680 research outputs found
Linguistic and extra-linguistic problems in the translation of the Holy Qur'an
No full textThis thesis is the first to study the English
translations of the : Holy Qur'an, and is mainly concerned
with the translators' approach in handling
the linguistic (lexical & syntactic) , and extra-linguistic
(variant readings & cultural ) problems of the text.
The works that are the subject of the study
are those of six English translators (Sale, Rodwell,
Palmer, Pickthall, Bell, and Arberry), as well as one
of a non-English Muslim translator from Pakistan (Maulana
Muhammad Ali).
The translators' renderings of the problematic
instances are compared with) the expositions of the
exegetes (whom the translators have been familiar with),
in order to investigate the commentators' influence
on the translators. The similarities between the
translators' renderings are also checked to find out
the degree of dependence between the translators.
The translators are found to be heavily reliant on
the exegetes. The degree of dependence between the
translators is found to be considerable. Some problems
have been resolved by means of- the context (i.e. the
text as a whole); whereas others are left unresolved.
The translations that have been studied are closer to
commentaries than the text. The main conclusion is
that the Holy Qur’an is untranslatable in the strict sense
The role of the accused in English and Islamic criminal justice
No full textThis thesis is a comparative study of the role of the accused in the systems of
English and Islamic criminal justice. It seeks to explore the underlying
relationship between the individual and the state through an historical, structural
and contextual analysis of their rules relating to questioning and of confessions.
The analysis of the English system covers the period 1800 to 1984, with
particular reference to developments during the nineteenth century when the
foundations for the modern English state were established. The analysis of the
Islamic system combines traditionally Islamic and modern methods, assessing the
"Islamisation" movement in Malaysia through a religico-structural understanding
of juristic opinion from the four main schools of Sunnite jurisprudence.
The thesis contributes to existing knowledge on a number of levels: first, it
questions and revises the "myth" of "progress" that has dominated observations
of the history of the English criminal justice system; second, it elucidates the
relationship between Islamic law in theory and the law that is applied and
proposed in its name in Muslim states; third, it provides an analytical framework
for drawing comparisons between the underlying values of the systems of English
and Islamic criminal justice.
While acknowledging fundamental differences in terms of outlook and
articulation, the author concludes there are important similarities expressed
through such notions as "suspect" in the English system and "kafir"I"fasiq" in the
Islamic. These act as intermediate constitutional categories to whom the state
owe less protection. But the author notes also that these similarities are not
observed necessarily in the "law" which is implemented or proposed in Muslim
states; exact correspondence depends upon the over-arching political structure
and the institution of Caliphate.
The thesis is divided into six chapters: chapter one sets out the conventional view
of the historical development of English criminal procedure and evidence;
chapter two subjects that to a critique and chapter three offers a revised thesis.
Chapter four, explores methods for interpreting and explaining Islam; chapter
five sets out rules relating to confessions and questioning according to the four
Sunni schools; chapter six puts them into "context" through an examination of
the "Islamisation" process in Malaysia
The application of semantics to the translation of pre-Islamic poetry: with special reference to the 'Mu'allaqa' of Imru al-Qays
No full textThis thesis, to the best of our knowledge, is the first attempt to
apply semantics to the translation of pre-Islamic poetry. But this is a
thorny path. This poetry is some of the most ambiguous, confusing,
disorganized and perfunctorily investigated in the whole of Arabic
literature. The Mucallaga of Imru'al-Qays, our subject of study, the
crowning achievement of this poetry, is in an even worse case. The
principal problem which confronts the researcher as well as the
translator is the usual one of how best to bridge the cultural gulf of
both time and place, to set this Mucallaga in its cultural context so
as to understand its theme, and achieve the same communicative effect
of the text in translation. Commentaries and lexicons are of. little
help here, because their main interest is the denotation of single
words of this Mucallaga rather than in its organic unity. The setting
of this Mucallaga in its Semitic literary context would cast some light
on its essential theme and hence open new horizons for further comprehensive
research in this field. This is the task we embarked upon in
Chapter 1.
Confronted with fifteen main commentaries, and two English translations
of this Mucallaga, we have resorted to the current semantic
theories in the hope that in one of them we would find a happy solution
to the problem of translating these commentaries, or at'least help in
organizing them systematically. Much to our dismay, however, the bulky
literature on this subject bequeathed to us a welter of controversial
theories, perhaps because semantics is quite a new branch of linguistics.
