When I was in the primary school, Allah summoned the soul of my

father to Him. However, he did not die. His good deeds, his love and
respect in the hearts of those who knew him have always reflected his love
and care on us. Wherever I go, study or work he looks down at me and
sends me his love and care through those who knew or heard of him. To
my great father, my dear father, who always reminds me of the Quranic
verse
(ً)ِ+(َ- (.ُ‫ه‬1ُ2‫ن أ‬
َ (َ‫  َوآ‬I dedicate this book.
To my great mother, who undertook efficiently the responsibility of
raising a large family of nine little children all by herself after the sudden
Departure of my father, whose prayers and encouragement have kept me
going ahead throughout my life especially in times of distress who
inspired me to study hard and get the highest grades just to please her;
with love respect and gratitude which no words can fully express, I
dedicate this work.
To my sisters, the light of my eyes, the voice of my mouth, the
power of my arm, the comfort of my woes, I dedicate this work.
And finally, to my dear elder brother, Sohaib, who guarded our
home with the deepest sense of responsibility, with respect and love I
dedicate this book.

3
 Acknowledgments
I would like to express my sincere respect and gratitude to my late
supervisor Dr. Kadhim Haidar al-Jawadi, who was assassinated by
terrorists. His paternal guidance, continuous support and meticulous
insights had been invaluable to this work. I am deeply indebted to him for
everything that he did so that the present work can see the light.
My deepest gratitude and appreciation also go to Dr. Abdul-Baki As-
Safi. His valuable advice, encouragement, help and patience have always
been indispensable. Special words of thanks and appreciation are due to Dr.
Alya’ Al-Rubai‘i for her estimable remarks and generous assistance. She
guided me at times when I was badly in need of help.
Gratitude with respect and love also go to Dr. Muna Al-Alawn, for
her continuous moral support and encouragement. She gave me access to
the libraries and references available to her.
A particular debt of thanks goes to all my dear friends and ex-
colleagues, especially Mrs. Nagham Qahtan, Miss. Aseel Jouri, Mrs.
Ghusoon Subhi, Mrs. Muntaha Na‘eem and Miss. Ghaida’ Hammudi for
their priceless cooperation and encouragement and for the references they
generously provided me with. Miss. Jameela Al-Attar extended at critical
times friendly help that I shall never forget. To her I owe a word of deep
gratitude and express heartfelt love.
I am deeply appreciative and sincerely grateful to Miss. Jhenel
Aryola, Mr. and Mrs. Adel Abu Jubba and Mr. Gray J. Harriman, whose
assistance was invaluable for the questionnaire. Special thanks in this
respect go to Mrs. Huda Yang whose enthusiastic support and kindness
were immense and extremely generous. Also, I would like to thank Mrs.
Shlair M. Ash-Shaikh Rasheed for her cooperation in doing the statistical
work.
Finally, I sincerely acknowledge with love and gratitude the
inspirational help of my mother, my dear elder brother, Sohaib, my younger
brothers, my sisters and especially Sundus and Hanan for their enormous
support and continuous encouragement. Special thanks are also due to Mr.
Muhammad Al-Bayyati for his support and patience in guiding me through
my search for references.

4
 Preface
This book studies the translation of Islamic religious texts (IRTs).
These texts are peculiar in that in addition to their having a sacred as well as
legal nature, they address the minds together with the hearts of their
audience. They evoke aesthetic feelings and have vocative functions. This
book tries to tackle this issue by analysing the register of IRTs, highlighting
the characteristics of the sub-field of jurisprudence, examining the semantic
notions and problems connected with this field and introducing the
strategies of translation from the angle of IRTs.
This study focuses on a very important issue in the translation of
IRTs, viz. the interrelationship between language, culture and religion
through investigating the application of translation strategies to the cultural
signs. It shows how different translators have applied them in the hope of
communicating the message to the largest possible number of receptors.
The investigation of an adequately representative collection of specimens
has revealed how the lack of guidelines to follow in translating IRTs leads
translators to base their judgments on personal intuition and thus produce
different translations for identical signs.
The second area inspected is style. After introducing the concept of
style and indicating the two resources focused upon here, viz. the
phonological and the lexical, the present work shows that IRTs bear strong
affinity to literary register, in that they use sound devices, such as
paronomasia, assonance, consonance and rhyme and employ literary style,
such as verbosity and terseness. It also affirms the strong affinity to literary
register by showing how idiomatic and connotative the language of IRTs is.
Through the investigation of the lexical and stylistic levels of IRTs,
the present work has proved that there are various elements which have to
be taken care of in translating IRTs, and that overlooking any of them has
serious consequences at the denotative and/or connotative levels.
The third point examined is the importance of the audience as a
factor in deciding on the strategies to be adopted. Intelligibility and
acceptability have been brought into focus in this work. A questionnaire was
conducted in Taiwan to find out the points of view of non-Arabic speaking
audience concerning the translation of an Islamic juridical text. Significant
results in this connection emphasized the point in question, viz.,
intelligibility and acceptability

5
 Table of Contents
Dedication 3
Acknowledgements 4
Preface 5
Table of Contents 6
List of Abbreviations (English) 9
List of Abbreviations (Arabic) 10
List of Tables 11
List of Figures 12
Key to Symbols of Transliteration 13
Introduction 14

