Critique of the Application of Naida’s Theory in Evaluating Translations of the Qur'an

Abstract

For almost a decade, translation theories have been used to evaluate the translation of the Qur'an. The purpose of choosing a theoretical framework for research is to achieve a scientific and non-tasteful assessment, but by examining these evaluations, it turns out that in some cases evaluations are out of the theoretical framework or have a misunderstanding of the theory. In order to examine these evaluations, the present study analyzes five studies based on Naida's theory in the field of Qur'anic criticism as a case study to examine the slips of researchers in applying this theory. The research uses a descriptive-analytical method along with critique. This research shows that critics sometimes make mistakes in understanding the formal and dynamic equivalent meaning and have found wrong examples in translations. In some cases, despite the fact that Naida's theory has been used as a basis for the assessment, the critique still moves in a different direction from this framework, which in some cases is due to the incompatibility of the theoretical framework with the research data.

Keywords

• translation theories
• naida
• quran translation criticism
• translation evaluation model
• formal and dynamic equivalent