One Arabic term, one word per language
Each Arabic term receives a single rendering in each language, and two distinct roots never share the same word. No compound doublet ("deny-disown") for a single Arabic word, no word shared by two different roots.
The Qur'an does not treat its words as interchangeable: when it uses مَكَرَ and not كَادَ, or ٱلرَّحْمَٰن and ٱلرَّحِيم side by side, the difference matters. If the translation gives the same word to two roots, the reader can no longer see which one is used; if it gives two words to one root, he believes in a difference that does not exist.
The rule has two sides:
- one term, one rendering: ٱلرَّحْمَٰن is always "the All-Benevolent", ٱلرَّحِيم always "the Benevolent", and never the other way round;
- two roots, two words: in the system "testing", ابتلى ("test"), فتنة ("trial"), بلاء ("a testing") and امتحن ("examine") share no word, in any of the six languages. In 21:35 two of these roots follow each other: « وَنَبْلُوكُم بِٱلشَّرِّ وَٱلْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةًۭ », "We test you with bad and with good, as a trial".
The principle holds throughout the Qur'an: each Arabic word keeps its own word, and two neighbouring roots never share one (كفر / كذّب, مكر / كيد, ذنب / خطيئة, قسط / عدل…). See also “The system "testing": four roots, four words”, which details one application, and “The names of the Hour: each says what it does”.
In the text
ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِوَنَبْلُوكُم بِٱلشَّرِّ وَٱلْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةًۭوَمَكَرُوا۟ وَمَكَرَ ٱللَّهُ