Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Fundamentals
60
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TYPE
Original Research
PAGE NO.
60-64
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
SUBMITED
26 October 2024
ACCEPTED
28 December 2024
PUBLISHED
23 January 2025
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue01 2025
COPYRIGHT
© 2025 Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the creative commons attributes 4.0 License.
Tafseer (Quranic Exegesis)
As the Main Discipline of
Quranic Science (Uloomul
Quran), Preserving
Semantic Essence of The
Holy Quran During
Translation
Yodgorov Shamsiddin Abduraimovich
PhD in linguistics, Senior lecturer at the Termez state university,
Uzbekistan
Abstract:
This article explores the pivotal role of tafseer
in safeguarding the Quran's semantic essence,
addressing the challenges faced in translating its
profound meanings into different languages. It
underscores the necessity of adhering to established
exegetical principles to maintain the Quran's
authenticity and spiritual impact across linguistic and
cultural boundaries as tafseer (Quranic exegesis) serves
as the cornerstone of understanding the divine message
of Quran in its linguistic, historical, and contextual
dimensions.
Keywords:
Tafseer, Quranic translatology, semantics,
semantic essence, exegesis.
Introduction:
In world linguistics and translation
studies, the study of the problem of adequacy of holy
texts, especially the translations of the Holy Qur'an, is
one of the most important issues, because the most
important factor that has formed hatred and phobia
towards Islam in the Western world is the perception of
the religion of Islam among the people of this region is
formed on the basis of conceptually wrong and
inadequate
translations
in
Western
European
languages. Due to the fact that the studies carried out in
the study of adequacy in translations were based on the
traditional approach, modern problems that require an
extralinguistic approach in the field have accumulated
quite a lot.
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From this point of view, it is extremely important to
study the adequacy of the translations of the Holy
Qur'an in Western languages, especially in English,
which has become universal today, from an
interdisciplinary perspective. The Qur'an, gaining
central importance in the Muslim renaissance, which
had a significant impact on the development of world
science, along with religious rules, contains
information about modern science and social life, and
its value as a scientific and social source is increasing
more and more.
Naturally, not all know the Arabic language, so in many
cases they turn to translations of the Holy Qur'an.
However, as the work of translation, which is a creative
product of the translator, is influenced by the author's
religious-ideological, socio-political views, there are
many cases of deviating from the original essence of
the text and completely changing its content. shows
that it should be researched on the basis of analysis.
Reference analysis
. Linguistic research of translations
of the Holy Qur'an in English began at the end of the
20th century, and during this period, only two scientific
articles on the subject by two linguists, one German
linguist Greifenhagen Franz Volker, and the other
American linguist Stewart Devin have been noticed.
Within the scope of the research issue, scientific
research conducted in the 21st century can be
classified on a regional basis on the West and Europe,
the Middle East, and South Asia, as well as in Russia
and the CIS countries. Western and European linguists,
including Peachy D., StefanW., Sarah E., Baber J.,
Youngman P. va Skreslet R., Naudi J., Dhissy Y., Herrag
E., Bevilacqua A., va others studied the history of the
translation of the Holy Qur'an into English, the need,
reasons and factors for the translation of the Qur’an
from a scientific point of view, while the linguists of the
Middle East and South Asian countries like
Mohammad Kh., Hassen R., Xusravi H. va
Pimuhammadiy M., Kidvei A., Mohagag O. va Husyan
P., Rahmon S., Shahida R. va Fazl I., Ahmed A., Hayat F.,
Afshaan N. va Farhat A., Elimam A.S., Mahmud I.R., and
Mohammad A.H., together with the Turkish linguists
Bilgiz M., Kum S., Merve Y., Kabakci E. va Necmettin
S.E., Feyza Ç. and others did the research over the the
influence of the religious-political and ideological
outlook of the translator on the translations of the Holy
Qur’an into English. Also from Russian linguists like
A.S.Migal, L.N.Frolova, E.M.Koposova, Ushakov V.D,
T.A.Poletaeva, E.V.Mixaylova, V.Yu.Meleka, and
S.A.Mironseva, studied the lexical-semantic, morpho-
syntactic and phraseological problems of the
translations by comparing the Russian and English
translations of the Holy Qur'an.
However, the Holy Quran and its translations in
different languages have been researched mainly on the
basis of traditional-structural approaches of linguistics,
and there are almost no modern interdisciplinary
approaches in the field. Since translation is the product
of a translator, (un) translatability of the Quran stands
for one of the controversial issues remaining at the very
center of discussions not only among Islamic scholars,
but also among linguists, literary scholars and
translatologists. Especially in Uzbekistan, the issue from
the perspective of linguistics, literary studies and
translation studies has been deeply studied by
numerous Uzbek linguists, literary critics and
translatologists such as Ghaibulla Salomov, Hamidulla
Karomatov, Alibek Rustamov and Ibrahim Gafurov.
