Translating binominals in the qur’an into english

Abstract

This study investigates binominals in the Qura’n and the translational challenges posed by them. The study draws mostly on Newmark’s semantic approach translation. The study examines, compares and evaluates the translations of seventeen Qur’anic binominals into English by two well-known translators of the Qur’an: Pickthall (1930), a non-native speaker of Arabic, and Shakir (1983), an Arabic native speaker. The translations were analyzed and evaluated against authoritative Arabic exegeses of the meanings of the Qur’an, such as al-Tabari (1999) and Ibn Kathir (1950). The study concludes that binominals in the Qur'an are of three types: synonymous, antonymous and complementary. The translators also provided adequate translations of these binominals while they failed in few cases.