Investigating the Translation of Islamic Terms

into English in an Indonesian Context

Muhammad Aminuddin

November 2021

Thesis submitted to the School of Humanities and Communication Arts,

Western Sydney University in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
 Acknowledgements

I wish to express my deepest gratitude to those who have helped me

accomplish my mission in undertaking PhD study at Western Sydney University. First,
my greatest thanks and appreciation go to Dr Ping Yang as principal supervisor and Dr
Hiromi Muranaka as co-supervisor for supervising my work. They have shown their
guidance and encouragement with insightful comments and continuous support
throughout my study. I have learnt much from them including how to craft a draft from
zero and participate in collaborative work to publish an article in an international
journal. Without their help and support, I would not have been able to complete this
thesis.
I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to MoRA 5000 DOKTOR as
the scholarship body that funded my study in Sydney, and the Rector of UIN Sunan
Gunung Djati Bandung who allowed me to do my study overseas. My warmest thanks
also go to the translators who became participants in my study; without your
involvement, this thesis would not even exist. I want to thank my PhD colleagues from
MoRA awardees, especially the Nvivo study group, for their friendship and support
during our stay in Sydney.
I am grateful to my family – my wife Salmia Nur Ardiani, M.Pd, my daughters
Shabira Azma Ghassani and Saffanah Noor Zakhira – for their love and understanding.
Finally, I would like to dedicate this achievement to my late mother, my late mother
and father-in law and my father who has been waiting patiently for my homecoming.

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 Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... ii

Statement of Authentication........................................................................................ iii

Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... v

List of Tables .............................................................................................................. xi

List of Figures ........................................................................................................... xiii

Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ xiv

Abstract ...................................................................................................................... xv

Chapter 1. Introductory Remarks ................................................................................. 1

1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Background of the Study ................................................................................... 1
1.3 Aims of the Research ........................................................................................ 3
1.4 Scope of the Study ............................................................................................. 4
1.5 Research Questions ........................................................................................... 5
1.6 Significance of the Study .................................................................................. 6
1.7 Structure of the Thesis ....................................................................................... 7

Chapter 2. Literature Review ....................................................................................... 9

2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 9
2.2 Concepts of Islamic Terms ................................................................................ 9
2.2.1 Linguistic Aspects of Islamic Terms ..................................................... 11
2.2.2 Cultural Aspects of Islamic Terms ........................................................ 16
2.3 Islamic Terms in Several Islamic Studies ....................................................... 18
2.4 Problematic Issues of Islamic Term Translation into English......................... 20
2.4.1 Equivalence of Islamic Terms ............................................................... 21
2.4.2 Untranslatability of Islamic Terms ........................................................ 23

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 2.5 The Translation Strategy and Technique of Islamic Terms ............................ 24
2.6 Research Gaps ................................................................................................. 27
2.7 Summary ......................................................................................................... 28

Chapter 3. Conceptual Framework ............................................................................ 29

3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 29
3.2 Key Concepts .................................................................................................. 29
3.3 Translation Concepts ....................................................................................... 30
3.3.1 Translation Equivalence ........................................................................ 31
3.3.2 Untranslatability .................................................................................... 33
3.3.3 Translation Strategies ............................................................................ 35
3.4 Systemic Functional Linguistics and Translation Studies ............................... 41
3.4.1 The Role of SFL in Text Analysis ......................................................... 42
3.4.2 SFL Applications in Translation Studies ............................................... 44
3.4.3 Experiential Meaning in the Translation of Islamic Terms ................... 46
3.5 Integrated Concepts ......................................................................................... 48
3.5.1 Translation Shifts ................................................................................... 49
3.5.2 Translation Quality ................................................................................ 52
3.5.3 Cultural Translation ............................................................................... 53
3.6 Translation as Intercultural Communication Framework ............................... 55
3.7 Summary ......................................................................................................... 60

Chapter 4. Research Methodology ............................................................................. 61

4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 61
4.2 Research Design .............................................................................................. 61
4.3 Research Participants ...................................................................................... 65
4.4 Data Collection ................................................................................................ 70
4.4.1 Raters’ Translation Quality Scores ........................................................ 70
4.4.1.1 Scoring Sheets ............................................................................... 70
4.4.1.2 Procedure ...................................................................................... 71
4.4.2 Translation Task .................................................................................... 72
4.4.2.1 Material ......................................................................................... 72
4.4.2.2 Procedure ...................................................................................... 74

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 4.4.3 Interview ................................................................................................ 75
4.4.3.1 Material ......................................................................................... 75
4.4.3.2 Procedure ...................................................................................... 76
4.4.4 Questionnaire ......................................................................................... 77
4.4.4.1 Material ......................................................................................... 77
4.4.4.2 Procedure ...................................................................................... 80
4.5 Data Analysis .................................................................................................. 80
4.5.1 Translation Quality ................................................................................ 80
4.5.2 Translation Strategy and Technique ...................................................... 82
4.5.3 Linguistic Realisations........................................................................... 83
4.5.4 Cultural Realisations .............................................................................. 83
4.6 Research Ethics ............................................................................................... 84
4.7 Summary ......................................................................................................... 86

Chapter 5. Translation Quality of Islamic Terms ...................................................... 87

