ٍباَجِح ِءاَرَو نِم from behind a partition

Translating of the word “Hijab”
In terms of Islam as religion, the common word (hijab) resonates in a unique connotation i.e. a
cover or a headscarf. According to Oxford Research Encyclopedia, polysemy is characterized as
the phenomenon whereby a single word form is associated with two or several related senses,
thus the word hijab, which has multiple meaning in Arabic so it is considered a polysomic word.
Accordingly, anyone who has concerns of Quran and Quran verses might be confused with
different meanings of this word such as a cover, a veil, a barrier, a screen, etc.
In the upcoming discussion, I will consider two different Quran verses; in order to highlight
many meanings of the word hijab as well as I will suggest admissible solutions to overtake
obstacles resulting from this word specially and from polysomic words in general.
In the following Quran verse, hijab does not mean headscarf but a barrier. This barrier does not
necessarily be a fabric; it could be a wall, a door or anything in which a view or a physical
profile of a person whom one talks to is concealed.
۞ ‫ الشورى‬:51(‫ُوح َي بِإ ِ ْذنِ ِه َما يَ َشا ُء ۚ إِنَّهُ َعلِ ٌّي َح ِكي ٌم‬
ِ ‫ب أَوْ يُرْ ِس َل َر ُسواًل فَي‬
ٍ ‫َو َما َكانَ لِبَ َش ٍر أَن يُ َكلِّ َمهُ هَّللا ُ إِاَّل َوحْ يًا أَوْ ِمن َو َرا ِء ِح َجا‬
)51( And it is not for any human being that Allah should speak to him except by revelation or
from behind a partition or that He sends a messenger to reveal, by His permission, what He wills.
Indeed, He is Most High and Wise.
Looking up the translated verse, in comparison to the original Ayah, a translator or a scholar
will obviously notice the literal translation technique that has been applied the text so that
partition is the word which stands for hijab in that verse. In fact, partition in English is not an
equivalent word to the Arabic counterpart hijab since it according to merriam-webster
dictionary means 1: the action of parting: the state of being parted: DIVISION the partition of
Korea into North and South Korea 2: something that divides especially: an interior dividing wall
The bank teller sat behind a glass partition.3: one of the parts or sections of a whole The estate
was divided into three partitions. Actually, definition number2 which could be considered as the
closest meaning to the word hijab does not work well at least for one obvious reason; it denotes
interiority where the Arabic one implies both interiority and externality.
Despite the fact that the word partition does not stand for the word hijab as we advanced,
translators insist render it for hijab the fact that either they agreed to apply that word or they all
were following each other translation resulting in using the same word. In the following verse
hijab means exactly a religious barrier or distance that is almost spiritual and beliefs
َ ِ‫ َوقَالُوا قُلُوبُنَا فِي أَ ِكنَّ ٍة ِّم َّما تَ ْدعُونَا إِلَ ْي ِه َوفِي آ َذانِنَا َو ْق ٌر َو ِمن بَ ْينِنَا َوبَ ْين‬.
")5 ‫ك ِح َجابٌ فَا ْع َملْ إِنَّنَا عَا ِملُونَ " (سورة فصلت‬
And they say, "Our hearts are within coverings from that to which you invite us, and in our )5(
".ears is deafness, and between us and you is a partition, so work; indeed, we are working
Hijab means the intellectual and ideological barrier. Everyone has his own thoughts,
communication, languages, practices, beliefs, values, customs, and rituals, manners of
interacting, roles that are differ from others. Otherwise, everyone can interpret things from his /
her point of view. The greater the differences between the SC and the TC, the greater the
difficulties are; and the less differences between them, the less the difficulties in translation,
.so the translator should have the ability to transmit the above to succeeding generations
Nida stated that when the SC and the TC are very different-- as in the case between Arabic and
English-- it is expected that there will be many "basic themes and accounts which cannot be
naturalized by the process of translating" (2000: 137). However, a translator should attempt to
acquire both the SC and the TC to be able to convey the message correctly. Thus a translator
must be "bilingual and bicultural, if not multicultural. A translator's knowledge of culture helps
.him/her produce the most precise expression which sometimes depends on culture
One more issue that should be highly regarded, the translator addresses the author or the writer
in the translated text through which the writer's thoughts, ethics, culture, intellectuality, and
plenty of other qualities would be subjected to criticism, thus faithfulness is a substantial
.constructing path in respect to translation
To sum up, to translate the best is to render the completely equivalent target language if
available and if not the closest is the best. In the case of this paper, it was clear that the word
hijab is rendered inadequately or inefficiently in the two verses, of course, for different reasons.
Faithfulness to the writer of the text or the author is partially an expected reason for literal
translation, the technique that was applied to translating the previous mentioned verses, yet the
translator has many other words to be rendered instead of partition that I believe it does not cover
the intended meaning of the original hijab. Misunderstanding of the original text is the second
reason believed in to result in rendering, again, the unmatched word if not the wrong. Finally,
one less expected reason behind the advanced translation is that translators may lean to render
each other translation in order to lessen the time and effort of the work, but this vehemently
contradicts the principle of loyalty. Consequently, depending on the previous discussion, I
recommend the followings: first there should be more monitor and supervising over publishing
translated work. Second, translator of sacred text should pay more attention to the intention of
the author in the first place, since then they can look up the selections of language and other
linguistic issues related the process of translation. Third, in terms of translating holy Quran, a
translator or translators should take into their considerations, the intentions of the god, since he is
the author, the timing of the verse, the reason of the revelation of the verse in study, and the
.Hadith the only reliable Hadith sources

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Translating of the word “Hijab”

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