A Semantic Study for the Transference of the word (heaven) in the Glorious Quran into English

Abstract

The term (heaven - transliteration -asama) is a pivotal word in the Glorious Quran for it has a wide semantic Spectrum in Quranic verses like roof, rain, clouds, our Lord's oneness, the heaven of Paradise and pivotal hell as well as punishment. Thus the current study describes semantic and translational axes of the word (asama) in the Glorious Quran. As translation concentrate on terms and their importance in drawing the scope of meaning ,the study also aims at exploring the challenges and the best strategies for effective and successful translation of the word (asama) from Arabic- as a source language into English- as a target language. In order to achieve these aims the study hypothesizes that translating the word (asama) in an appropriate way requires restoring to the reliable authentic exegesis. The research adopts (12) Quranic verses depending on four Quranic exegeses to understand the intended meaning of the word (asama). After that, assessing the English translation of the word under focus through 3 various translations for (Arberry, Ghali and Kassab) to see whether they are successful in transferring the intended meaning of the term (asama). The study will analyze the Quranic word (asama) through Quranic text, compare and discuss their choices in translating the term and the implications of these choices on the reader's understanding of the Quranic text. Finally, the study comes up to conclude that the most accurate and appropriate way to translate (asama) into English is the dependence on both the lexical meaning and the contextual meaning.