The Reflection of Connotative Meanings of Insan in the Qur’an: A Translational and Semantic Perspective

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the translation of connotative meanings of insan in the Qur’an, from Arabic into English and Spanish. Connotative meanings pertained to insan in this religious text are negative and hold unfavorable implications such as denial, stinginess, weakness, and hastiness when talking about his behaviors. For ordinary readers, these negative connotations pass unnoticed in the source language and the target language. In Arabic, the link between insan and negativity is linguistically under-researched in Qur’anic and non-Qur’anic discourses; this study is conducted and is hoped to translationally fill a linguistic gap, with particular reference to Qur’anic examples. Because of the shortage of studies that refer to this particular link between insan and negativity, and because this connotative dimension has not been explored satisfactorily in Qur’anic and non-Qur’anic studies, representative Qur’anic verses are sampled, analyzed and discussed so as to uncover the difficulty of rendering the negativity, associated with insan and to suggest translation solutions. Four authentic and authoritative Qur’anic exegeses are selected to support the argument, and two translations (English translation and Spanish translation) of the Qur’an are selected to practically prove the failure of reflecting the negative link between insan and negativity in the selected samples.