These contradictory theories have been presented to demonstrate the
difficulty of adopting any one particular semantic theory. Nonetheless,
certain structural semantic relationships have been found to be of
highly significant application.
This, and particularly the structural semantic-relationships as
well as their employment throughout this thesis have been discussed in
Chapter II.
A theory of translation necessarily overlaps with a theory of
semantics. Chapter II made it clear that the help we might have
expected from semantics is but a pipe-dream. Instead of bemoaning,
philological, linguistic and socio-linguistic approaches to the theory
and practice of translation have been suggested. In Chapter III these
approaches have been demonstrated and applied to the translations of
(J. ) and (A. ) who, owing to the ambiguity of the text, have resorted to
the commentaries - appendices of which have been attached.
It has been concluded that the full translation of this Mucallaqa
is almost impossible because of the myriad phonological, semantic and
cultural problems. However, it has been argued that the development of
a more comprehensive semantic theory upon which an eclectic theory of
translation could depend, and a more profound and accurate investigation
of the essential theme of this Mucallaga would get rid of a lot of the
problems of research and translation
Conversion of African Americans to Islam : a sociological analysis of the Nation of Islam and associated groups
No full text'Conversion of African Americans to Islam: A Sociological Analysis of the Nation of
Islam Associated groups' is an empirical study of the religious experience of people
who had/have distinctive features in terms of race, ethnicity and historical experience.
The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how African Americans' (AAs) conversion
experience in general, and the Nation of Islam associated groups' conversion in
particular, differ from the studies of recruitment and conversion in the sociology of
religion and New Religion Movements (NRMs). More specifically, their recruitment
and conversion experiences to Islam diverge from those who converted to mainstream
Islam. The study investigates how AAs' historical experience, soci-economic
difficulties and the racism they encountered shaped and influenced their religious
understanding.
Research methods involved participant observations, a survey questionnaire, interviews,
conversations, personal communications and correspondence. To collect ethnographic
data eleven months field research was conducted mainly in the Chicago area and on two
short visits to Detroit, and three years continued communications with Muslim officials
and academics in the area. During the field research and afterwards through personal
communication 181 survey questionnaire responses were received, and 23 Muslim
officials, academics and ordinary Muslims were interviewed through semi-structured,
unstructured interviews, conversation and correspondence.
The thesis begins with a brief history of Islam and Muslims in general and the African
American Muslims (AAMs) in particular. More emphasis is given on the historical
development of the Nation of Islam (NOl). Then in Chapter III, discussions of schisms
in the history of the NOT are examined from sociological perspectives of social and
religious movements. In Chapter IV I aimed to formulate my own perspective to
analyse and study the conversion experiences of AAMs to Islam. I used a multivariate
approach, considering selectively widely held conversion and recruitment theories in the
sociology of the religion. I consider in Chapter V the predisposing conditions for AAMs
that influence their decision-making to join in the NOT, for example, political and
nationalistic sentiments and socio-economic deprivations. In Chapter VI I have applied
different terms to describe their religious experiences, such as conversion, alteration and
reversion. I have analysed further their encounters with the NOT, the methods of
recruitment they used and their major motives for joining the NOT and converting to
Tslam. In the concluding chapters (Chapter VII VTTT) I describe the different responses
of AAMS to Islam following the death of Elijah Muhammad. It is found out that the
Islamic appeal has polarised. While Farakhan's NOT appeared to continue the tradition
and style of the old NOI with the emphasis on nationalistic and socio-economic factors,
Tmam W. D. Mohammed's community turned more to the religious and spiritual aspects
of Tslam. These different approaches led to a polarisation of the appeal of Tslam to
AAMS.
