Holy Qur’ān

Theme/rheme structure plays a crucial role in conveying meaning and facilitating effective communication and comprehension. Moreover, foregrounding is an issue that has attracted much attention from researchers and theorists. Several studies have investigated the translation of marked structures of the Holy Qur’ān into different languages from various perspectives, such as semantics or stylistics, but few have focused on foregrounding in English translations by Iranian translators of the Qur’ān. The present study aimed to examine the challenges that Iranian translators encountered in their renditions. To this end, English equivalents of eighteen Ayahs featuring foregrounding were extracted from four English translations by Iranian translators and the translators’ strategies in rendering foregrounding cases were analyzed. The findings revealed that the Iranian translators were inconsistent in their renditions but performed better in cases where marked structures were less complex and aligned with the normative structure of English prose. The translators faced the most difficulties in rendering specification and emphasis, which are two main categories of foregrounding. Interestingly, the translators who had native-like proficiency in English outperformed their peers in rendering foregrounding into English.

The translation of discourse markers in English versions of the Holy Qur’ān can significantly impact the quality of the translated text. Translators face the challenge of ensuring the accuracy and effectiveness of discourse markers when converting the original text into the target language. This study employed a qualitative research methodology to investigate the usage of English and Persian discourse markers in three translated versions of the Holy Qur’ān by Arberry, Shakir, and Yusuf Ali. Focusing on the renowned Surah Al-Baqarah, 286 verses were meticulously analyzed. Descriptive statistics, following Fraser’s (2005) framework, were applied to categorize discourse markers. The study identified various discourse markers falling into four distinct categories: elaborative, contrastive, inferential, and temporal markers. The results underscored the pivotal role of discourse markers in shaping the translation and structure of the Holy Qur’ān. These markers establish a cohesive link between content words and contribute to the overall coherence of Qur’ānic passages. The study recommends that translators exercise careful consideration in selecting and translating discourse markers to maintain the integrity and meaning of the text.

The word “Shahr” is an important word in the calendar system of the Qur'an. As the main element of the Qur’an, words have a special place within its text. Therefore, studying and analyzing the meaning of Qur’anic words is a necessary method of understanding and correct interpretation of verses. This article aims to investigate the meaning of the word shahr in the Qur'an based on a descriptive-analytical method; Explaining the literal and idiomatic meaning, the application of this word in the Qur'an are as follows: the time to do or leave a certain task, measurement tool for valuing a specific phenomenon, one of the main bases of the calendar, and expressing God's genesis law in the number of months of the year. Some of the examples of shahr in the Qur'an are specific, meaning the crescent moon. In the cases where there is no specific example, it means the crescent moon in the customary and literal sense, which in order to observe caution and make calculations easier in custom, it is also used to mean a numerical month (30 days). Since God has based the guidance and development of humans on time, at the end of some of the discussed verses, God speaks about the piety and the need to pay attention to Divine limits, such as observing the limits of certain months and their rules

Social issues and social participation and deviations are important issues in divine discussions and teachings. In a number of verses of the Qur’an and the Testaments, the issue of social participation and feeling of anomie has been discussed with similarities and differences. The questions raised here, “what cases and examples of the meaning of anomie are expressed in the Holy Qur’an and the Testaments?” and “what is its relation with social participation?” This research studies and analyzes the issue in the Holy Qur’an and the Testaments, using the comparative study and the descriptive-analytical method. In conclusion, if the members of the society consciously organize their actions, participate with each other, and obey the commands of God and the Prophets, problems and dilemmas mostly will be solved by themselves and the society will move towards happiness and prosperity. In contrast, if the participation and mutual solidarity of people in the society are lost and disobedience to the divine commands and opposition to the divine prophets become widespread in the society, members become abnormal. In case this situation spreads in the society generally, the society will suffer from anomie, abnormality, and disorder.

Each culture encompasses unique concepts that can be challenging for outsiders to grasp, often due to their deep-rooted connotations within the source language and culture. Various strategies exist for translating culture-specific items. This descriptive-comparative study examines the strategies employed in the Arabic-to-Persian and Arabic-to-English translations of Surah Al-An’am. This surah is one of the Tiwal suras, which are seven lengthy surahs in the Holy Qur’ān. Its complete recitation in one sitting, known as Khatme Anaam (complete recitation of Al-An’am Surah), is a common practice in Iran, performed with the hope of having one’s prayers answered by God. The Persian translation analyzed in this study was by Mohammad Mehdi Fooladvand, one of the top eight translators of the Holy Qur’ān, recognized for his balanced approach between literal and content-based translation. The English version studied was by Mustafa Khattab, a Canadian-Egyptian translator renowned for The Clear Qur’ān. The translation strategies for culture-specific items were evaluated using frameworks proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet, Newmark, and Nida. The analysis identified 50 culture-specific items in the surah. The findings revealed that both translations predominantly employed the strategy of literal translation, while footnotes and modulation were the least utilized. Statistical tests, including log-likelihood for significance and Bayes Factor for effect size, indicated significant differences between the two translations regarding the use of seven strategies. Notably, the strategies of borrowing and functional equivalence provided strong evidence against the null hypothesis.