5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 87
5.2 Quantitative Translation Quality of Islamic Terms ......................................... 87
5.3 Qualitative Translation Quality of Islamic Terms ........................................... 90
5.3.1 The Translation Quality of Islamic Term Lexical Choices ................... 91
5.3.2 Translation Quality of Islamic Term Experiential Structures................ 97
5.4 Summary ....................................................................................................... 101

Chapter 6. Translation Strategies and Techniques of Islamic Terms....................... 102

6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 102
6.2 Translation Strategy and Technique: Translation Products .......................... 102
6.2.1 Foreignisation Strategy ........................................................................ 104
6.2.2 Domestication Strategy........................................................................ 109
6.2.3 Integrated Translation Strategies ......................................................... 111
6.3 Frequency Degree of Translation Strategy Use ............................................ 114
6.4 Rationales of the Strategies in Translating Islamic Terms ............................ 116
6.4.1 Rationales of Islamic Term Translation Strategy: Questionnaire Data117
6.4.2 Rationales of Islamic Term Translation Strategy: Interview Data ...... 120
6.5 Summary ....................................................................................................... 124

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Chapter 7. Linguistic Realisations of Islamic Terms ............................................... 125
7.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 125
7.2. Functional Roles and Experiential Structures of Islamic Terms in the Source
Text................................................................................................................ 125
7.3 Suggested Translations of Experiential Structures of Islamic ....................... 129
7.4 Suggested EC Translations of the Islamic Terms in the Target Text ............ 133
7.5 EC Variants of the Islamic Terms in the Target Text ................................... 136
7.6 Errors with Shifted Functions in Islamic Term EC ....................................... 138
7.7 Summary ....................................................................................................... 141

Chapter 8. Cultural Realisations of Islamic Terms .................................................. 142

8.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 142
8.2 Target Text Cultural Realisations.................................................................. 142
8.2.1 The Ideology of Islamic Term Translations ........................................ 142
8.2.2 Islamic Term Realisations ................................................................... 144
8.3 The Role of Culture in the Translation of Islamic Terms ............................. 147
8.3.1 Requisites of Arabic Culture in the Assigned Text ............................. 147
8.3.2 The Relationship between Language and Culture ............................... 149
8.3.3 Reflection of Culture Use in the Translation Process .......................... 153
8.4 The Role of Culture in the Translation of Islamic Terms ............................. 156
8.5 Summary ....................................................................................................... 162

Chapter 9. Discussion .............................................................................................. 163

9.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 163
9.2 Quality of Islamic Term Translation ............................................................. 163
9.2.1 Quantitative Data of Translation Quality ............................................ 164
9.2.2 Qualitative Data of Translation Quality .............................................. 166
9.3 Strategies and Techniques of Islamic Term Translation ............................... 171
9.3.1 Foreignisation Strategy and Pure Borrowing Technique..................... 172
9.3.2 Baker’s (2018) Suggested Strategies and Techniques ......................... 173
9.3.3 Beliefs and Practices in Using Translation Strategies and Techniques
174
9.3.4 Reasons for Employing Certain Strategies and Techniques ................ 175

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 9.4 Linguistic Realisations of Islamic Term Translation .................................... 176
9.4.1 Suggested Islamic Term Experiential Structures ................................. 177
9.4.2 Variants of Islamic Term Experiential Structures ............................... 180
9.4.3 Errors with Shifted Functions in Islamic Term Experiential Structures
181
9.5 Cultural Realisations of Islamic Term Translation ....................................... 182
9.5.1 Translation Ideology in Islamic Term Translation .............................. 183
9.5.2 Culture Issues in Islamic Term Translation ......................................... 185
9.6 Summary ....................................................................................................... 186

Chapter 10. Conclusion ............................................................................................ 187

10.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 187
10.2 Summary of Major Findings ................................................................ 187
10.3 Implications of the Study ..................................................................... 190
10.4 Significant contributions of the study .................................................. 192
10.5 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research .............................. 194

References ................................................................................................................ 197

Appendices ............................................................................................................... 210

Appendix 1. Participants’ Profiles ........................................................................... 211

1.1 Teacher Translators (TTs) ............................................................................. 211
1.2 Student Translators (STs) .............................................................................. 212
1.3 Certified Translators (CTs) ........................................................................... 213

Appendix 2. Source Text ......................................................................................... 214

Abstrak .......................................................................................................... 214

Appendix 3. Experiential Construction Variants ..................................................... 216

Appendix 4. Questionnaire ...................................................................................... 218

Section 1 Objectives ..................................................................................... 218
Section 2 Agreement statements ................................................................... 218
Section 3 Islamic term translation difficulties and their problem solving .... 219
Section 4 Translation strategies .................................................................... 220

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 Section 5 Islamic term translatability ........................................................... 220
Section 6 Biodata .......................................................................................... 220

Appendix 5. Interview Protocol ............................................................................... 221

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 List of Tables

Table 3. 1 Examples of translation techniques within the foreignisation strategy..... 39

