Choices of vocabulary
One root, one word, and why this word
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Some words in this translation surprise the reader used to the common translations. They are not chosen to surprise: each one renders what the Arabic root says, checked against all its occurrences, and each one is held everywhere in the same way, so that the reader finds the root beneath the word.
Two rules govern these choices. One root, one word: two Arabic roots never share the same word, and a word does not change from one sentence to another without a reason. A noble, sovereign and legal register: the text speaks of a Sovereign who legislates, judges and renders to each their due; the translation avoids the images it does not carry.
ٱللَّه is the definite form of إِلَٰه, "deity": the Deity par excellence. "God" keeps this unique name in each language; "deity" remains for إِلَٰه.
رَبّ means the one who takes charge of, raises and makes grow what is in his keeping. "Lord" says domination; "Guardian" says charge and care, as the text does: "Guardian of all beings" (1:2).
The root ر ح م is that of the womb: the bond that protects and makes grow. "The All-Benevolent" says this benevolence in its fullness; "the Benevolent", the benevolence that turns towards each one.
The word comes from قَرَأَ, to read, to recite. The text names itself so; the translation renders the name instead of transliterating it.
What is written and fixed. Depending on the sentence, the same word also means the record of deeds or a written contract.
The root صلو means connection, the fact of being linked. "Make the Contact", "maintain the Contact"; with على and a person, "be in contact with" (9:103). The capital marks the instituted act.
The root زكو means what grows while remaining pure. What one gives of one's goods, and which purifies the giver.
The word means service and obedience. "Worship" adds a cult the root does not say; "obey" says what the text asks.
The root نبأ means important information. The informant is the one who receives the information and passes it on; "prophet" is a word that came from another language and another history.
The one who is sent to carry a message. The text distinguishes the informant and the messenger; so does the translation.
كَفَرَ is to cover, to refuse to acknowledge: the opposite of شَكَرَ, to acknowledge a favour. "Disown" names an act, not a label.
The root وقي means the protection one gives oneself. The one who guards himself takes his precautions before what is coming; "fear" belongs to خوف.
To hand oneself over entirely, without sharing. "True to God" says the attitude the text describes, without making it the name of a group.
What is due and what regulates: the Law one holds to. يَوْمُ ٱلدِّين is the Day of the Due, the day when what is due is rendered.
قِيَٰمَة is to stand up: the day when each one stands before his Guardian.
The register is legal: a sentence pronounced and undergone. The verb is "to punish".
The text describes them by what they do: they carry the command, record, execute. "Agents" names the function; "angels" adds an image.
The root جنن means what is covered, hidden from sight: the garden covered with trees, the child in the womb. The Occulted are those who escape sight.
The one who diverts from the way. The text defines him by his action: he promises, he embellishes, he draws away.
The person as himself, what answers for its deeds. "Soul" adds a doctrine the text does not develop.
The centre of understanding: the text says that one understands through it: "they have cores with which they do not understand" (7:179). "Core" names this centre without the image of feeling.
What is not perceived, without being for that reason beyond the reach of knowledge.
The text names them by a root: هاد, to return, to reorient oneself; نصر, to help ("Who are my helpers toward God?", 3:52). The translation renders the meaning of the name.
The name is kept, transliterated. Proper names are transcribed after the Arabic, never in their biblical form: Moussa, Ibrahim, Issa, Maryam.
The proper name of a place, kept as it is, like Saqar. The other names of this place are translated: the Blaze, the Inferno, the Fire.
What is raised and built. The text makes it the image of the order God holds.
The word means the place where one prostrates; the translation renders the meaning, without the name of a building.
To abstain, to hold back. The same root names, in 19:26, the silence of Maryam.