A Syntactico-Semantic Analysis of Ǧahd (=deny) Structure and its Equivalences in Quran’s Persian Translations

Abstract

The word Ǧahd and Ǧahd structures being complex and polyvalent in the Arabic language, it is challenging to find an appropriate equivalent for this structure in most languages. This article deals with the analysis of the structure of Ǧahd in 2 forms “Mā kāna al-fāilo liyaf’al” and “Mā kāna lilfāilo an yaf’al”, some of which have been criticized and evaluated after providing suitable equivalents for them in Persian. The most important results of this research indicate that in the analysis of the structure of Ǧahd, either the Astarābādi’s point of view according to which Kāna belongs to Munāsiban should be used, or Kāna defined as “sabata”[«ثَبَتَ»] should be taken into consideration. According to the first opinion, Ǧahd structure is translatable to: “It is not in the subject’s dignity to do so” and according to the second opinion, Ǧahd is articulated and interpreted as: “The subject is not such as to do so”.

Highlights:

1- By analyzing the structure of Ǧahd and the reasons presented in this research, it was found that none of the analyses of the Koufians and Basrians on the structure of Ǧahd are acceptable. Because the analysis of the Koufians means absolute negation, and the analysis of the Basrians means the negation of volition, but the structure of Ǧahd aims for the negation of dignity and proportionality.

2- As a result, we should either accept Astarābādi’s opinion and recognize lām Ǧahūd and the verb assigned to it as belonging to munāsiban and the likelihood, or consider the verb kāna as complete and recognize lām and the verb assigned to it as they belong to kāna.

3- The Ǧahd structure (Mā kānal fā’ilo an yaf’al) also expresses the meaning of Ǧahd, which was determined as the second structure of Ǧahd in this paper.

4- In the Persian translation of the first and second structures of Ǧahd, we have two options. The first option is to follow Astarābādi’s opinion and use an equivalent phrase such as “It is not worthy of the subject to do such” and similar expressions. The second option is to consider kāna as conveying ‟completeness and translate it as “The subject is not such as to do such a thing”. When negative verbs are expressed with lam and lammā, their translation should depend on the event they are being compared to, and they should be shifted to the tense prior to the event. It is also important to include the adverb in the translation of lammā, as the negation in lammā is not definite.

5- An analysis of the Persian translations provided by Pāyandeh, Foulādvand, and Makārem indicates that for the first structure of Ǧahd, which consists of 10 relevant Quranic verses, Pāyandeh achieved a success rate of 50%, Foulādvand 20%, and Makārem 60%. For the second structure of Ǧahd, which includes a total of 19 verses in the Qur’an, Pāyandeh’s success rate was 63%, whereas Makārem’s was notably higher at 85%.