A Contrastive Linguistic Study of lexical and Cultural Constraints Met in Translating Qur’an-specific cultural Items into English Showing (Riāa رِئَاءَ) in the Sūrat Nisaa

Abstract

Even though the translation of the meanings of The Holy Qur’an into English has obtained great importance in the last few years, there is a dearth of studies conducted on the topic of lexical and cultural constraints in the translation of Qur’an-specific cultural items. Hence, the current study was carried out to probe lexical and cultural constraints met by the translators of the Holy Quran in translating the Qur’an-specific cultural items into English showing off- Sūrat Nisaa in (رِئَاءَ Riāa. ِAlso, the paper aimed to answer the main question of whether lexical and cultural constraints impede or not the perspicuous rendering of the meaning of the Holy Qur’an in English, in general, and Qur’an-specific cultural items in English, in particular. The results attained from the present study answer this question: The Holy Qur’an is an untranslatable text. It can never be reproduced appropriately and properly into English, and the cultural loss of meaning in its English- rendered versions is unavoidable.