Further Investigation of Ta ḍmīn (Implication of Meaning) in the Qur’an with Reference to Four Muslim-Arabic Authored English Translations

This research is an extension of Nouraldeen (2020). The principal objective of this project is to investigate the English translation of complete taḍmīn in the Qur’an and shed light on other types of taḍmīn in the Qur’an. ِAlthough complete taḍmīn is probably not as numerous as other types of taḍmīn in the Qur’an, it deserves much attention for the interesting additional meaning it provides. Two sources are used to collect the āyāt (verses) that involve complete taḍmīn. Four English translations of the second sūrah (chapter) produced by Arab transla tors are analysed and assessed with a suggested translation that is believed to improve the current translations. None of the four translations are aware of taḍmīn when translating the Qur’an and this suggests a further empirical study which to elicit the views of some Qur’an translators with regards to why taḍmīn is not given attention and how it can be rendered. One unexpected finding is that some Qur’an translations are not consistent when translating same words in different āyāt (verses). This study is intended to be part of an ongoing work which studies and assesses the English translation of all āyāt (verses) that include complete taḍmīn as they appear in the same arrangement of the suwar (chapters) in the Qur’an. Qur’an


Introduction 1
Taḍmīn is a linguistic and rhetorical phenomenon of which a preposition and a noun/verb are the core. It occurs when a preposition follows a noun/verb with which is not standardly collocated. The purpose of this linguistic-rhetorical phenomenon is to produce two meanings using one preposition and one noun/verb.
In Arabic, taḍmīn could be interpreted as taqāruḍ 'mutual borrowing' in which one preposition acts in the place of another. Verb/noun-preposition taḍmīn is another phenomenon which involves the presence of a noun/verb and a preposition (see: Nouraldeen, 2020, pp. 239-240).

Types of taḍmīn in the Qur'an
Taḍmīn is one of the unique characteristics of the Qur'an. However, scholarly articles have given little attention to its translation into English (Hummadi et al., 2020, p. 2). I believe there are different types of taḍmīn in the Qur'an. This is inferred from two sources. The first is the one I have used in Nouraldeen (2020, p. 241) authored by Fadel (2005). The second one is At-taḥrīr wa at-tanwīr by Ibn ʕāšūr (1984). Although Fadel is fairly comprehensive (Nouraldeen, 2020, p. 241), it is not dedicated to one type of taḍmīn, i.e. complete taḍmīn 2 , with which my studies on taḍmīn in the Qur'an are concerned. Fadel includes other types of taḍmīn (see table 1). Studying more sources might reveal further types of taḍmīn in the Qur'an.
(a) Incomplete implicit preposition. This occurs when one verb implies another one which standardly takes a complement preposition. An example of this type is found in Q 27:18 ‫النمل‬ ‫واد‬ ‫على‬ ‫أتوا‬ ‫إذا‬ ‫حتى‬ "when they came across a valley of ants" (Khattab, 2016, p. 314). The Arabic text has an explicit verb ‫أتوا‬ 'came', an explicit preposition ‫على‬ (lit. 'on') and an implicit verb ‫أشرف/أشفى‬ 'approach'. The explicit Arabic verb ‫أتوا‬ is transitive, i.e. it takes an object and cannot take a preposition unlike the English verb 'came' which is intransitive and needs a following preposition 'to'. Therefore, in the case of the Arabic text, implicitly, there is no preposition. Moreover, the explicit Arabic verb ‫أتوا‬ is followed by an explicit preposition ‫على‬ with which does not standardly collocate 3 . However, the explicit Arabic preposition ‫على‬ (lit. 'on') is standardly collocated with the implicit Arabic verb ‫أشرف/أشفى‬ 'approach' unlike 'approach' in English which is transitive. This difference between Arabic and English in terms of standard collocation is a challenge when translating from Arabic into English. (b) Incomplete explicit preposition: This involves a verb that implies another one but without an explicit preposition. An example of this type is found in Q 2:26 ‫بعوضة‬ ‫ما‬ ‫مثلا‬ ‫يضرب‬ ‫أن‬ ‫يستحيي‬ ‫لا‬ ‫هللا‬ ‫إن‬ "Allah does not shy away from using he parable of a mosquito" (Khattab, 2016, p. 4). The explicit Arabic verb ‫يستحيي‬ 'to be shy' could be transitive with َ ‫ب‬ ْ ‫ر‬ َ ‫ض‬ ‫مثل‬ as an object or could be intransitive followed by ‫ن‬ ‫مِ‬ (lit. 'from') and then ‫مثل‬ ِ ‫ب‬ ْ ‫ر‬ َ ‫.