Lost in Translation: The Ideological Effects of the Translator and the Interpreter on the Qur’ānic Text
Abstract
this article focuses on how the ideological views of an interpreter or translator
of the Qur’ān affect the meaning of the translated verse. Extremist Muslim
groups, such as ISIS, have misinterpreted some verses of the Qur’ān
according to their extreme views to facilitate their political agendas. Some
Orientalist translators have also distorted the meanings of some verses of the Qur’ān
due to their weakness in the Arabic language. This article discusses issues in the
Qur’ān that have been interpreted differently by liberal and classical exegetes of the
Holy text, such as those relating to the reality of the stories of the Prophets and
hitting disobedient wives. While the liberal interpreters have not adhered to the
Arabic language and the traditional interpretation of the text, the classical translators
have emphasized the importance of explaining the Qur’ānic text according to its
traditional meaning, relying on the classical Arabic language and the Prophetic
tradition. This article presents these issues with the goal of proving that many
meanings in the original text have been lost and misinterpreted, mainly because of
the ideological views of the interpreters.
DOI/handle
http://hdl.handle.net/10576/23900Collections
- Quran and Sunnah [80 items ]