A Critical Review on Four English Translations of the Holly Chapter of

The academic contest of "Quran and Etrat", administered by "Islamic Culture Headquarter Office", has been regularly practicing at Islamic Azad University all around. One of the content subjects included in this contest is "The English translation of the Magnificent Qur`an". However, due to the significance of the issue it is axiomatic that the editorial team pay due attention to the matter in choosing the test materials; thus, provoking interest on the part of the students as well as the academic members of the university to enthusiastically take part in such cultural issues. So, taking a critical approach, this paper aims at reviewing the English translation of the holly chapter, "Al-Asra" (The sons of Israel), as translated by Arthur John Arbery, which is used as one of the test materials of the contest. This comparative study compares and contrasts the fore-mentioned translation with three more English translations of the holly book, including the ones translated by Mohammad Ali, Piktal and Shakir. The study scrutinizes the matter from different perspectives, such as the factors of limitation and free choice in vocabulary and structure selection as well as the style of writing.