The Meaning of Nazala in the Holy Qur'an

Abstract

Translating the Qur'an has always been a difficult task which stems from the holy status of the Book as well as the unique use of Arabic language in it. Being a deliberate text, every word in the Qur'an serves a specific purpose and cannot be replaced by what may be considered a synonym. Translators of the Qur'an encounter difficulties that make it an impossible task to be able to cater for this fact in their translations. They end translating the surface meaning leading to immeasurable loss. This thesis studies the meaning of the word نزََلَ nazala and its derivatives as used in the Qur'an at both word and context levels. The word level meaning of nazala is researched in classical Arabic-Arabic dictionaries. Those meanings are determined through consulting Qur'an exegeses and relevant literature. The translation of nazala and its derivatives is then assessed in light of the findings of the linguistic analysis. Three English translations of the Qur'an are used for this purpose: Marmaduke Pickthall's (1930), Muhammad Muhsin Khan's and Muhammad Taqiudin Al Hilali's (1971) and M. A. S Abdul Haleem's (2004). It is found that the translations do not always consider the deeper meaning of the word, and that translation loss is a prevailing fact in Qur'an translation.