Issues of Translating the Qurʾānic Arabic Homographic word l-duʿāi/ الدُّعَاءِ into English: From the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

Abstract

Rendering the Qurʾānic Arabic homographic word l-duʿāi/الدُّعَاءِ into English has always been a precarious and arguable issue for translators in general and in the Islamic religion in particular. Moreover, translating these Qurʾānic Arabic homographic words might cause acute problems for translators when rendering them into English. This analytical study sought to discover the difficulties of translating the Qurʾānic Arabic homographic word l-duʿāi/الدُّعَاءِ into English from the perspective of functional equivalence theory. The current study espouses a qualitative approach with an analytical design, as it pivots on perspectives and reviews rather than quantitative data. The study revealed that Abdel Haleem, Pickthall, and Al-Hilali and Khan sometimes hinge on functional translation, running translation, cultural translation, and the like and often succeed in conveying the implied meaning of the Qurʾān Arabic homographic word l-duʿāi/الدُّعَاءِ accurately. At other times they count on verbatim translation and usually fail to transfer the innuendo and connotation of these Qurʾānic Arabic homographic words.