ض‬ On the other hand, the explicit verb ‫يستحيي‬ implies an implicit intransitive verb ‫أمسك‬ 'refrain' which is standardly collocated with an implicit preposition ‫عن‬ 'from'. (c) Verbal: This involves a verb that implies another verb without an implicit or an explicit preposition. An example of this type is found in Q 24:27 ‫تستأنسوا‬ ‫حتى‬ ‫بيوتكم‬ ‫غير‬ ‫بيوتا‬ ‫تدخلوا‬ ‫لا‬ "Do not enter any house other than your own until you have asked for permission". (Khattab, 2016, pp. 290-291). The translation emphasizes the implicit verb, which is ‫,تستأذنوا‬ not the explicit one ‫.تستأنسوا‬ The explicit verb ‫تستأنسوا‬ means that when asking for permission to enter any house rather than his /her own, (a) he/she should know if anyone is there, (b) the host should 'feel at ease with receiving the guest' and (c) the guest should 'feel if he/she is welcomed by the host'. This could be translated as '… until you know that the host feels at ease with receiving you while asking for permission'. (d) Incomplete verb: This involves a verb that is standardly collocated with an implicit and an explicit preposition where the latter is a more common collocation in Arabic. However, the less common preposition is used explicitly for rhetorical purposes, i.e. enriching the text/speech with additional meaning and bringing the importance of the meaning resulting from the less common preposition with the verb to the attention of readers/listeners. An example of this type is found in Q 2:4 ‫إليك‬ ‫ل‬ ِ ‫ز‬ ْ ‫ن‬ ُ ‫أ‬ "has been revealed to you". (Khattab, 2016, p. 2). In Arabic, the verb ‫ل‬ َ ‫ز‬ ْ ‫ن‬ َ ‫أ‬ 'reveal' is more commonly collocated with ‫على‬ 'on' (Ibn ʕāšūr, 1984, vol 1, p. 239). Its counterpart in English is 'to'. However, it is less commonly collocated with 'to' (no counterpart in English for 'to' collocated with ‫ل‬ َ ‫ز‬ ْ ‫ن‬ َ ‫أ‬ 'reveal' in Arabic). In the example given above, the emphasis of the meaning of ‫على‬ ‫نزل‬ ُ ‫أ‬ 'reveal to' (lit. 'reveal on') is on the book (the Qur'an). Nevertheless, when using the explicit Arabic preposition ‫إلى‬ 'to' with 'reveal', the emphasis falls on the Prophet who the book, i.e. the Qur'an', is revealed to and that the book is well established in him (Ibn ʕāšūr, 1984, vol 1, p. 239).

Methodology
I thought that Qur'an translators who are Arabic native speakers of Islamic background and have an excellent command of English would be an appropriate sample to study their English translation of complete taḍmīn in the Qur'an. This is because given their deep knowledge of Arabic, they could be expected to take taḍmīn into consideration when translating the Qur'an. Hummadi (2020, p. 3) believes that prepositions in the Qur'an are sometimes not translated properly due to the absence of "the required knowledge of the use of prepositions in the Holy Qur'an". I believe Qur'an translators who are Arabic native speakers will probably have this essential knowledge.
Out of the four types of taḍmīn in the Qur'an mentioned earlier, this study will analyse and discuss four English Qur'an translations of the āyāt (verses) of ch. 2 (al-Baqarah) with complete taḍmīn. The reason for studying this type of taḍmīn is that, unlike other types, it helps to understand this phenomenon and therefore understand the other types. As it is complete taḍmīn, all elements are used. Therefore, when other types miss one or more of these elements, this will make it easier to understand these types given that complete taḍmīn is understood. Moreover, complete taḍmīn has implicit elements which it is believed that they may not be taken into consideration when translating the Qur'an into English, although translating them will assist in fully understanding the āyāt (verses) appropriately.  Bridges (2020). The āyāt (verses) involving complete taḍmīn will be analysed, discussed and assessed.
As there is no reference in Arabic, to the best of my knowledge, that encompasses all āyāt (verses) with complete taḍmīn in the Qur'an, I had to consult different sources to pinpoint some of the places where it occurs in the Qur'an. The different references used in this study are Ibn ʕāšūr (1984) and Fadel (2005). Therefore, this study coupled with my previous one (Nouraldeen, 2020) will hopefully plant the seeds for future pieces of research that embrace all āyāt (verses) with complete taḍmīn in the Qur'an. The āyāt (verses) chosen for this research will be studied as they are arranged in the Qur'an starting from the first surah (chapter) to the final one, unlike in Fadel (2005) where they are not unfortunately arranged in the same order as they appear in the Qur'an. I believe following the arrangement of the Qur'an when studying taḍmīn will facilitate analysis and discussion and make it easier for the reader to follow.
