Al-Afrād (Word Choice) in Uri Rubin's Hebrew Translation of the Qur'an

Abstract

Al-afrād are Qur'anic words which always carry their original meaning in the language, departing from such meanings in only one situation where they take on another specific meaning. The first scholar to address the subject of al-afrād was Muqātil b. Sulaymān, whose comments on this phenomenon are interspersed throughout his tafsīr. Abū’l-Ḥusayn al-Malaṭī cited a number of these in his al-Tanbīh wa'l-radd ʿalā ahl al-ahwāʾ wa'l-bidʿ, while Aḥmad b. Fāris composed a muṣannaf entitled al-Afrād, which likewise benefits from Muqātil's work and in which he dealt with 34 of these terms. Al-Zarkashī quoted al-Afrād in its entirety in his al-Burhān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān, and added a further ten terms of his own. In his al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī also quoted Ibn Fāris’ list, as well as the majority of those mentioned by al-Zarkashī, to which he adds another four words. These observations form the starting point of this study. The introduction reviews Uri Rubin's choice of words in his Hebrew translation of the Qur'an (Tel Aviv, 2005) with a view to analysing the Hebrew equivalents to the Qur'anic terms chosen by the translator. This will be done by comparing them to the words used in the Qur'an, and with reference to the tafsīr and the wujūh wa'l-naẓāʾir. On the basis of this, we are able to gauge the extent to which the translator has succeeded in offering relevant equivalents to the singular meaning intended in the Qur'an, and correct it if needed. This study will be confined to the following afrād: al-burūj, al-barr, al-baḥr, jithiyyan, rayb, al-ṣawm, al-ẓulumāt, al-nūr, al-qunūt, liʾalā, miṣbāḥ, al-rijz, al-rajm, al-zakāt, al-Shayṭān, al-ṣalāt, al-ʿadhāb, al-nikāḥ, and al-zūr.