According to H. Karomatov, various religious and
cultural features, expressions and fixed combinations of
the Holy Qur'an have been localized in the languages of
different peoples who have adopted the religion of
Islam. Qur'anic pragmatics prevailed in wise sayings and
sayings, and this was evident in problematic situations
related to the translation of proverbs and sayings from
the Holy Qur'an. For example, it is not possible to
express the original meaning of the Uzbek saying "Ota
rozi-Xudo rozi" in any language.
Also, H. Karomatov emphasized that among the factors
that make it impossible to translate the verses of the
Qur'an from poetic point of view, because of its artistic
rhyme that connects the verses through metaphors and
figurative devices. According to him, it is not possible to
express the Qur'anic saj and metaphor in other
languages in the same form, the reason is that saj,
metaphor and artistic rhyme entered Eastern poetics
through the Holy Qur'an, and this feature does not exist
in the art of other languages.1 In particular, G'.Salomov
notes that it is the most wrong approach to present the
Holy Qur'an to today's readers without any comments
or explanations, through word-for-word translation.
Therefore, he emphasizes that the need for additional
explanations is inevitable when translating the
meanings of the Holy Qur'an into other languages.2
G’.Salomov this opini
on of the is mutually in common
with the viewpoint of the scholars of the Qur'an, who
put forward the need to refer to the "science of
exegesis" (tafseer), which clarifies the essence of the
verses of the Qur'an in a foreign language. To
understand this phenomena, it is enough to turn to the
science of Quranic exegesis. This notion, which is
abbreviated as "tafseer" by experts in the field, is one of
the methods of translation that interprets the Holy
Qur'an and the Egyptian scholar Abdurrahman ibn Abu
Bakr Jalaluddin Suyuti explained it as: "Tafseer is the
detailed clarification of the verses of the Qur'an based
on the reasons for their revelation.3 The verses of the
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Holy Qur'an is mainly explained using the following two
types of tafseer methods, like “Exp
laining Quran
through the Quran and through authentic hadiths.4
The method of interpreting the Holy Qur'an by itself
has 2 linguistic peculiarities:
1. Interdependence of the Quranic verses
–
To clarify
the meaning of the verse that informs about an issue
or topic, quoting from other verses that fill it with
content and explain it.5
2. Rhetorical address
–
To state or explain what an
issue, word, or event is, by approaching it through a
rhetorical question in a situation where there is no
concept or idea about it. 6 A sign of this approach in
the Holy Qur'an is when Allah Almighty asked the
Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, about
something that prophet did not know or had no
knowledge by asking rhetorical question like
اَم َكٰى َرْدَأ ٓاَم َو
(How did you know what this is?!) and it was Allah
Himself who revealed that meaning and the matter of
this word to Muhammad p.b.u.h. and we can came
across such methods of addression in the total 13
verses like Haqqo 69:3; Muddassir 74:27; Mursalot
77:14; Infitor 82:17-18; Mutoffifun 83:8,19; Toriq 86:2;
Balad 90:12; Qadr 97:2; Qoria 101:3,10; and Humaza
104:5;
Research and data analysis
. Through these approaches,
the expression
ِم ْوَي ِكِلٰـَم
ٱ
ِنيِ دل
٤
(maliki yaẘmiddĩyni) in
Fatiha 1:4 can be interpreted as follows. Relying on the
Quranic verses that are semantically intertextual to the
phrase
ِم ْوَي
ٱ
ِنيِ دل
٤
(yaẘmiddĩyni) like Fatiha 1:4; Hijr
15:35; Shuaro 26:82; Soffat 37:20; Sod 38:78; Zoriyot
51:12; Voqea 56:56; Maorij 70:26; Muddassir 74:46;
Infitor 82:15,17-18; and Mutaffifun 83:11;, we came to
the conclusion that
ِم ْوَي
ٱ
ِنيِ دل
٤
(yaẘmiddĩyni) essentially
covers the 7-stage processes, including
ةَعاَّسلا
(As-Saat)
–
Doomsday, the end of worldly life,
ثْعَب
(ba
’
s)
–
resurrection of people in the grave for judgement),
رْشَح
(hashr)
–
gathering of resurrected people for
judgement,
ض ْرَع
(arz)
–
people are brought in presence
of God for judgement,
أَبَن
(nab
’
a)
–
to inform a person
about his deeds that he did in the life,
ل ْؤُس
(sul) Judging
by God based on the people
’
s deeds,
مْكُح
(Hukm) After
the judgment is over, divine verdict is given to the
people whether they go to heaven or hell; (see the table
below)
Stages
References from the verses
1.
ةَعاَّسلا
(As-Saat) –
Doomsday, the
end of worldly life;
An‘om 6:31,40; Arof 7:187; Yusuf 12:107; Hijr 15:85; Nahl 16:77;
Kahf 18:21,36; Maryam 19:75; Toha 20:15; Anbiyo 21:49; Hajj
22:1,7,55; Furqon 25:11; and others…
2.
ثْعَب
(ba’s)
(Resurrection of
people in the grave for judgement)
An’om 6:36; A’rof 7:14; Hud 11:7; Hijr 15:36; Nahl 16:38,84,89;
Isro 17:49-52; Maryam 19:15,33; Hajj 22:5,7; Mo’minun 23:16;
Shuaro 26:87; Rum 30:56; and others …
3.
