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Saving/damning non‐Muslims through translation
Author(s) -
KHALIL MOHAMMAD HASSAN
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/weng.12039
Subject(s) - islam , arabic , interpretation (philosophy) , linguistics , ideology , meaning (existential) , sociology , muslim world , philosophy , history , epistemology , theology , political science , politics , law
Though most Muslims do not consider translations of the Qur'an to be equivalent to the Arabic original, the overwhelming majority of believers do not understand Arabic and must rely on translators' interpretations. But since the Qur'an is widely considered the revealed word of God, there are great implications attached to any particular translator's word selections and parenthetical insertions. This is especially evident when considering the topic of salvation in Islam, specifically the salvation of Others (i.e. non‐Muslims). In this paper, I explore how two popular yet dissimilar translations approach this consequential topic. The first of these translations is Interpretation of the meaning of the noble Qur'an by the Saudi‐based scholars Muhammad Taqi‐ud‐Din Al‐Hilali and Muhammad Muhsin Khan; the second is The Qur'an: A new translation by the London‐based Egyptian academic M. A. S. Abdel Haleem. Through a careful examination of both sources, one can appreciate the extent to which ideological persuasions lead translators either to conceal or to preserve certain semantic ambiguities.