THE REVIEW OF THE WORDS ADNA AL-ARD AND AL-‘ANKABUT IN MALAY TRANSLATION OF HOLY QURAN: ANALYSIS GUIDED BY SCIENCE-ORIENTED EXEGESIS METHODOLOGY

Abstract

The idea for the translation of the meaning of the Holy Quran in Malay Archipelago had appeared since the middle of 17th century. However, some problems in the translation of its meaning had resulted in a non-accurate translation of Quranic words or verses. A major factor contributing to this problem is the limited skills among the translators in the various fields and topics covered in Quran. Thus, a Review Committee for the Translation of the Meaning of Al-Quran consisting of experts in various field of knowledge related to Quran such as Arabic language, the target language, Quran interpretation and other disciplines such as history, geography, chemistry, biology, medicine and others that have been proposed. This article analyses two Malay translations of Holy Quran; Tafsir Pimpinan ar-Rahman and Tafsir Quran Karim guided by science-oriented exegesis (tafsir ‘ilmi) to find out whether the translation of meaning matches modern scientific facts. The accurate translation of the verse will then be proposed. The result revealed limitation in the translation of the meaning for the word adna Al-Ard to “nearest place”, while the word has various meaning. With regard to the interpretation of the mufassir and modern science fact, the suggested meaning for the word adna Al-Ard is supposed to be “the nearest place with lowest altitude”. Cite as: Hilmi, A.B.A., Mohd Yusoff, Z., Amir, S., & Zakaria, Z. (2017). The review of the words adna al-ard and al-‘ankabut in Malay translation of holy Quran: Analysis guided by science-oriented exegesis methodology. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 2(1), 146-158.