Table 3. 2 Examples of translation techniques within the domestication strategy .... 40
Table 3. 3 An example of integrated strategy ............................................................ 40
Table 3. 4 Experiential structure of an NG in English ............................................... 50
Table 4. 1 Research issues and their data collection techniques ................................ 63
Table 4. 2 Codes for research participants ................................................................. 69
Table 4. 3 Experiential meaning quality scores ......................................................... 71
Table 4. 4 List of Islamic terms in the source text, Indonesian ................................. 73
Table 4. 5 Questionnaire categories and their numbers of statements ....................... 78
Table 4. 6 Questionnaire sections .............................................................................. 79
Table 5. 1 One-way ANOVA statistical test of the experiential meaning quality ..... 88
Table 5. 2 One-way ANOVA statistical test of the lexical choices ........................... 89
Table 5. 3 One-way ANOVA statistical test of the experiential structures ............... 89
Table 5. 4 Examples of translation and transliteration of ulama ............................... 91
Table 5. 5 Transliteration and translation techniques (TTT) of Islamic terms with
examples .................................................................................................... 92
Table 5. 6 Term’s brief explanatory notes ................................................................. 94
Table 5. 7 Examples of Islamic terms with long explanation .................................... 94
Table 5. 8 Islamic term explanation ........................................................................... 95
Table 6. 1 Frequency of translation strategy in target texts ..................................... 103
Table 6. 2 Translation techniques within the foreignisation strategy ...................... 105
Table 6. 3 Types of transliteration styles in pure borrowing technique ................... 107
Table 6. 4 Types of transliteration styles in borrowing with the correspondence
technique .................................................................................................. 108
Table 6. 5 Types of transliteration styles in borrowing with description technique 109
Table 6. 6 Translation techniques in domestication strategy ................................... 110
Table 6. 7 Types of translation strategies in the integrated strategy ........................ 112
Table 6. 8 Types of transliteration styles in the integrated strategy......................... 113
Table 6. 9 Frequency of translation strategy by translator groups ........................... 115
Table 6. 10 Survey about ‘practice’ statements related to translation strategies ..... 117
Table 6. 11 Survey about ‘belief’ statements related to translation strategies ......... 119
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Table 6. 12 Translators’ rationales for using translation strategy ............................ 120
Table 7. 1 Source text experiential constructions .................................................... 126
Table 7. 2 Distribution of functional roles in source text experiential constructions
................................................................................................................. 127
Table 7. 3 Suggested translations of experiential structures of Islamic terms ......... 129
Table 7. 4 One suggested translation realisation from the source text experiential
structures .................................................................................................. 130
Table 7. 5 The merging of two Deictics into one ..................................................... 131
Table 7. 6 More suggested translation realisations of the target EC ........................ 132
Table 7. 7 Suggested EC translation realisations in the target text .......................... 133
Table 7. 8 Islamic terms are largely identified by the addition of specific references
and extra information to the Head noun of Islamic terms ....................... 135
Table 7. 9 Examples of Thing Qualifier and Classifier Thing ................................. 135
Table 7. 10 A short list of EC variants ..................................................................... 136
Table 7. 11 Examples of six and five constituents ................................................... 138
Table 7. 12 Another example of omission ............................................................... 139
Table 7. 13 One addition adds another function to the nominal group without making
changes to the given function .................................................................. 140
Table 8. 1 Islamic term realisations ......................................................................... 145
Table 8. 2 New Islamic terms .................................................................................. 147
Table 8. 3 Cultural understanding of a language is not always required for a
translator .................................................................................................. 157
Table 8. 4 Cultural aspects of Arabic remain a problem in translating Islamic terms
................................................................................................................. 158
Table 8. 5 Translating Islamic terms requires careful judgement due to their
embedded sacred messages ..................................................................... 159
Table 8. 6 Untranslatability of Islamic terms occurs due to the differences of cultural
contexts .................................................................................................... 160
Table 8. 7 There is a wide cultural gap between Arabic and English ...................... 161
Table 8. 8 Translators can translate Islamic terms without knowledge of Arabic
culture or Islamic values embedded in texts ............................................ 162
Table 9. 1 A shifting error position from Thing to Deictic should be avoided because
it changes the original meaning ............................................................... 169

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 List of Figures

Figure 2. 1 The relationship between non-equivalence/equivalence and translation /

transliteration ............................................................................................. 22

Figure 3. 1 Interrelated key concepts in the present study ......................................... 30

Figure 3. 2 NG structure in Indonesian and English .................................................. 47

Figure 3. 3 NG structure in English ........................................................................... 51

Figure 3. 4 Translation shifts of NG functional elements from Indonesian to English

................................................................................................................. 51

Figure 3. 5 House’s scheme of comparison analysis between the source and target

text ........................................................................................................... 58

Figure 3. 6 Framework of the study ........................................................................... 60

Figure 4. 1 Flowchart of the research process............................................................ 64

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 Abbreviations

ANOVA : Analysis of Variance

CTs : Certified Translators
EC : Experiential Constructions
HERC : Human Ethic Research Committee
HPI : Himpunan Penerjemah Indonesia (Indonesian Translators Association)
MA : Master of Arts
MoRA : Ministry of Religious Affairs
NG : Nominal Group
RQ : Research Question
STs : Student Translators
SFL : Systemic Functional Linguistics
SPSS : Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
TEFL : Teaching English as a Foreign Language
TOEFL : Test of English as a Foreign Language
TTs : Teacher Translators
TTT : Transliteration Translation Technique
UIN : Universitas Islam Negeri (State Islamic University)
PhD : Doctor of Philosophy