Chapter One: Theoretical Perspective 17

1.1. The Concept of Register 19
1.1.1. Field of Discourse 20
1.1.2. Mode of Discourse 20
1.1.3. Tenor of Discourse 22
1.2. The Concept of Jurisprudence (Fiqh) 22
1.3. Semantic Problems 24
1.4. Culture 28
1.5. Strategies of Translation 31
1.5.1. Literal Translation 33
1.5.2. Translation Proper 34
1.5.3. Loan Blending 35
1.5.4. Acculturation 36
1.5.5. Transliteration 36
1.5.5.1 Complete Transliteration 37
1.5.5.2 Partial Transliteration 37
1.5.6. Translation Couplet 39
1.5.7. Translation Triplet 39
1.5.8. Definition 40
1.5.9. Paraphrasing 40
1.5.10. Addition 41
1.5.11. Deletion 43

Chapter Two: Translation Problems Involving Cultural

Signs 45
2.1. Cultural Signs 47
2.2. Proper Names 54

6
 2.2.1. Beautiful Names of Allah 54
2.2.2. Names of Prophets and Messengers 56
2.2.3. Names of Ordinary Individuals 57
2.2.4. Names of Groups of People 59
2.3. Geographical Names 61
2.4. Technical Terms 61
2.4.1. Translating According to Context 62
2.4.2. Explanatory Translation 64
2.4.3. Letting the Text Define the Term 65
2.4.4. Explanation in a Footnote 66
2.4.5. Using Established Translations 67
2.4.6. Translation According to a Definition in the
Text 67
2.4.7. Using Established Target Language
Expressions 68
2.4.8. Translation Proper 70
2.4.9. Partial Transliteration 70
2.4.10. Deletion 71

Chapter Three: Translation Problems Involving Stylistic

Resources 73
3.1. Rendition of Style 75
3.2. Phonological Resources 77
3.2.1. Paronomasia 78
3.2.2. Paronyms 79
3.2.3. Consonance, Assonance and Rhyme 81
3.3. Lexical Resources 83
3.3.1. Terseness 83
3.3.1.1. Brevity 84
3.3.1.2. Ellipsis 85
3.3.2. Verbosity 87
3.3.3. Idioms 91
3.3.3.1. Transparent Idioms 93
3.3.3.2. Opaque Idioms 98
3.3.4. Connotation 103
3.3.4.1. Analysis and Rendition of
Connotation 105
3.3.4.2. Consequences of Overlooking
Connotation 110
3.3.5. Abbreviations 111
3.3.5.1. Translation Proper of the Original
7
 Abbreviated Signs 112
3.3.5.2. Abbreviating the TL Equivalent of
the SL Sign 112
3.3.5.3. Deletion 112
3.3.5.4. Transliteration 112

Chapter Four: Questionnaire 115

4.1. Procedure 122
4.2. The Strategy of Addition 122
4.3. The Strategy of Deletion 122
4.4. Abbreviation of a Transliterated Word 125
4.5. The Strategy of Transliteration 127
4.6. Translating a Term According to a Definition in the
Text 134
4.7. Results 136

Chapter Five: Criticism, Assessments and Conclusions 139

5.1. Criticism and Assessments 141
5.2. Conclusions 146

References 150
Appendices 158
Glossary 162

8
 List of Abbreviations(English)
Hamidullah, Muhammad. 1953. Muslim Conduct of
Hamid.
State.
El-Helbawy et al., trs. 1984. The Lawful and the
El-Helbawy
Prohibited in Islam: Al-Halal Wal-Haram fil Islam. By
Yusuf al-Qaradāwi
IRTs Islamic religious texts Ḥadith.
Ibrahim, Dr. Ezzedin and Johnson-Davies, Denys, trs.
Ibr.&Dav.
1977. An-Nawawī’s Forty Ḥadith. By, Imam Yahya bin
Sharaf ad-Dīn an-Nawawī (d. AD 1277).
Khadduri Khadduri, Majid, tr. 1961. Islamic Jurisprudence:
Shāfi‘ī’s Risāla, Translated with an Introduction. By
Ash-Shāfi‘ī.
Khan, Muhammad Muhsin, tr. 1971. The Translation of
Khan
the Meanings of Şahīh Al-Bukhārī. By Muhammad bin
Ismā’īl al-Bukhāri (d. AD 870). (Vols.1 and 2). Bilingual
ed.
Matraji, Dr. Mahmoud, tr. 1993. Riyad us-Saliheen: The
Matraji
Paradise of the Pious. By Imam Yahyā bin Sharaf ad-Dīn
an-Nawawī (d. 1277). Bilingual ed. Two vols.
…. 1960. Islam and Humanity’s Need of It. By
Isl.&Hum.
Muhammad Yusuf Mūsā. Translated and published under
the auspices of The Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs,
Ministry of Waqf.
The Oxford English Dictionary. (1989). 2nd ed.
2OED
Robson Robson, James, tr. (1963). Mishkat Al-Masabih: English
Translation with Explanatory Notes. By at-Tibrīzī
(completed the work in AD1336).
Ṣiddīqī Ṣiddīqī, Abdul Hamid, tr. 1977. Ṣ aḥ īḥ Muslim. By
Imām Muslim Bin Al-Ḥajjāj. (d. AD 875) 4 Vols.
SL Source Language
Source Text
ST
Target Language
TL
Target Text
TT