Assessing the Translations of the Qur'anic Word (jazā') into English

Abstract

The Glorious Qur'an is regarded as the greatest book in the world for its unique style and important topics. Besides, the Glorious Qur'an is of divine authorship. The current paper is divided into four parts. The first is about the relation between ambiguity, context and translation. Part two deals with translation and its relation to the Glorious Qur'an, whereas the third part is concerned with the ayas chosen for the paper and their commentaries. Finally, Part Four is the practical part. It is about assessing the translations of the Qur'anic word (jazā') depending on existing Qur'anic translations to see how far those translators are successful in rendering the said word, especially the word concerned has two different meanings used in two different cases. The paper addresses the following points: the ability of translators to differentiate between the Qur'anic word (jazā') when it is found in an aya that deals with punishment and when it is available in an aya that is concerned with prize and good deeds. The paper is based upon the following hypotheses: 

• Translators seem to render the Qur'anic word (jazā') into a word with positive connotation in all ayas that have the said word without differentiating between its positive and negative meanings.
• Translators are likely to deprive the ayas that consist of the Qur'anic word (jazā') of context within the process of translation.

To verify the above-mentioned hypotheses ten ayas containing the Qur'anic word (jazā') have been chosen and four published translations have been consulted. The translations of the Qur'anic word (jazā') have been assessed in the light of the theoretical framework and the model designed by the researcher sment. The results of the paper have validated all the hypotheses. It has been found out that all translators did not differentiate between the Qur'anic ayas that embrace negative meanings and   others that have positive meanings in translating the said word. This means that most translators rendered the Qur'anic word (jazā') into a word with positive connotation in all ayas regardless of their contexts.