xiv
 Abstract

This thesis investigates some key translation issues arising from the translation
of Islamic terms in the academic abstract of an Islamic text from Indonesian into
English. Using the frameworks of translation as intercultural communication across
languages and cultures as well as systemic functional linguistics, this project focuses
on four topics such as translation quality, translation strategies and techniques,
linguistic, and cultural considerations. A mixed-methods research design was used in
the project, and 90 respondents participated. Fifty-six of these participated in the
survey and thirty-four Indonesian translators were interviewed. Interviewees
included 13 Students Translators (STs), 11 Teacher Translators (TTs), and 10
Certified Translators (CTs). These interviewees also translated an Indonesian abstract
into English. The abstract featured 24 Islamic terms out of 367 Indonesian words and
originated from an MA thesis in Hadith Studies.
Quantitative data analysis showed that the translation quality was determined
by the experiential meaning of the Islamic terms and that the quality of Islamic term
translations did not differ significantly among the three translator groups. The study
discovered that the translation quality of the Islamic term groups was considered as
moderate. This indicates that the lexical choices of Islamic phrases more frequently
reflect their proper experiential meanings, even though certain words are difficult to
understand. This also suggested that, despite a few ungrammatical structural patterns,
Islamic word groupings were appropriately expressed in appropriate experiential
structures. Furthermore, lexical choices in transliterations, as dominated by STs, may
result in a more dense and complicated text. STs and TTs' inclusion of more lengthy
terms' explanations may also impair the abstract layout and thus distract the readers.
In terms of structural patterns, CTs were more likely to retain the original text
structure than STs and TTs.
Qualitative data showed that foreignisation was the most preferred translation
strategy, while pure borrowing and correspondence were the common techniques
used in translating Islamic terms. The reasons why particular strategy and technique
were used referred to general practice, reader orientation, text categories, and
personal reasons. Thing to Deictic Thing became the most common Islamic term
experiential construction used in the target text. In addition, of 80 target experiential
xv
constructions identified in this study, it was revealed that STs dominated the initial
20 suggested constructions while the new 60 versions were regulated by TTs. While
most translators shifted the experiential structures appropriately, a few functional
roles were discovered to have shifted improperly, which caused changes in their
experiential meanings. The translated Islamic terms were culture-specific to Islamic
religion but with Indonesian transliteration style. As a result, the translation rarely
found their cultural equivalents where a few irrelevant cultural replacements were
also infrequently identified. Being aware of the importance of culture helped
Indonesian translators recognise these terms from socio-cultural information. These
findings hold important and practical pedagogical implications for teaching
Indonesian-English translation of Islamic texts.

xvi
 Chapter 1. Introductory Remarks

1.1 Introduction

This chapter provides introductory remarks about the study. It highlights

several preliminary details concerning the current thesis investigation of the
translation of Islamic terms into English in an Indonesian context. This section,
therefore, introduces the background, aim, scope, research questions, and structures
of the study.

1.2 Background of the Study

Islamic terms and their translation play an important role in the discussion of
Islamic concepts in an intercultural setting. With the goal of communicating these
concepts to other cultural target readers, Islamic term translation finds its challenges
in formulating its correspondence while at the same time maintaining the original
meanings. This core idea highlights the necessity of conducting research on this issue
while also taking into account some relevant contexts for the study to be undertaken
in the field of translation in intercultural communication.
Islamic terms serve as a specific register for conveying Islamic concepts. This
textual feature in Islamic Studies must be preserved even as the context shifts from
Indonesian to English. However, this fact shows that the translation of Islamic terms
poses a crucial issue where the same Islamic terms are represented in different
realisations in the target text (Aminuddin, Yang, and Muranaka-Vuletich, 2020). This
contradicts Yuwono’s (2013) claim that translation should follow a verifiable
scientific method in order for the same realisations to be generated. Target readers
may become confused because the referred concepts may be represented differently,
because of inconsistent realisations of these Islamic terms.
According to Dweik and Shakra (2010), perplexity surrounding Islamic term
translation is caused by a wide gap between Arabic and non-Arabic cultures, which
manifests itself in linguistic and cultural non-equivalence. Previous studies confirm
that Islamic terms in several countries such as Iran (Jahanshahi & Kafipour, 2015;

1
Javan, 2005), Indonesia (Aminuddin et al., 2020), and even Arabic countries
(Saraireh, 1992), for example, can barely find their comparable correspondences in
English due to the absence of Islamic terms’ specific concepts in the Western context.
As a result, their representations in the target text most commonly appear in the
transliteration, not the translation style.
When representing Islamic terms in an English context, the debate over
transliteration or translation becomes a source of difficulty for translators.
Aminuddin et al. (2020) and Hassan (2016) investigate this issue in both Indonesian
and Arabic contexts, and discover the most preferred transliteration style for
representing Islamic terms in English. Results confirm that Islamic terms are
culturally specific to Arabic and Islam. Given the same transliteration, a shifting
letter is ideally realised, for example, from dakwah in Indonesian to da’wa in English.
However, as one study in the Indonesian context reveals, source Islamic terms are
also discovered in use in the target text (Aminuddin et al., 2020). These linguistic
realisations suggest that this topic should further be researched to reveal its
realisations from Indonesian. The study argues that it does not produce as many of
these realisations compared to those from Arabic to English, especially in Hadith
Studies, as one of the branches of Islamic Studies.
Hadith terms are specific jargons used in Hadith Studies. Functioning as
specialised registers, also known as technical terms that learners might encounter
when they learn Hadith, their representations in the target text should also act as their
intended functions. However, when realised differently, the study argues that the
objectivity of the terms’ specific roles cannot be retained. As a result, this may
contribute to the quality of their translations and comprehension of the text by target
readers. Given this concern, the present study examines the translation quality of
Islamic terms, particularly in terms of their lexical choices and experiential
structures, as, according to House (2014), both define the quality of Islamic terms’
experiential meanings. Since Indonesian translators come from varying types of
backgrounds, the present study thus explores the translation quality of Islamic terms
based on translations made by different Indonesian translator groups – Certified
Translators (CTs), Teacher Translators (TTs), and Student Translators (STs) in
Islamic Studies in an Indonesian academic context.

