Jerusalem Future Outlook Insights in the Noble Quran
Authors : Dr. Ahmed Suleiman Alrkep1, Dr. Mohammad Anwar Al-Taher, Dr. Saad Abd Allah Meqdad, Dr. Nidal Al-Shamali
Abstract : The people of the Book’s failure to shoulder the responsibility of the divine message had significant consequences. They were deprived from the great honour of holding the trust, and it was transferred to Ishmael’s children, to be completed and sealed by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). That was also accompanied by major shifts. On the one hand, the Qibla came back to Mecca. On the other hand, the association between the Grand Mosque of Mecca and Al-Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem constitutes a pivotal indicator of a continuous conflict between the new trust holders, Muslims, and those who deviated from the straight path, people of the Book. A number of forms of the conflict were mentioned in the Noble Quran, in which the latter exceeded the limits and offended mosques and other places of worship. As a result, they necessarily deserved present and future destruction. Divine rules are always valid against those who prohibit people from entering Almighty Allah’s mosques, since disgrace, fear, insecurity and instability shall be omens of their termination.
Keywords : Jerusalem, divine rules, future, the Noble Quran, Qibla
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Evaluation of Facebook Translation Service (FTS) in Translating Facebook Posts from English into Arabic in Terms of TAUS Adequacy and Fluency during Covid-19
Authors : Almahasees Zakaryia, Al-Taher Mohammad, Helene Jaccomard
Abstract : The study aims to verify the capacity of Facebook Translation Service in translating English Facebook posts into Arabic in terms of two criteria: adequacy and fluency in line with the Translation Automation User Society (TAUS) scales. To ensure consistency and objectivity as recommended by TAUS, six evaluators, native speakers of Arabic and near-native speakers of English, rated the same data on each scale. The evaluators were acquainted with fluency and adequacy scales along with MT limitations and potentials. Once the corpus was uploaded and sent to the evaluators using TAUS tools, they had to assign scores online on 1-4 rating scales. Then, each report was displayed online on the TAUS reports tool. Evaluators’ responses were combined in thematic categories and were calculated to obtain frequencies and percentages. The study found that FTS provided fluent output with highest percentage of the scale good equal to 3 on a scale from 1 to 4, where the output is assessed as flowing smoothly with minor linguistic errors. Moreover, FTS succeeded in generating an adequate output with the highest percentage of responses as ‘most’ equal to 3 on a scale from 1 to 4, where almost the full meaning of the source is deemed to be transferred in the target language. This study is useful since it highlights the role of Facebook Translation service in translating, educating the public and fighting COVID-19. Consequently, such research would encourage the use and research on the potentiality of MT and FTS in dealing with abrupt crises, such as COVID-19.
Keywords : Facebook Translation service (FTS), Facebook and COVID-19, Facebook adequacy and Fluency, Translation during COVID-19, English and Arabic
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The evolution of a coordinator from a vocative source: the case of the disjunctive ja: in Jordanian Arabic
Authors : Abdulazeez Ahmad Jaradat, Mohammad Anwar Al-Taher
Abstract : This research paper proposes that a vocative can be a potential source of coordination, thus it adds to the literature on the grammaticalization of coordinators. Evidence to this proposal is taken from Jordanian Arabic (JA) wherein the vocative particle ja: developed a disjunctive (coordination) function. The synchronic evidence to the evolution of the disjunctive ja: is that this function is conveyed by this particle in some but not all Arabic varieties, whereas the vocative function is the common cross-dialectal function of ja:. Further, this study suggests that the factors that licensed the development of this function (i.e., the disjunctive ja:) in JA are (i) the common semantic feature between the vocative and disjunctive ja:, namely proximity, (ii) the shared function of warning and (iii) the syntactic distribution of ja: in initial position of the two conjuncts of the bisyndetic disjunctive construction. With regard to the properties of this evolution, it is demonstrated in this paper that the development of the coordinating ja: is a case of secondary grammaticalization featured by expansion in functionality and increase in syntactic contingence of the hosting structure.