The sūrah (chapter) that will be analysed and discussed in this study is ch. 2 (al-Baqarah). The first sūrah (chapter) of the Qur'an has no complete taḍmīn examples. Al-Baqarah is the longest surah (chapter) in the Qur'an and, as might accordingly be expected, some āyāt (verses) with taḍmīn.
As the focus of this paper is to study complete taḍmīn in the Qur'an, the four English translations of the Qur'an will be analysed and discussed using the four-element model that was suggested by Nourladeen (2020, p. 240). These elements are explicit noun/verb, implicit preposition, implicit noun/verb and explicit preposition. In this study, I modify this model by adding nouns which mean 'verbal nouns'.

Analysis and Discussion
In each āyah (verse), the four English translations will be presented, followed by a table which arranges the four elements of taḍmīn and finds which element is present or absent in these translations. After discussing and analysing the translations, the purpose of taḍmīn and the meanings it provides will be presented and an improvement to the translations wherever needed will be suggested. In the conclusion section, the three research questions will be answered based on the outcomes of the discussion and analysis. All four translators translate the explicit verb ‫َوا‬ ‫ل‬ َ ‫خ‬ as 'are alone', except Khattab (see below), using the grammatical structure 'auxiliary verb' (verb 'to be') + 'adjective', while the Arabic text uses a lexical (main) verb in the past tense. Khattab uses 'alone' without verb 'to be' with an arguably elliptical 'they are'.
This explicit verb ‫َوا‬ ‫ل‬ َ ‫خ‬ may be rendered as 'meet in private' because this incident in the āyah (verse) is in contrast to the beginning of it 'when they meet the believers' [in public]. So, I believe 'meet in private' would be an acceptable translation, as it is consistent with the contrasting incident.
The explicit preposition ‫إلى‬ (lit. 'to') is not rendered by the four translators. This is because the English translation 'are alone' is standardly collocated with 'with'. However, the translators may have not realised that the explicit verb ‫َوا‬ ‫ل‬ َ ‫خ‬ is not standardly collocated with the explicit preposition ‫.إلى‬ Ibn ʕāšūr (1984, vol 1, p. 291) expresses the view that ‫َوا‬ ‫ل‬ َ ‫خ‬ 'are alone' is standardly collocated with the implicit preposition ِ ‫بـــ‬ 'with', while the explicit preposition ‫إلى‬ 'to' is standardly collocated with the implicit verb ‫رجع‬ ‫أو‬ ‫عاد‬ ‫أو‬ َ ‫آب‬ 'return' or 'come back'.
At the beginning of the āyah (verse), Allah describes the situation in which the unbelievers go to see or talk with the believers using the verb 'meet', which indicates that this is probably a brief and uninteresting meeting. However, when they go to see their Satans 4 , they return to them with an interest in meeting them and they meet them in private. These meanings would not be expressed without using ellipsis in the form of taḍmīn.
Therefore, an appropriate idiomatic translation might be 'when they return to their Satans meeting up with them in private'. ‫ن‬ is intransitive, the English verb 'acknowledge' is transitive. Therefore, the explicit preposition ‫َــ‬ ‫ل‬ cannot be rendered; however, its existence in the āyah (verse) reveals the implicit verb. A suggested translation to improve the four translations could be as 'we will never 6 believe in you, nor will we ever acknowledge your God'. Another suggested translation is 'we will neither believe in you nor acknowledge your God'.
Taḍmīn in this āyah (verse) is a sign of the fervent disbelief the non-believers adhere to. They not only disbelieve; they do not acknowledge belief in Allah (God) at all. These meanings would not be revealed without the use of the rhetorical feature of taḍmīn. This part of the āyah (verse) may seem similar in meaning to āyah (verse) 1 above and therefore it might be claimed that there is no need to analyse and discuss it. As a matter of fact, the explicit verb ‫خلا‬ is identical to the one above ‫خلوا‬ in āyah (verse) 1. However, the subject ‫بعضهم‬ and the prepositional phrase ‫إلى‬ ‫بعض‬ are different and thus the implicit verb ‫سكن‬ ‫أو‬ ‫ارتاح‬ 'feel at ease' is also non-identical 7 . Furthermore, even though the explicit verbs ‫خلوا/خلا‬ in both āyāt (verses) are the same, what is surprising is that some of the four translators render them inconsistently. With regards to the translation of taḍmīn in this āyah (verse), none of the four translators translate the explicit preposition ‫إلى‬ (lit. 'to'). Surprisingly, Khattab does not even translate the explicit verb ‫.خلا‬ Instead, he translates it as a phrase 'in private'. On the other hand, Bridges does not translate neither the explicit preposition nor the implicit one.
