Aspects of the inimitability (I3jaz) of the holy Qur’an

Abstract

7KH 4XU¶DQ is the miraculous verbatim Word of Allah, which addresses the entire humanity by its transcending time and space, and by the diversity and accuracy of its knowledge. Its wording is so concise and precise that no linguistic element is out of place, redundant or used haphazardly. On account of all its peculiarities, it is an unprecedented inimitable miracle. Although the numerous translations of its meanings have been major contributions to the spreading of Islam, only the Arab reader can enjoy the grace of the µ, MD]¶ miraculousness of some of its eloquent lexical items that hold and impart possible scientific implications, only recently uncovered with the advances of science and technology. This dissertation attempts to KLJKOLJKW WKH IDFW WKDW ZKDW LV ORVW ZKHQ WKH 4XU¶DQ is HQFRXQWHUHG LQ WUDQVODWLRQ LV WKH 4XU¶DQ itself as many of its miraculous features are exclusively granted to its authentic language (Arabic). Thus, this research explores equivalence and faithfulness and investigates the possibility of preserving the meanings, particularly possible scientific inferences as one of the i3jaz features, of some science-related words through a comparative analytical study of these divine words and their English counterparts in five widespread translations. The review has revealed that the renditions suffer linguistically from serious shortcomings, non-equivalence, mistranslation and lack of accuracy; leading consequently to a partial or total absence of the scientific dimension. Subsequently, the study has drawn the conclusion that the KRO\ 4XU¶DQ LV definitely untranslatable (yet, if it has to be translated at all, literalness is the key to approximate most of these words true meanings); for any translation is certainly doomed to failure and could never ever serve, in any way, as a substitute for $OODK¶V PHVVDJH since it is nothing but a mere desperate attempt to approach the most eloquent inimitable speech of all speeches WKH 4XU¶DQ .