Toward a Stylistic, Contextual and Inter-textual Translation of Context-bound Morphological Shifts in the Qurʼan

This paper attempts to analyse some selected morpho-semantic shifts in four English translations of
the Qurʼan. The importance of this study lies in the fact that this shift is one of the most recurrent and
rich rhetorical phenomena in the Qurʼan. Historically, this phenomenon was not labeled al-iltifāt
until the time of ibn al-Muc
tazz (d. 296/908), but it was given various names, such as al-ṣarf’, alinṣrāf, alc
udūl, al-talawūn and mukhālafat muqtaḍa al-ẓāhir. All of these names are now less
common than the term al-iltifāt. However, it did not receive a detailed and comprehensive study,
especially in the field of translation, as far as I know, to unveil the aesthetic values and the inimitable
aspects of the Qurʼanic discourse. For this reason, this paper aims to evaluate some selected English
translations of the Qurʼan, with regard to this kind of shift; to analyse this feature, stylistically and
rhetorically; and, finally, to draw up a suitable and appropriate translation, which neither distorts
the original message nor widens the cultural gap between the SR and the TR.