Keywords : grammaticalization; bisyndetic disjunction; coordinator; vocative; proximity; syntactic distribution
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Google Translate’s Rendition of Verb-Subject Structures in Arabic News Reports
Authors : Mohammad Anwar Al-Taher
Abstract : The present paper attempts to shed light on one of the issues of Arabic-English translation by the Google Translate service. The renditions provided for verb-subject structures in several news reports are compared and contrasted with the originals in order to come up with some rules which could assist in regulating the translation of the basic elements of the Arabic sentence in the above genre. A number of factors are taken into consideration, such as the length of the subject NP and the verb form and function. GT’s rendition of news reports may be improved by introducing certain rules associated with number and articles as well as a limited number of reporting verbs.
Keywords : Google translate, news reports, Arabic translation
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Semantic Disparity between Amr (Command) and Nahy (Negative Command) in the Noble Quran: An Interpretive/Contextual Study
Authors : Saad Abd Allah Meqdad, Rafeek Murad, Mohammad Anwar Al-Taher
Abstract : The present study explores the semantic disparity between the use of Amr (command) verb and Nahy (negative command), based on contexts of each in the Noble Quran. Among the key results of the study is that Amr mainly serves the obligation of carrying out the action promptly, or keeping it incessantly, which may or may not have started before the command. Amr often comes to refer to a desirable, commendable action. On the other hand, a Nahy, which consists of a present verb with Lā, typically necessitates halting a despicable action which is common or committed by some. It is found that the two structures may not be exchanged in the same contexts in the Noble Quran due to their different purposes.
Keywords : command, negative, the Noble Quran, semantic differences
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The Relationship between Social Competence and Emotional Intelligence among Teachers of Resource Rooms for Learning Disabilities in Amman Governorate
Authors : Khalid Al-Jundi, Mohammad Anwar Al-Taher
Abstract : The present study aims at identifying the relationship between social competence and the level of emotional intelligence among teachers of resource rooms for learning disabilities in Amman. The study population consisted of various educational directorates within the capital Amman governorate. They were 212 teachers – 31 males and 181 females. The sample of the study consisted of randomly chosen 60 teachers – 15 males and 45 females. They were tested first with Bar-On Model of Social and Emotional Intelligence, which is a sixty-paragraph self-assessment scale consisting of six aspects: social competence, personal competence, adaptability, stress management, general mood and positive impression. A researcher-designed social competence scale was also employed for teachers of resource rooms with learning disabilities in regular schools, which consisted of six aspects of social skills: expression of emotions, non-verbal communication, conversation, friendship, listening and participation. It has been found that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between the level of emotional intelligence and social competence in the sample of the study. In addition, there is a statistically significant relationship between the level of emotional intelligence and social competence among members of the sample due to the sex variable in favour of females.
Keywords : Emotional intelligence, learning disabilities, social competence, teachers of students with learning disabilities.
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The Culture of Difference from an Islamic Perspective: Mechanisms and Morals
Authors : Iyad Nemer, Mohammad Anwar Al-Taher
Abstract : The present article discusses the concept of difference as a natural phenomenon and civilizational necessity. It is confirmed that the difference between people’s minds and interests is inevitable and leads to variety and integration. Light is shed on the employment of difference as a positive culture to reach integration between people’s opinions, acceptance of the Other and participation in community building. In contrast, there are negative types of difference, which reject and take a hostile attitude to the Other, pushing for bigotry and arrogance based on prioritizing personal desires over the truth. A number of mechanisms and means are suggested from an Islamic perspective to help in promoting positive difference and reducing negative difference. The literature review provides true stories of pious and wise people who managed to build bridges on their differences with their good manners.
Keywords : manners of difference, reasoning.
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The Translation of the Manner (Hal) in the Noble Qur'an
Authors : Mohammad Anwar Al-Taher
Abstract : The study investigates the translation of the Ĥal in the Noble Qur'an into English, aiming to shed light on the significance of the construction as well as hold a comparison and contrast with its closest corresponding constructions in the English language. The Arabic structure in question is, unfortunately, being deserted to some extent in Modern Arabic in favour of other forms perhaps due to the influence of English through media. It is argued that there are, particularly, amazing similarities between the hal in Arabic and the adverb – one of the main parts of speech in English. First, in general terms, they are not basic elements in the sentence structure of their languages. Second, they tend to answer the question of ‘how’ an action takes place – which explains the reason why they are called hal and manner. Third, they may sometimes take a ‘compound’ form of a prepositional phrase serving the same function. But, the question is whether prominent translators of the Noble Qur’an see the adverb as the finest technique to relay the hal. The paper spots all the examples of the hal in Al-Baqarah (Cow) Sura – the longest Sura in the Noble Qur'an. After that, their renditions by Muhsin Khan, Thomas Irving, Mohammed Habib Shakir, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall and Abdullah Yusuf Ali are cited and investigated. A number of techniques are found to convey the hal, mainly prepositional phrases, in addition to adverbs, present participles and adjectives.
