IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v9y2019i3p2158244019873013.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Faithfulness in the Translation of the Holy Quran: Revisiting the Skopos Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Noureldin Mohamed Abdelaal

Abstract

Faithfulness and equivalence are two issues that gained the attention of many scholars in the translation field. It has always been presumed that a faithful translation is the one that could achieve equivalence at its maximum level. However, one theory of translation, namely, the Skopos theory, suggests that the aim or Skopos of a translation should be the target of a translator. Adopting such a theory, equivalence does not mean sameness; it rather means achieving the least dissimilarness. In relation to this, a translation of the Holy Quran is supposed to target conveying the primary meaning of the source text (ST) and its function rather than unachievably aiming at rendering its stylistic features. This study aims to highlight the problems faced in the translation of some verses of the Holy Quran and how they can be handled from a different theoretical and practical perspective and in regard to the Skopos theory. To this end, six verses ( ayahs ) from the Chapter of the Heights and the Chapter of Cattle were purposively selected and analyzed. Frequent problems and loss in translation were found in the translations of Abdel Haleem, Pickthall, Shakir, and Sarwar. This study, guided by the Skopos theory with some modifications, suggests a new perspective in the translation of the Holy Quran. It also provides a more applicable definition of faithfulness in the translation of the Holy Quran.

Suggested Citation

  • Noureldin Mohamed Abdelaal, 2019. "Faithfulness in the Translation of the Holy Quran: Revisiting the Skopos Theory," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(3), pages 21582440198, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:9:y:2019:i:3:p:2158244019873013
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244019873013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244019873013
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244019873013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Noureldin Mohamed Abdelaal & Sabariah Md Rashid, 2015. "Semantic Loss in the Holy Qur’an Translation With Special Reference to Surah Al-WaqiAAa (Chapter of The Event Inevitable)," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(4), pages 21582440156, October.
    2. Noureldin Mohamed Abdelaal & Sabariah Md Rashid, 2016. "Grammar-Related Semantic Losses in the Translation of the Holy Quran, with Special Reference to Surah Al A’araf (The Heights)," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(3), pages 21582440166, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rafat Mahmoud Al Rousan & Ahmad Mohammad Al-Harahsheh & Aya M. Darawsheh, 2024. "Achieving fidelity through self-translation: a case study of Friday sermons by Imam Mohammed Ewes," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ali Salman Hummadi & Seriaznita Binti Mat Said & Rafi’ M. Hussein & Ahmed Abdulateef Sabti & Huda Abed Ali Hattab, 2020. "Rhetorical Loss in Translating Prepositional Phrases of the Holy Qur’an," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440209, January.
    2. Noureldin Mohamed Abdelaal & Sabariah Md Rashid, 2016. "Grammar-Related Semantic Losses in the Translation of the Holy Quran, with Special Reference to Surah Al A’araf (The Heights)," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(3), pages 21582440166, August.
    3. Ali Albashir Mohammed Alhaj, 2023. "Lexical-Semantic Problems and Constrains Met in Translating Qur’anic Arabic-Specific words "Nafs نفس "into English: A Cross-lingual Perspective," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 44(1), pages 1025-1040, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:9:y:2019:i:3:p:2158244019873013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.