This thesis contributes to knowledge in four key areas; the sociology of religion and
religious movements, the sociology of social and nationalistic movements, religious and
Islamic studies
Soil Nutrient Availability, Plant Nutrient Uptake, and Wild Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.) Yield in Response to N-Viro Biosolids and Irrigation Applications
No full textWe compared the impact of surface broadcasted N-Viro biosolids and inorganic fertilizer (16.5% Ammonium sulphate, 34.5% Diammonium phosphate, 4.5% Potash, and 44.5% s and/or clay filler) applications on soil properties and nutrients, leaf nutrient concentration, and the fruit yield of lowbush blueberry under irrigated and nonirrigated conditions during 2008-2009 at Debert, NS, Canada. Application rates of N-Viro biosolids were more than double of inorganic fertilizer applied at a recommended N rate of 32 kg ha−1. The experimental treatments NI: N-Viro with irrigation, FI: inorganic fertilizer with irrigation, N: N-Viro without irrigation, and F: inorganic fertilizer without irrigation (control) were replicated four times under a randomized complete block design. The NI treatment had the highest OM (6.68%) followed by FI (6.32%), N (6.18%), and F (4.43%) treatments during the year 2008. Similar trends were observed during 2009 with the highest soil OM values (5.50%) for NI treatment. Supplemental irrigation resulted in a 21% increase in the ripe fruit yield. Nonsignificant effect of fertilizer treatments on most of the nutrient concentrations in soil and plant leaves, and on ripe fruits yield reflects that the performance of N-Viro was comparable with that of the inorganic fertilizer used in this study
Conflict of law and the methodology of Tarjīẖ : a study in Islamic legal theory
No full textIslamic law never achieved unity but expressed itself in, at least, four surviving schools. More interestingly, contemporary Muslim communities are still divided among themselves on a number of issues related to their laws. This work describes how problem of legal conflicts have been tackled by Muslim jurists. It is an attempt to examine closely the phenomenon of conflict in Islamic law from the standpoint of usūl-al-fiqh or Islamic legal theory. In fact, much is heard nowadays of the contradiction in the body of Islamic law. Whilst in contrast, little is presented in terms of the methodology of removing this conflict. The present work therefore, attempts to redress this balance. The emphasis of the work will be concerned primarily with tarjīh methodology ; how to give preference to one piece of evidence or argument over the other when they conflict. Nevertheless, considerable concern is given to investigating the background to the conflict of law in the Shari'ah.
This study of a neglected area in Islamic legal scholarship will be an important source of reference to students, both practising and theoretical jurists or to anyone who merely wishes to increase his knowledge of legal themes, particularly legal conflict. The very aim of the work is to argue that conflict is a natural and unavoidable consequence of legal study because legal conflict is only conflicting principles and arguments adduced by both the classical and modern jurists to reach what is actually intended by God in the target case. Therefore, conflicts are inevitable in most of the cases in fiqh owing to the variety of principles set out to deal with one piece of legal evidence, let alone with all the pieces of legal evidence in question.
Tarjīh is therefore, an important and workable instrument in the re-examination of these conflicts and in arriving at the most accurate principle for establishing the law for as long as this is possible. It is hoped that the discovery of new facts and the increase of knowledge which results from the broadening and deepening of the research will positively contribute to the process of unification of Islamic law
Qur'anic narrative and Isra'iliyyat in Western scholarship and in classical exegesis
No full textThe main subject of this thesis is twofold. On the one hand it analyses how the Qur'an presents stories, on the other hand it examines the classical Muslim commentators' response to the Qur'anic narration.
In part one we remark that the theory that the Qur'an borrowed extensively from the Bible has clouded the vision of many Western scholars. They explained the Qur'anic narratives in accordance with their preconceptions; only a few emancipated themselves from this prejudice, but some of these scholars were sensitive to the literary qualities of the Qur'anic narrative. Adopting their general approach to the Qur'anic narrative we analyse the Qur'anic narrative of the 'golden calf' episode. Here we invite the reader to step into the textual world of the Qur'an in order to appreciate its otherness. At the same time we try to show the internal coherence among the verses (and also among the surahs) to remove the assumption of the incoherence of the Qur'an which has veiled much of its literary excellence from view. In addition, this study gives us an opportunity to appreciate one of the most neglected aspects of the Qur'anic narratives, namely the relationship between the oral recitation and the written characters of the Qur'an. The written text lacks the contextual richness provided by the oral dimension for it cannot convey intonation, emphasis, and so on, but the transcription of the spoken word displays the relationship of sound and meaning within
the surahs or verses together with special emphasis upon phonological effects.
The first chapter of part two is designed to provide a general overview of the notion of isrä'iliyyät, taking into account the opinions held by both Muslim and non-
Muslim authorities. We raise two important questions regarding this technical term
When did the technical term isra'iliyyät come into general use?
Who first used it critically?
