How is Taḍmīn (Implication of Meaning) Translated in the Qur'an? An Assessment of Four English Translations of the Fourth Sūrah An-Nisāʾ(Women): An Ongoing Project

Abstract

This paper is a part of ongoing project of Nouraldeen (2020; 2021a; 2021b). The project aims at studying and assessing the Qur’an translation of the āyāt which embodies one type of taḍmīn, complete taḍmīn, in the entire Qur’an. This paper studies, analyses and assesses the āyāt with taḍmīn found in the fourth sūrah (chapter), an-Nisāʾ (Women). This project is important in that it appreciates the rhetorical aspect of complete taḍmīn, which provides the reader with rich, additional meaning in a concise way. Four Muslim-Arab authored English translations are studied and assessed through two Arabic sources in which complete taḍmīn can be identified. Textual analysis is applied to the source text and the target text. All the four translators fail to pay attention to taḍmīn in their translations, except for Khattab in āyah (verse) 1 and āyah 3, though he does not translate the explicit verb, and Bridges in āyah 1, who successfully translates taḍmīn.