Keywords : Qur’anic translations, Arabic translation, Adverb of manner.
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Translating Culture-specific Items in the Noble Quran Which Relate to Arabian Habits
Authors : Zakaryia Almahasees, Mohammad Anwar Al-Taher
Abstract : Culture-specific Items (CSIs) refer to several elements only shared by a group of people. Such cultural gaps, and thus language gaps, constitute a serious challenge to translators. It becomes harder when rendering CSIs in the Noble Quran – a miraculous religious text. The present research explores the strategies adopted by 10 translators of the Noble Quran in conveying the effect of 10 examples of CSIs related to Arabian habits. It is found that, on the one hand, the overwhelming majority is conveyed through Literal Translation. On the other hand, only in a minority of cases, Addition or Paraphrase is chosen to provide some background information about those habits which were common when those verses were revealed.
Keywords : Arabian habits, Arabic translation, culture-specific items, the Noble Quran
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Translating Qur’anic Past Tense Structures Which Speak about the Hereafter
Authors : Mohammad Anwar Al-Taher
Abstract : The study investigates the translation of past verbs in the Noble Qur'an which report Hereafter future events into English. It may be needless to say that the question of viewing time varies among languages. However, it is to be borne in mind that the holy script, believed to be the revelation of God, differs from humans in this matter. For instance, the use of the past tense to convey the future is one of its exclusive features. The purpose is to emphasize the certainty of such incidents and, therefore, push the receivers for more commitment to good deeds and further avoidance of bad deeds. The question raised is whether prominent translators of the Noble Qur’an employ the suitable equivalent techniques which relay the above function by bridging the gap between the past and future. The paper chooses examples of such constructions in the Noble Qur'an. Then, their renditions by Thomas Irving, Mohammed Habib Shakir and Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall are cited and investigated. A number of techniques are chosen by the translators, mainly the present simple, future simple and the modal‘shall’.
Keywords : Arabic Translation, Qur'an Translation, Tense shift.
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Translating the Connotations of Allah's 'Makr' in the Noble Quran
Authors : Mohammad Anwar Al-Taher
Abstract : The present study explores the mistranslation of the original connotations of ‘Makr’ in the Noble Quran. Although it currently tends to carry a negative sense, the word is connected to Almighty Allah in six verses and misinterpreted by some non-native speakers of Arabic as plotting or, even, deception. Therefore, several relevant factors are investigated, such as semantic change, the attributes of Allah in the Noble Quran, the contextual meaning and, most importantly, the Arabic style of Mushakala. Finally, choices by ten translators are subject to dictionary analysis to guide to those with the appropriate connotations.
Keywords : Quran translation; mistranslation; connotation.
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The Semantic Connotation of Contradictory Contrast in the Noble Qur’an, Represented in Serr (Concealment) and Alan (announcement)
Authors : Saad Abdullah Miqdad, Muhammad Omar Abu Rahma, Sayel Hazaa Al-Hawawsheh, Mohammad Anwar Al-Taher
Abstract : The semantic connotation refers to the harmony of the linguistic item or structure with other linguistic items based on their coherence within a specific context in order to achieve a specific purpose. Since Qur’anic semantic connotations are formed specifically through the interaction of words within the context, the study aims to determine the effect of the contradictory contrast between the words Serr (concealment) and Alan (announcement) in determining the connotation. A descriptive and analytical approach is followed to extrapolate the research material from its resources, present these contrasting patterns in different contexts and explore their depths, revealing what semantic connotations of these specific oppositional collocations indicate which is not shown by other lexical items or collocations. As a result, a number of results are concluded, such as noting the effect of the context in invoking the appropriate lexical item for the contradictory contrast, while excluding the use of other synonyms in place of the chosen item due to the context. Also, the semantic meanings of the words Serr and Alan are explained along with their equivalents. Finally, it is shown why the word Serr precedes the word Alan in all of the collocations.
Keywords : semantic connotation, contradictory contrast, Serr concealment, “Alan” announcement.
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