2
 The context of Islamic term translation from Indonesian into English is
certainly different from that of Arabic. When contrasting direct and indirect
translation Gutt (2005), the indirect status of Islamic term translation in an
Indonesian context faces heightened challenges, as the context provides insufficient
contextual information about specific terms. Given the context, the current study
seeks to discover what Indonesian translators can achieve with less information than
can be gained from direct translation when dealing with Islamic terms. It is asserted
that non-Arabic context, such as in Indonesian, tends to show general references
rather than specific ones because indirect translation has a "looser degree of
resemblance" in communicating the original's idea or meaning (Gutt, 1990, p. 135).
As a result, this situation falls far short of the translation’s goal of "generally
requiring a significant degree of resemblance or correspondence with respect to the
source text" (Colina, 2015, p. 12). Given the circumstances, this research looks at
how Indonesian translators deal with this indirect context and devise strategies and
techniques to bridge the communication of ideas to intended readers.
Last but not least, since this translation is concerned with Islamic terms,
which are sacred in the sense they are taken from Muslim divine references such as
the Qur’an and Hadith, there is a common belief that translators are strongly advised
to preserve Islamic terms in Arabic or its transliterations (El-Sayed, 2017; Grami,
2019). Alfataftah and Jarrar (2018) claim Arabisation is commonly reflected in the
translation of Islamic terms by preserving the purity of Islamic messages as
symbolised by Arabic sounds or transliteration. In contrast, the present study argues
that preserving Arabic words is not necessary when these have their comparable
correspondences in the target text. Caution should be exercised, however, as not all
words taken from Arabic should be kept in their transliterations; instead, Islamic
terms in their translations are strongly suggested for communicating original ideas to
target readers more readily, as Colina (2015) suggests above.

1.3 Aims of the Research

The current research aims to investigate the translation of Islamic terms into
English in an Indonesian context. This investigation takes Islamic terms as the case
of the present study and explores their translations through analysing their

3
interrelated issues of translation quality, strategies, linguistic and cultural
realisations. These four issues are further examined in a mixed-methods study aiming
to provide a comprehensive picture of Islamic term translation in an Indonesian
context.
This also provides information for Indonesian translators or academic
scholars in terms of what to deal with when translating Islamic terms. Islamic terms
originating from a variety of disciplines in Islamic Studies in an Indonesian context
require immediate information about this intercultural translation since research
paper publications predominantly present the proper translation of Islamic terms for
international readers. While they are informed about common strategies and
techniques used to translate Islamic terms, the study also provides linguistic and
cultural realisations from which translators can learn. In fact, this study can also make
them aware of Islamic term translation qualities that might be different from one
translator group to another.
This research, therefore, aims to fill the gap between Islamic term translation
from Indonesian into English. Using specific Islamic terms from Hadith Studies, it
thus explores the mismatch of Islamic term translation, as suggested by theories with
current practices by considering the context of their translations in an Indonesian
academic context. The present study also has the potential to present information
about related factors that might contribute to the translation of Islamic terms in a non-
Arabic context that rarely occur compared to their direct translation from Arabic to
English. In general, the present study takes the Indonesian case of Islamic term
translation to build intercultural communication practices in translation.

1.4 Scope of the Study

The current study is conducted in an Indonesian academic setting where

academic scholars convey Islamic concepts using Islamic terms in learning Hadith.
The study limits the scope of research to the translation of Islamic terms found in an
abstract of a master thesis in Islamic Studies. This intercultural translation specifies
the case of abstract translation to accompany the abstract of the Indonesian version of
the scholars' academic report. Islamic terms are specific to Indonesian transliteration
styles, such as Hadits instead of Hadith, and these appear at the word and phrase

4
levels, for example, Hadits and Hadits dha'if.
Translation of Islamic terms is also limited through the works of Indonesian
translators that the study classifies into three translator groups. Certified Translators
and Teacher Translators represent the trained translator groups because they have
extensive experience and greater exposure in translating Islamic terms than the
novice translator groups, Student Translators. These three translator groups are the
groups that most commonly offer their translation services in translating abstract
texts where Islamic terms are involved.

1.5 Research Questions

The thesis is undertaken to resolve the issue of Islamic term translation from
Indonesian to English. It, therefore, formulates four research questions that are
interrelated within the context of translation as intercultural communication
practices. These four research questions are presented as follows:

a) Is there any significant difference in translation quality among groups of

students, teachers, and certified translators? To what extent do they differ?
b) What are the translation strategies for translating Islamic terms into English in
Indonesian academic texts commonly used among the three different groups of
translators, namely student, teacher, and certified translators?
c) What are the linguistic realisations in translating Indonesian Islamic terms to
English?
d) What are the cultural realisations in translating Indonesian Islamic terms to
English?

