Discourse Analysis of Three Different Translations of The Holy Qur an (Al-Fatiha & Al- Asr Surahs)

Translation is the transmission of one linguistic system into another، on all linguistic and metalinguistic levels. The same process is true in the translation of The Holly Qur’an، which is regarded as God''s word and carries the most prominent message for mankind’s guidance. As a consequence، in the translation of The Holy Qur’an no linguistic or metalinguistic level should be distorted. To investigate such instances، two Surahs (translated by three translators: one by a Muslim Shiite، another by a Muslim Sunni and the last one by a Christian translator) have been selected to be evaluated on the level of discursive constraints using Hatim and Mason''s (1990) framework of discourse analysis. The results of the analysis showed that most limitations imposed on translation were at the level of transitivity، and the least imposed discursive limitations were at lexical cohesion level. It can also be concluded that if the translator is well aware of Qur’anic language and its rhetorical content، he can preserve the formal properties of each verse and therefore become only confined to semantic expansion، reduction and recurrence. As such، he can be more successful in his rendering with fewer limitations.