Qur’an differently from each other depend on what ideology belongs to the translators. To know the ideology, this study employs Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) approach. The sources of data of this research are six English Qur’an translational texts. The research data are clause unites in the English Qur’an translation of the QS. Ar-Rum 41. They are divided into four clauses. The results showed that the translation of the Qur’an has a connection with the ideology embraced by translators. Saheeh International – Jeddah Qur’an translation bears the Aswaja ideology consistenly; Maulawi Sher Ali – Islamabad Qur’an translation bears the Ahmadiyah ideology consistenly; Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-DIn Al-Hilali, and Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan - Madinah Al-Munawwarah Qur’an translation bears the Sunn...

International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies , 2013

This study aimed to investigate how and to what extent Iranian translation students are familiar with the changes that the meanings of ethics and manipulation have undergone in translation studies. To this end, the researcher selected an editorial from the SpaceWar website regarding United States’ claims about Iran’s nuclear program and gave it as a translation assignment to thirty postgraduate Iranian students majoring in Translation studies at Sheikhbahaee University, Iran. Firstly, the students were asked to merely translate the text. In the second phase, the students were asked to translate the given text in order to be published in Keyhan newspaper. Two sets of translations were analyzed Using Van Dijk’s (2004) CDA Framework. Finally, frequencies and percentages of the discursive structures were computed across two sets of translations and used to systematically find out what proportions of the information extracted from translated texts were noticeably manipulated compared to the source text. The findings of the study showed that there is no any significant difference across two types of translations. Furthermore, it was revealed that lexicality is the most frequent discursive structure used by the students to show their ideology in translation. Keywords: Ethics, translator’s agency, ideology, translator training