The first research question involves a combination of quantitative and

qualitative data of translation quality. The one-way ANOVA statistical analysis is
used to compare the translation quality scores made by three groups of translators.
The significant difference is sought statistically to identify whether the qualities of
Islamic term translation are different from one translator group to another.
Qualitative information is also provided to support the findings of the quantitative
data.
The quality of Islamic term translation cannot be distinguished from the

5
strategies and techniques that translators use to translate Islamic terms. Venuti’s
(2018) concepts of foreignisation and domestication are used to classify translation
strategies in translation products and the combination of strategies and techniques as
suggested by Baker (2018) to classify the strategies from the survey. Findings are
supported by the rationales of common decisions as to why translators use certain
strategies and techniques.
The results of translation strategies and techniques are shown through the
linguistic and cultural realisations of Islamic terms. The realisations of Islamic terms
from systemic functional linguistic perspectives identify the shifts of Islamic term
constituents within their experiential structures from Indonesian to English.
Meanwhile, cultural perspectives discover the use of Islamic term lexical choices as a
common feature of Islamic term cultural use. The evidence of cultural findings is
also supported by information regarding the impact of translator beliefs upon the role
of culture in the translation of Islamic terms.

1.6 Significance of the Study

The translation of Islamic terms plays significant parts to the academic life of
Indonesian scholars. The publications of Islamic journal articles worldwide have
paved ways to the production of Islamic term translations into English where it
becomes the focus of the present study. The present study has contributed to the
areas of translation, linguistics, and culture where Islamic terms are involved. These
three focus areas in Islamic term translation eventually become references for
Indonesian translators in translating Islamic academic texts.
Firstly, this study investigates the translation quality and strategies or
techniques in the field of translation. It is a crucial information for Indonesian
translation to find out their quality translation. Since the study involves three groups
of Indonesian translators – STs, TTs, and CTs, it is also important to discover each
translation quality level based on its statistical analysis. By recognising their
translation quality level, it reminds all Indonesian translators to continuously develop
their translation quality over time. Also, the suggested translation strategies and
techniques expounded in this study provide choices for translators to which strategy
and technique is most commonly used for certain Islamic terms in the Hadith study
in the Indonesian context.

6
 Secondly, it presents the experiential structures of the Islamic terms as the
focus of the linguistics phenomenon of the study. This provides information for
translators for the order of functions of every word that constitutes the Islamic term
representations in the target text. If disorderly word functions are found considering
that Indonesian word order is the opposite of English, this might mean that
Indonesian translators have not complied with the rules. Therefore, when it occurs,
this might give effects to target readers who would find it strange and difficult to
discern the meaning.

Lastly, this research is closely related to the cultural phenomenon of the

Islamic term translation. This study is prone to demonstrate whether Arabic or
Islamic culture has an effect to the choices of Islamic term representation in the
target text. When it occurs, its cultural influence can be evident from the realisations
of Islamic terms whether it does not change or it is culturally specific, or it changes
into the corresponding target word. The cultural influence can also be discovered
from the transliteration styles that the Indonesian translators use. A reference to the
use of Indonesian transliteration style in the target text is certainly a violation to the
transliteration rules of the target language. However, if this is the case, it can be said
that culture has played its role.

1.7 Structure of the Thesis

The thesis consists of 10 chapters, including introduction, literature review,

conceptual frameworks, research methodology, four findings chapters, discussions,
and conclusion.
Chapter 1 introduces the thesis by providing a background of the study. The
aims and scope of the study are defined based on the reasons why the study is
conducted within an Indonesian academic context. Following this, research questions
are formulated and the structures of the thesis are presented.

Chapter 2 provides a literature review of works related to the topic of the

study. It starts with the concepts of Islamic terms, followed by their linguistic and
cultural aspects. Contemporary findings from related previous studies are presented
and the problematic issues of Islamic term translation are discussed. Finally, there is
a discussion of Islamic term translation strategies.

7
 Chapter 3 presents the conceptual framework of the study. It starts by
introducing key concepts of translation studies, systemic functional linguistics, and
integrated concepts used in this study. It then shows how translation as intercultural
communication is used as the framework of the study.
Chapter 4 organises the research methodology. The discussion introduces the
research questions and research design. It then highlights the information about
participants, data collections and analysis.
Chapter 5 reports the translation quality of Islamic terms. The first finding
concerns the statistical analysis of the translation quality, followed by a discussion of
its qualitative translation quality. The second discussion is concerned with errors with
lexical meaning and experiential structures.
Chapter 6 deals with translation strategies and techniques. It firstly
differentiates translation strategy and technique from translation products. It then
continues to discuss the frequency degrees of translation strategy uses. The last
finding deals with the rationales of the strategies in translating Islamic terms.
Chapter 7 informs the findings of the linguistic realisations of Islamic terms.
It mainly discusses each nominal group (NG) constituent starting from Deictic,
Numerative, Classifier, Thing, Qualifier, and Focus. The possession of individual
constituents is discussed, followed by an exploration of the realisations of suggested
experiential structures and variants. The discussion concludes with the findings of
errors in constituent shifts that show non-equivalence of the functions.
Chapter 8 is concerned with cultural realisations. It reveals findings of the
target text cultural realisations, followed by the role of culture in Islamic term
translation discovered from the translation products and survey.
Chapter 9 discusses the entire findings chapters. It brings together the
important findings of Chapter 5, 6, 7, and 8 and relates these to current theories and
findings from previous related studies.

