An Educational Exploration of Various Translations of a Single Ayah from the Holy Quran

Résumé

This paper generally investigates religious texts in many aspects, definition, ways of translation, and difficulties in translation that may face both translators and MA students. Yet it particularly focuses on The Holy Quran, its distinction over other kinds of texts and difficulties translators and/or MA students face when translating its verses and passages. Translating religious passages literally (like The Holy Quran) will not give the real meaning , but it depends on the interpreting ( tafseer ) to make the readers of the translation get the real and intended meaning. The participants of this study were ten MA students of both genders. The results of this study show that translation is not always an easy task, especially translating religious texts. This type of text is different from all other types of literature, scientific, technical … etc. Translators have to follow special translation techniques to produce an accurate translation and be faith to the original text, never omit words or replace them with words may change the intended meaning. That is a big challenge faces translators of religious texts.