The Differences in Translations of the Meaning of the Holy Quran : A Case study of Three Different Translations of

| ABSTRACT The study aims to investigate the differences between translations of the meaning of the Holy Quran; and evaluate the effect of these differences on the understanding of the common reader. Moreover, this study suggests solutions to the problems which are resulted from these differences. To obtain these objectives, the researcher uses the content analysis method of research by comparing different translations of the meaning of selected verses of surah Alnur and Alhujrat mad by Mohammed M. Pickthall, Mohammed M.Khan and Mohammed Hilali, and Abdel-Haleem. Based on this study's findings, the researcher concludes that these three translations are different, and these differences refer to linguistic problems and nonlinguistic factors as the translator understanding of the Quranic text. In addition, the translators use different methods of translation. The most important recommendation of this study is that the meaning of the Holy Quran should be translated by a group of Muslim translators working as one team. Their translation should be revised officially by the government.


Sample of the Study
The sample of this study consisted of the original Quran and three different English translations. From among different verses of the Quran, the researcher selected some verses of Surah Alnur (the light) and Alhujrat, which are mostly referred to as the most important rules and principles that preserve society and people rights. Three English translations of the Holy Quran were critically analyzed in this study: 1. Muhammad Taqi

Data collection
Reaching the actual differences in the translations that the translators made to a lonely glory book and the reasons cause this difference is the object of this research, thus tools of data collection are utilized to achieve these goals through analyzing the translation of sample verses of the Holy Quran by three different translators that represent the corpus of this study. It involves collecting verses according to the linguistic levels.
This research depends mainly on the following method for collecting data: The first step of this research is to read the Nobel Quran, Surah Alnur (the light) and Alhujrat intensively in their original language to find the verses relevant to the aim of this research. Then the researcher extracted the target versions of these verses from three selected English translations. After that, all the different words were typed in bold or underlined in both (source texts and target texts), and they were written in the framework created by the researcher to make the differences clear to be analyzed. Finally, they were compared with Quran to understand the differences and the methods of translations used…. Finally, the selected verses will be classified according to different linguistic levels as follows:

Semantic Problems
It includes analysis of the relationship between words isolated or in the of both sentences, and clauses, according to the relations. In this principle, the researcher is going to observe how do the translators deal with: a-The metaphoric problem b-Homonymous problem c-Equivalent problem d-Polysemous problem

Syntactic Problem
It includes an analysis of the structure of phrases, clauses and sentences. The fact that Arabic and English grammar rules are different is ignored by the translators when translating Arabic into English: they ignore the shifting from the past tense into imperfect tense. Other nonlinguistic problems will be analyzed, too, like;

Stylistic problems
It includes: a-Ellipsis; which is very common in the Quran, b-Cultural gap; how do the translators convey the meaning of the cultural aspects.

Data Analysis and Discussion
The origin verses which are selected were written in Arabic. And their translations were listed in a special table designed by the researcher for that reason. The table consists of five columns. For each column, there is a head. In the first column, the number is, whereas, in the second column, the part of the selected verse is written. Then. The names of translators were the heads of the other three columns and, their translations were copied under their names. All the verses studied are categorized and collected according to the researcher's phenomena.

The Differences in Translations of the Meaning of the Holy Quran: A Case study of Three Different Translations of Sarah Alnur and Alhujrat
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Equivalent differences:
Lo! Allah knoweth the Unseen of the heavens and the earth.
God knows the secrets of the heavens and earth: Verily, Allah knows the unseen of the heavens and the earth.
Source: the researcher This table shows the differences in translation of words in which there are equivalent problems: As seen in the table above, the Quranic words: 1-‫ُونََ(‬ ‫ِق‬ ‫اس‬ َ ‫ف‬ ْ ‫)ال‬ which means disobedient, rebellious (definitely), translated literally as "evil-doers" -by Picthall and "lawbreakers" by Abdel Haleem, which do not convey the connotative meaning of the word as in the Arabic language, whereas Khan and Alhilali use a successful approach to convey the meaning. They, as seen, write the same word "Fasiqun" as pronounced in Arabic and then provide a footnote that explains its meaning.  Source: the researcher In the table above, the researcher will show up how the three translations deal with such stylistic problems. So, there are two cases;

Words order in the Holy Quran
Concerning the word order, it is very important to note that the quranic language, unlike any other language for it distinguishes by its accuracy, one cannot ignore even the most simple signs like; the translator should not manipulate -in most cases-the, word order followed in the Quran because it has its own significance. In the above example, we can see that Picthall has violated a philosophical and religious principle in Islam by putting in his translation of ‫ِي(‬ ‫ان‬ ‫الزَّ‬ ‫وَ‬ ‫ِية‬ ‫ان‬ ‫)الزَّ‬ -"The adulterer and the adulteress".
It is the only place in the Quran that the female is mentioned before the male. It is to add that the woman tends to be responsible when illegal sexual intercourse occurs, whether before or after marriage. If the sexual intercourse took place without the prior consent of the woman, then the whole act would not be called an 'adultery' or 'fornication', but rather 'rape'. Therefore, the translator should pay special attention to such implications for the translation of word order in Arabic and not be deceived by certain language norms.