Fadel (2005, p. 326) believes that the explicit preposition ‫إلى‬ suggests an implicit verb which is ‫ارتاح/سكن‬ 'feel at ease'. Verb/noun-preposition collocations may differ from one language to another ‫ـــ‬ and this is true for 'feel at ease' which is standardly collocated with 'with' in English and with ‫إ‬ ‫لى‬ in Arabic.
At the beginning of the āyah (verse), Allah describes how the unbelievers meet the believers using the verb ‫وا‬ ‫َقُ‬ ‫ل‬ 'meet' because there is likely no intimacy between them. However, when they meet the disbelievers, they come together with each other, which may be evidence of an intimate closeness and feeling of ease. These meanings are pointed to in the āyah (verse) in an elliptical form using taḍmīn. Unlike the other translators, Hammad translates the explicit preposition ‫إلى‬ (lit. 'to'). His choice may be interpreted as meaning that he is aware of the explicit preposition and he translates it, though he may not be aware that this explicit preposition is not standardly collocated with the explicit noun. Another interpretation is that he has to use 'to' because he either (a) wants to be close to the ST no matter if it is standardly collocated in English with 'approach' or (b) he might believe that it is standardly collocated with 'approach' in English. In fact, 'to' in English does not standardly collocate with 'approach'.
In Arabic, the explicit noun ‫الرفث‬ used in the āyah (verse) might mean two things. It may mean 'the act of having sex' or 'foreplay'. So, to avoid ambiguity, the āyah (verse) uses taḍmīn by using the explicit preposition ‫إلى‬ which is not standardly collocated with the explicit noun ‫الرفث‬ to indicate another noun ‫(الجماع)‬ ‫الإفضاء‬ with a different meaning. This implied noun ‫(الجماع)‬ ‫الإفضاء‬ has one meaning only, which is 'the act of having sex', while ‫الرفث‬ means 'foreplay' in this context. Another possible reason why taḍmīn is used is to attract the attention of the readers/listeners to the importance of engaging in foreplay before having sex. This is also emphasised on in the same sūrah (chapter) Q 2: 223. So, by using taḍmīn, these two meanings are included in an elliptical rhetorical form.
As not all elements of taḍmīn in the āyah (verse) are translated, the following translation is probably an improvement and transfers all elements 'engaging in foreplay with your wife and then having intercourse with her'.

Conclusion
As is recommended in Nouraldeen (2020, pp. 239 and 244), interviews with Qur'an translators should be conducted in the future to work out why taḍmīn in the Qur'an is not being paid attention to and how it can be translated and appropriately communicated in the target language.
In the cases considered in this article, none of the four translations typically pay attention to the explicit prepositions which do not standardly collocate with the explicit nouns/verbs. As discussed, this non-standard form of collocation is used intentionally in the Qur'an to present two meanings using ellipsis in its taḍmīn form.
What is surprising is that some Qur'an translators show inconsistency when translating the same words used in the same sense, such as Bridges in translating the explicit verb ‫خلوا‬ in āyah (verse) 1 as 'are alone' and in āyah (verse) 3 as 'come privately'. Another example where Bridges translates the same word ‫نساء‬ as 'women' in āyah (verse) 5 but as 'wives' in āyah (verse) 6.
These differences between Arabic and English in terms of standard collocations are a challenge when translating. Such differences might involve the presence of the preposition in Arabic and the lack of it in English as in the case of 'believe' (in one sense only out of the two mentioned in discussion and analysis of āyah (verse) 2) and 'swear' or the use of different prepositions as in the case of ‫تثبيتا‬ 'affirmation' āyah (verse) 7 which is collocated with the preposition ‫ِـ‬ ‫ل‬ 'for', while in English 'affirmation' is collocated with 'of'.
To answer the research questions, it is not clear whether Qur'an translators of Islamic and Arabic origin are aware of taḍmīn or not. It can be noted that out of the seven āyāt (verses) only Khattab translates taḍmīn, and only once, in āyah (verse) 6. However, it is clear that the four translators do not pay attention to translating taḍmīn although it is obvious in the previously analysed āyāt (verses) that the explicit prepositions are not standardly collocated with the explicit nouns/verbs. They mostly translate a part of taḍmīn, the implicit preposition. However, they do not translate the explicit preposition. In my opinion, taḍmīn should be translated as it adds additional meanings. This study has not been able to carry out interviews with some Qur'an translators to find out how they view taḍmīn and why it is not translated. Therefore, there is a need to conduct further empirical research and interview some of them. As this study is part of an ongoing work on the translation of taḍmīn in the Qur'an, my future pieces of research might consider the possibility of interviewing some of Qur'an translators.