Translating the Meanings of the Verses on the Rulings of Marriage: An Analytical and Critical Study of Syntax, Rhetoric, and Punctuation Marks

Abstract

The research deals with the differences between the translations of the meanings of the Qurʼānic verses of the rulings on marriage in terms of syntactic and rhetoric structure as well as punctuation. To the best of his knowledge, the researcher has not found a study dealing with this topic, especially regarding the Qurʼānic verses of the rulings of marriage, which are seventeen in number. The study is limited to four translations of the Holy Qurʾān. The research paper uses the descriptive, analytical, and contrastive approaches. It discusses each verse separately, while analyzing its translation in each of the four translations to find out the grammatical, morphological, rhetorical, and punctuation differences. Using these two approaches, the research found errors in translating some verses. The degrees of these errors are not equal. The solution to this problem, therefore, is that a commentary (tafsīr) of the Qurʼān be written in English and that the work be carried out by a group of scholars and translators, and those scholars must be specialists – at least at a collective level – in the sciences of the Sharīʿah, such as fiqh and uṣūl al-fiqh, as well as the linguistics sciences, such as syntax, morphology, rhetoric, and the like.