The Translation of Near-Synonymous Names of Allah in the Holy Qur’an: A Comparative Study

Akaber Al-Adwan and Linda Al-Abbas

World Journal of English Language, 2023, vol. 13, issue 7, 194

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the lexical choices of the near-synonymous names of Allah in the Holy Quran, namely, (الوهّاب ، الرزّاق) , (البارئ ، المصوّر ، الخالق) , (الرءو٠، الودود ، اللطي٠) in five English translations which include Muhammad Sarwar's (2011), Pickthall's (1930), Yusuf Ali's (1982), Arberry's (1955), Al-Hilali and Khan's (2018). The meanings of the names of Allah were checked based on the Qur'anic exegeses and the English equivalents selected by the five translators were looked up in Cambridge and Merriam-Webster's Dictionary in order to determine the translation that best provided the closest meanings to the Qur’anic interpretations. The study found that the slight differences in the meanings of the names of Allah were not reflected in the English lexical choices of some translators. The study recommends that translators of religious books should take into account the minor differences between words of similar meaning which are intended for specific purposes.

Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/wjel/article/download/23811/15036 (application/pdf)
https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/wjel/article/view/23811 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jfr:wjel11:v:13:y:2023:i:7:p:194

Access Statistics for this article

World Journal of English Language is currently edited by Joe Nelson

More articles in World Journal of English Language from Sciedu Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sciedu Press ().