Chapter 10 is the concluding chapter. It begins by discussing the summary of

major findings from Chapter 5 to Chapter 8. The next discussion highlights the
implications of the study, followed by the study’s limitation and suggestions for
future studies. The research concludes with an emphasis on the significance of the
current research within the area of translation studies.

8
 Chapter 2. Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This chapter reviews the literature relevant to the topic of the study. It
introduces concepts of Islamic terms viewed from their linguistic and cultural
aspects. It further shows how Islamic terms are studied in relation to their translations
in the previous studies, and the problematic issues of Islamic term equivalence and
untranslatability. Islamic terms in relation to their translation strategies are also
explored to show how translators commonly do with Islamic term translation.

2.2 Concepts of Islamic Terms

Islamic terms are Arabic phrases or jargons that convey Islamic principles.
Because the phrases are related to the implicit message of Islam, it is difficult to
separate them from the conceptual context of the Arabic language, culture, and
Islamic religion. When derived from the Qur'an, Islamic phrases are also referred to
as Qur'anic words, while some refer to them as God's words. Because they maintain
delicate and holy topics, the so-called heavenly words are not just everyday Arabic.
However, this does not imply that Qur'anic words are distinct from Arabic words, as
Althawbih and Rabadi (2016, p. 33) argue, “Such phrases have special connotations
in the Qur'an and Sunnah,” which is what makes Islamic terms prominent in Islamic
religious discourse.
Islamic terms are also a source of contention in attempts to present them in
languages other than Arabic. Previously written in liturgical Arabic, Islamic phrases
are reformed into the Latin writing style by converting Arabic sounds to the target
language's equivalents or translating these into the closest target words. This is the
most difficult task for translators when it comes to Islamic phrase reformulation; they
must retain the religious meaning underlying the terminology.
Islamic words are lexical elements that convey Islamic messages from holy
texts such as the Qur'an, Hadith, and exegesis. The phrasing of those Islamic
allusions in other languages is inextricably linked to their Arabic counterparts. As a
result, their translation should be linked with Arabic, the original language, because

9
it is believed that human translation cannot modify God's words. Manuscripts in
languages other than Arabic are regarded as interpretations of the Qur'an rather than
translations. The goal of the Qur'anic interpretation in many languages is to convey
information in languages that can be understood. However, for some words whose
counterparts are not available in the target language because they refer to specific
Islamic concepts, the target language continues to use them, and in some cases, a
term description is provided for the first appearance of the Islamic term in the text to
help target readers understand what the term means.
The lexical representation of Islamic words differs between languages. They
are often used in the target language transliteration style for terms that do not have
comparable meanings in the target language and in the translated words for words
that have already had their target language substitutes. This study also discovers that
the transliteration style of Islamic words differs based on the customary agreement of
their language use that has formed in the target language context. Consistent
generalisation, according to Saad and Latiff (2018, p. 73), is impossible because “the
Islamic words mentioned from the Qur'an have various linguistic styles, rich
languages, distinct levels of layers, and complicated morphology.” A scarcity of
Islamic word dictionaries contributes to disparities in Islamic lexical representation.
As a result of the scarcity of Islamic word sources, each translator appears to employ
their preferred Islamic phrase.
As languages are embedded in culture (Khammyseh, 2015), Islamic words
encompass theological notions that are connected with Arabic culture, and more
specifically, Islamic culture. The research employs Newmark (1988) cultural
material phrase to refer to the Islamic words found in the Arabic setting. This
category of Islamic terminology generally describes words based on their association
with a certain cultural element, such as the phrases wuḍū and tayammum. According to
Althawbih and Rabadi (2016), both words are related to the identical activity in
Islamic culture of washing particular portions of the human body as ceremonial
cleansing before praying, yet utilising distinct modalities of washing with wuḍū
using water while tayammum using sand or dust. The former is recognised as
‘ablution' in the English context; however, the latter has no cultural equivalent
because it only appears in Arabic nations where water is limited.

10
 The formulation of Islamic words in other languages has given rise to the
question of Islamic term equivalences in the target language, which has a distinct
cultural history than Arabic. As the words' equivalents are few in the target language,
the employment of Islamic terminology in the target language transliteration style
becomes the most popular alternative. The transliteration style, in fact, reveals the
presence of source culture in the target culture, which may cause confusion among
target readers who are trying to grasp the meanings of the words.
Given the importance of Islamic terms in the Islamic religious discourse, this
study attempts to explore Islamic terms from their linguistic and cultural aspects.
According to Aladwan (2012), Islamic terminology viewed from linguistic and
cultural perspectives may aid comprehension of the broader Islamic discourse. The
research argues that culturally bound words, such as Islamic terms, should be
linguistically and culturally informed in target texts so that the intended meaning of
Islamic terms is not corrupted.

