Translating the Holy Qur'ān: Conversational Implicature

Abstract

The Holy Qur'ān has been revealed in the Arabic language, utilized its linguistic mechanism and at the same time has its own linguistic and non-linguistic peculiarities. As a book of guidance, the Noble Qur'ān has been sent down to show the way of life to every Muslim, and if its guidelines are followed, to guarantee their life to come. Unfortunately, not all Muslims know the Arabic language to gain access even to its literal meaning. Many of them have to resort to its translations to understand the surface meaning. It is a pity that nearly all these translations suffer from different kinds of shortcomings. Some of these deficiencies are due to overlooking the role that applied linguistics, contrastive linguistics and translation theories play in translating from one language to another. This article is an attempt to shed light on the application of Grice's Conversation Implicature on the processes of understanding the divine message and its rendering into another language.