To answer these questions we analyse the commentaries of eight exegetes together with some qisas works on the 'golden calf and 'heavenly table' episodes. It is clear
that, in contrast to the view held by many Muslim and non-Muslim scholars, the technical usage of this term is a late development. Another important conclusion derived from our analysis of classical exegesis is that the commentators who use this term themselves depend on isra'iliyyät in several respects. In other words, their theory,is not in agreement with their practice. Furthermore, there are commentators who do not use the term isra'iliyyät and consistently seek to distance themselves from these reports. They also try to minimise the amount of these reports in their tafsir. According to this research, Ibn Atiyya was the first to pay more attention to the implausibility of this type of report, two centuries before Ibn Kathir's critical exegesis
Annotation of conceptual co-reference and text Mining the Qur'an
No full textThis research contributes to the area of corpus annotation and text mining by developing novel domain specific language resources. Most practical text mining applications restrict their domain. This research restricts the domain to the Qur'anic Text.
In this thesis, a number of pre-processing steps were undertaken and annotation information were added to the Qur'an. The raw Arabic Qur'an was pre-processed into morphological units using the Qur'anic Arabic Corpus (QAC). Qur'anic terms were indexed and converted into a vector space model using techniques in Information Retrieval (IR). In parallel, nearly 24,000 Qur'anic personal pronouns were annotated with information on their referents. These referents are consolidated and organized into a total of over 1,000 ontological concepts. Moreover, a dataset of nearly 8,000 pairs of related Qur'anic verses are compiled from books of scholarly commentary on the Qur'an. This vector space model, the pronoun tagging, the verse relatedness dataset, and the part-of-speech tags available in QAC all together served for a number of Qur'anic text mining applications which were rendered online for public use. Among these applications: lemma concordance, collocation, POS search of the Qur'an, verse similarity measures, concept clouds of a given verse, pronominal anaphora and Qur'anic chapter similarity.
Furthermore, machine learning experiments were conducted on automatic detection of verse similarity/relatedness as well as categorization of Qur'anic chapters based on their chronology of revelation. Domain specific linguistic features were investigated to induct learning algorithms. Results show that deep linguistic and world knowledge is needed to reach the human upper bound in certain computational tasks such as detecting text relatedness, question answering and textual entailment. However, many useful queries can be addressed using text mining techniques and layers of annotations made available through this research. The works presented here can be extended to include other similar texts like Hadith (i.e., saying of Prophet Muhammad), or other scriptures like the Gospels
Astrology in literature: how the prohibited became permissible in the Arabic poetry of the mediaeval period
No full textThis thesis is concerned to position the art of astrology within the context of classical Arabic poetry, primarily by investigating and elucidating attitudes to the notion of
qadar (fate) and the ideology in which it was embedded. These attitudes were revelatory of the broader world view of the Arabs of those periods, and their shifts from those held in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras tell us a good deal about the importance given to the nature and role of fate and about the various understandings of its influence. The pre-Islamic Arab's notion of qadar was in some ways similar to that of the early Muslims: both emphasised predetermination and the irresistible power of fate. But while the jahilf (Pre-Islamic) Arabs identified fate with the malign power of dahr (Time), the Muslims believed the power of fate lies in the hands of God the
Omnipotent, who alone is responsible for the fate of the whole universe. Thus the astrology of the pre-Islamic era was one aspect of divination (kihana) and claimed to be
able to reveal in advance an individual's destiny, which could be avoided by taking certain precautions. These precautions, however, were considered effective only in
relatively trivial cases; they were useless in the areas of major impact: a person's happiness or misery (shaqiiwa aw sa ada), sustenance (rizq) and one's term (ajal), the
three inevitable and irresistible manifestations of fate. In the Islamic period not only these major aspects of life are governed and controlled by the Omnipotent; the destiny
of the universe, in even its most minute details, is determined and controlled by God alone. Astrology was considered to be of no value whatsoever, and its practitioners were subject to the death penalty. These two irreconcilable views are evident in early Islamic poetry, which reflected clearly the response of poets, and society, to astrology from the perspective of qadar.
When the orthodox caliphate was replaced by dynastic rule the status of astrology was changed dramatically. The idea that the stars, as indicators, play a role in the life of
human beings found popowerful supporters in some governors of the Islamic world, who allowed astrology to fulfil a public function regardless of the hostility of the official
religion of that society. This social phenomenon generated rich material of a controversial character in the realm of literature. Investigating the factors, motivations
and impact of mediaeval political, theological and philosophical attitudes to astrology, in relation to the notions of free will and predestination, is the concern of this study
Istihsan (juristic preference) : the forgotten principle of Islamic law
No full textEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
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