Subhani's Interest in Lexical Meanings and Etymology of Quran Translation/ Interpretation (1951- 1990)

Abstract

This study explores the approach/method of Nasir Sobhani, who was one of the Kurdish scholars in the field of Quranic translation/ interpretation. Sobhani left a rich heritage in Quranic translation in three languages, namely Kurdish, Arabic and Persian. Due to the linguistic richness of his works, this study aims to probe certain linguistic aspects in his products, namely lexically and etymologically. The current study has three parts. Part one provides a brief biographical introduction to the life of Sobhani. Part two sheds light on the lexical meanings, and part three deals with etymology. According to the data analysis, it can be concluded that Sobhani, in his Quranic translation, relied heavily upon linguistics as a means of interpretation, and he differentiated between the linguistic meaning on one hand, and the Quranic meaning on the other hand. He relied on the former to investigate the latter. Thus, this approach/ method in Quranic interpretation is worthy of scholarly investigation and criticism.