An-Najah Staff

The source text under discussion which is the Holy Qur’an is the richest book in Arabic. By richest I mean richest in terms of having its vocabulary which is very variable, metaphors, rhetorical aspects, connotations, and even sound effects, all available in the Holy Qur’an.

Each used word is not used randomly, and each word can’t be substituted by another as each has its connotations. That is why the idea of having synonyms in the Holy Qur’an is not valid. By synonyms we mean that whether we use this word or the other, it will be accepted. In the Holy Qur’an, this is not accepted. Each word is used for a purpose which leads me to write my paper.

As I have just mentioned, there are no synonyms in the Holy Qur’an; however, in the translated text, the translators gave similar equivalents for words which are different. The translators thought that such words are synonyms, and so they gave similar equivalents; however they are not. And in my paper, I would like to highlight the rhetorical connotations of such words and show that they couldn’t be translated in the same way.

In this paper, I will not mention the opinions of scholars towards the idea of translating the Holy Qur’an, nor will I mention the history of translating it.

The text that I use to examine is Interpretation of the meanings of The Noble Qur’an In The English Language by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan and Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali. This version is legal and it’s sold. It’s published by Dar-us-Salam Publications in Riyadh- Saudi Arabia.