رْشَح
(hashr)
Gathering of
resurrected people for judgement
Baqara 2:203; Oli Imron 3:25,158; Niso 4:87, 172; Moida 5:96,
109; An’om 6:12,22; Anfol 8:24; Yunus 10:28,45; Hijr 15:25; Isro
17:97; Kahf 18:47,99; and others …
4.
ض ْرَع
(arz)
People are brought in
presence of God for judgement.
Moida 5:48,105; An’om 6:60,62,94,108,164; Tavba 9:105-106;
Yunus 10:23,30; Hud 11:18; Isro 17:71; Kahf 18:48; Maryam
19:80,95; Nur 24:64; Naml 27:83; and others …
5.
أَبَن
(nab’a)
To inform a person
about his deeds that he did in the
life
Moida 5:14,48,105; An’om 6: 60,108,159,164; Tavba 9: 94,105;
Yunus 10:23; Nur 24:64; Ankabut 29:8; Luqmon 31:15,23; Zumar
39:7; Fussilat 41:50; Mujodala 58:6-7; and others …
6.
ل ْؤُس
(sul)
Judging by God based
on the people’s deeds
A’rof 7:6; Hijr 15:92-93; Nahl 16:56; Nahl 16:93; Anbiyo 21:13;
Zuhruf 44:43; and others
7.
مْكُح
(Hukm)
After the judgment is
over, divine verdict is given to the
Baqara 2:272, 281; Oli Imron 3:25, 161; Niso 4:49,77,124; Anom
6:160; Anfol 8:60; Yunus 10:47, 54; Nahl 16:111; Isro 17:71;
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people whether they go to heaven
or hell;
Maryam 19:60; Anbiyo 21:47; Mo’minun 23:62; Saba 31:33; Yosin
36:54; Zumar 39:69; Josiya 45:22; Ahqof 46:19; and others …
It is possible to witness that a small description of these
7 stages is given in the messages given from verse 68 to
verse 74 of surah Zumar. At this point, the names such
as
ةعئاسلا
(As-Saat),
ثِعب
(Ba's),
رْشاح
(Hashr),
د ْرع
(Arz),
ِابن
(Naba'),
ل ْوُس
(Su'l) and ḥuk̊
m (Judgment) are actually
religio-doctrinal conceptual units and all of them form
a whole conceptosphere encompassing the notion of
ِم ْوَي
ٱ
ِنيِ دل
(yaẘmiddĩyn) in total. (scheme 1)
Scheme 1
The analyzes above, which show the importance of
applying the science of interpretation in the translation
of the meanings of the Holy Qur'an, show that there is
a need for a translation method based on tafsir, which
is quite different from the western linguistic translation
methods used in translating the meanings of the Holy
Qur'an. is doing. Based on these reasons and factors,
we propose a method called "interpretive translation"
based on the unity of the methodology of Qur'anic
interpretation and linguistic translation in translating
the meanings of the Holy Qur'an through a Qur'an-
based approach. Implementation of this method is
expressed in the following scheme. (see the table
below)
In other words, the word “din” mentioned in the above
analysis is often replaced by the word "religion"
through the "established equivalence" translation
method. However, since the cognitive pragmatics of
the concept of "din" in the Holy Qur'an expressing the
meaning of “a way of life built in obedience to the
divine judgments of God” cannot be an alternative to
the concept of “religion” in the meaning of “belief in the
existence of God or deities” in European nations. As
evidenced, through the method of "exegetive
translation" proposed in the framework of the
research, the essence of the concept of "din", which is
expressed in about 98 verses of the Holy Qur'an, has to
be revealed and translated into a contextual sense,
rather than lexical.
At this point, the origin of cognitive-pragmatic
problems in the English translations of the Holy Qur'an
also comes from the fact that the authors of the
Verse
Tafseer
Translation
Ali Imron 3:19;
َني ّ۪ دلا َّنِا
ِ هللّٰا َدْنِع
ُم َلَْسِ ْلْا
“Din” according to the verse Oli Imran 3:20;
is a way of life built according to God's
guidance.
“Indeed, Islam is (the common name
of)
divinely-guided life doctrine
revealed from Allah.
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translation do not refer to the sciences of Qur'anic
studies, especially the methods of tafseer. Relying on
such scientific points of view, electronic copies of the
English translations of the Holy Qur'an were collected
and studied. As a result of studies, the translations were
classified in the following order.
CONLUSION
Translation, being the product of the translator, can
have an influence of ideological views specific to the
religious sect to which the translator belongs. It can be
seen from the example of translations attached based
on the classification that the translations are influenced
by the religious and philosophical views which the
translator belongs.
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Салом. Асарлар. 1 –
китоб. Эй, умри
азиз. –
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Notable Nigerian Mufassirun in the Twentieth-Century
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Bauer, K. (2013). Aims, Methods and Contexts of
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