Ellipsis
The Quranic word ‫ُوا(‬ ‫ح‬ َ ‫ْل‬ ‫ص‬ َ ‫أ‬ ‫,)وَ‬ translated as "make amends" by both Picthall and Abdulhaleim while Khan and Alhilali use "do the righteous deeds" which is the nearest translation but not a perfect one because in this verse there is an ellipsis, deletion of some

And marry those among you who are single (i.e. a man who has no wife and the woman who has no husband) and (also marry) the Salihun (pious, fit and capable ones) of your (male) slaves and maid-servants (female slaves).
Source: the researcher In the table above, the translators employ different techniques in the translation of the cultural terms as follow:

The Differences in Translations of the Meaning of the Holy Quran: A Case study of Three Different Translations of Sarah Alnur and Alhujrat
Page | 6 which denotes literally "women who are fortified "against unchaste", i.e., by marriage and/or faith and self-respect, implying that, from a legal point of view, every woman must be considered chaste unless a conclusive proof to the contrary is produced, is translated literally in the three translation, " virtuous, " by Picthall, " honourable" by Abdulhaleim and " chaste" by Khan and Alhilali. In which the connotative meaning of the word (َ ِ ‫َات‬ ‫َن‬ ‫ْص‬ ‫ح‬ ُ ‫م‬ ْ ‫)ال‬ is not conveyed as in the Arabic language. And the second word is (َ ِ ‫ت‬ ‫َلَ‬ ِ ‫َاف‬ ‫غ‬ ْ ‫;)ال‬ which is translated literally as " careless, " by Picthall and " unwary" by Abdulhaleim while Khan and

1-Picthall and Abdulhaleim also use literal strategy in translation the
Alhilali use a different successful procedure which is "the definition" so they give a very simple description for the word  1-Regarding the cultural word, as in the analysis, the translators employ different procedures in translating the cultural words; Picthall and Abdulhaleim translate the cultural aspects; literally, the translators, especially Picthall, render only the denotative meanings of these cultural words. They transfer them as they were found in the dictionary. Since the connotative meaning of a word in Arabic is often not the same as that of an English word almost having almost the same denotative meaning, Abdulhaleim sometimes uses the definition procedures in which he defines the target cultural word, whereas Alhilali and Khan employ the procedures of both borrowing and addition in which the adapt the same cultural word as pronounce in Arabic and then add a paraphrase to its meaning usually in brackets.

Syntactical translation differences
2-In the level of the word order, Picthall commits a very serious mistake when he translates the meaning of the ‫ِي"‬ ‫ان‬ ‫الزَّ‬ ‫وَ‬ ‫ِية‬ ‫ان‬ ‫"الزَّ‬ as "The adulterer and the adulteress" in which he neglects the meaningful word order. 3-Regarding the metaphoric words, which are the most difficult ones, the translators use different procedures to translate their meaning; in all cases, Picthall employs the literal translation, which usually falls in giving accurate meanings; Abdulhaleim translates most cases literally, but he sometimes uses the definition procedure whereas Alhilali and Khan translation depends mainly on the production procedure in which they try to reproduce the same sense of the metaphoric word or phrase by giving the other possible meanings. 4-All translators studied in this research do not consider the syntax or the tenses as they translate it literally or sometimes with ignorance to its effects on the meaning; they translate the present tense into past English tense, and the shift from the past into the present is totally neglected.

5.2-Recommendations
Based on the findings of the research, the following recommendations are made; these recommendations may help to overcome the problem: 1-The meaning of the Holy Quran must be translated by a group of skilful Muslim translators as "a team translation project". 2-The translator of the meaning of the holy Quran should always refer to different tafsir, previous translations, the comparative studies of the researchers related to the published translations. Moreover, they should use a monolingual dictionary during the process of translations. 3-The cultural words, terms and principles should be listed on a special Quranic dictionary made by a group of Muslim scholars to be used in translating English religious texts. 4-Regarding the references or exegesis, which are useful for the translator since, as we mentioned before, it enables the translator to make correct decisions during the translation process. The translators should agree upon certain standard references to overcome differences. In other words, they must possess the same level of knowledge to be able to transfer an accurate meaning.