Intervention of Translator’s Ideology in Translation of the Meanings of the Holy Quran An Analytical Study of English Translation of Selected Verses by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, & George Sale

Abstract

It is undeniable that analytical and enlightening deliberations on translation in the last decade have focused on questions of ideology; certainly, a productive academic dialogue about various facets of ideology is ongoing at various levels. The ideology in translation is a subject discussed by many translation scholars, who often examine culture, gender, and other aspects, but rarely address the ideological background of the translators when dealing with religious texts like the Holy Quran. Translation of the meaning of the Holy Quran as one of the religious books must be faithful and loyal to the original text for transferring the intended message of the source text without intervention of the translator’s ideology by adopting addition or manipulation or any other translation strategies so that the intended message of the source text of the Holy Quran may be transferred to the readers of the target text accurately without any ambiguity.

This study examines the English translation of the meanings of the Holy Qur’an by George Sale, who has a Christian ideological background, and Muhammad Abdullah Yusuf, who has a Muslim ideological background. The research investigates the intervention of the religious ideological factor in translating the meanings of the Holy Quran. Some Quranic verses have been selected for analytical study to explore and examine to the ideology of the translators having different ideological backgrounds effects on translation of the Quranic text.