2.2.1 Linguistic Aspects of Islamic Terms

As the Islamic faith grows across the world, one of the primary concerns from a
language standpoint is to provide target readers with easy-to-understand
representations of Islamic words while maintaining their original meaning. This
study reveals that written forms of Islamic lexical items vary from one language to
the next, and concludes that this is due to the functional role of Islamic terms in a
sentence, different equivalent spelling systems, writing orthographic styles or
conventions, and the availability of similar meaning in the target language.
The Islamic phrase is generally made up of a single or compound word
(Althawbih & Rabadi, 2016). These come in a variety of word classes, however, the
majority are nouns or nominal groups. In other cases, Islamic words can be used as
verbs, such as the Indonesian term mentakwilkan for ‘to interpret.' The noun of the
Islamic phrase takwil is given the Indonesian affixes /men/ and /kan/, which turns it
into a verb. The role of the Islamic words in the phrase might reveal whether these
are a nominal group or a verb, as seen in the following example.

11
No 1 [Indonesian] Dia berwudu sebelum salat
[English] He is taking a wudu before praying

No 2 [Indonesian] Wudu harus dilakukan sebelum salat

[English] Wudu should be done before praying

In No 1, the word berwudu is recognised as a verb in Indonesian. It adds the

prefix /ber/ to denote the action of performing wudu, but in No 2, wudu acts as a
nominal group and works as the action's purpose. Based on this example, it may be
deduced that the Arabic term wudu is initially a nominal group, such as in Arabic
and English, however, in Indonesian, it can be a noun or a verb. This example also
shows that a word class shifts from Indonesian to English in the case of the term
wudu.
According to House (1997), meanings of words may be preserved through
three dimensions of meaning – semantic, pragmatic, and textual meaning. From the
denotation meaning, semantic meaning defines the meaning of Islamic words. The
literal features of the words provide the foundation for the meaning. After the initial
meaning is preserved, we must examine the word from a pragmatic standpoint, which
necessitates the recognisable meaning from the actual usage of Islamic words in
sentences. Pragmatically, meaning is the result of an interaction between constituents
of the sentences. Textual meaning is further examined to play the constituents of the
text or discourse. This asserts the identification of each role of the clause constituents,
for example, the participants, the processes, and the circumstances. The choices of
words with the Islamic terms, in this case, are taken as the specific registers of a
particular field or subject that may determine the ideational and interpersonal role of
the words in the overall textual discourse.
One Islamic term in the target languages can be realised into a variety of
lexical representations with different spellings to be equivalent to the sounds of the
Arabic term. In general, the closest local sounds of the target letters will replace the
Arabic sound of the Islamic terms. The standardisations of the sound equivalences
are generally based on conventions made by scholars in linguistics and related studies
in the national language board. The standardised reference generally becomes the
guidance for the language users in writing Islamic terms based on the standardised

12
Islamic term letters. According to Saleh (2004), one of the aims of the Islamic term
dictionary is to minimise the variety of Islamic term spellings that people use to
maintain the consistency of the same lexical letters of the Islamic terms.

Besides the fact that transliteration of an Islamic term in one target language
is already defined, individuals continue to produce non-standardised Islamic terms.
For example, the Arabic terms ‫ أذان‬for ‘call to prayer’ in English is transliterated into
aḏān, azan, athan, azaan, adhaan, and athaan using the Romanisation system
(Progler, 2014). According to the American corpus database (see american-
corpus.org), athan is the most frequently used variant by individuals in Western
societies to refer to ‘call to prayer’. According to the variations of adhan (Progler,
2014), the ‫ ذ‬in Arabic is transliterated variably into /dz/, /dh/, /th/, /z/, and /d/. In the
Indonesian context, /dz/ was originally used, but following standardisation, it has
become /z/ as in azan (Hudaa, 2019). The same phenomenon happens with the sound
‫ان‬, which can be transliterated into short or long /a/ depending on the language user
or national convention.
In different settings, the same Islamic words may be interpreted in different
transliterations (Hassan, 2017). The author posits that the sound of Islamic word
transliterations cannot be expected to be the same as the original. In the Indonesian
context, for example, the Arabic word majelis taklim is rendered with a different
transliteration from the original, /majlisut ta'liimi/ or majlis ta'lim ‘a study
group of Islamic women' (Mahfud et al., 2021). He adds that Islamic term
transliterations cannot be expected to be the same sounds as the original. In this
example, the sound /'/, which is pronounced as ‘ain, is transliterated into /k/ in
Indonesian, and because the sound is represented by a different letter, the
transliterated Islamic word becomes unrecognisable (Mahfud et al., 2021).
According to Aspinall and Sukmajati (2016, p. 146), majelis taklim is a modern
Indonesian term for a ‘Islamic religious organisation.' The names are derived from
Arabic, with majelis meaning ‘a place to sit’ and ta'lim meaning ‘instruction’. The
authors also contend that the word majelis taklim is unique to Indonesia because it is
known differently in other Muslim nations such as halaqah, zawiyah, and majelis al-
‘ilm, and majelis is spelt differently in Persian as majlis, mejlis, or majles.

Almahameed et al. (2017, p. 235) find three reasons for using transliteration
in the translation of travel literature from Arabic to English that is, “sometimes there

13
is no one-to-one correspondence; transliteration avoids the loss of meaning;
transliteration helps to find transculturation between cultures.” Al Saleem (2014,
p.413) sums up the use of transliteration in his study:

Transliteration is acceptable if it (i) makes use of a term, which is

known within the field of Islamic finance (such as murabahah) or (ii)
if the term used is clearly defined in the surrounding text (e.g., nisab).
Transliteration is not acceptable if the term is not generally known in
English in the field of Islamic finance, or if it is not defined in the
surrounding text.

However, there seems to be a convention whereby translators keep the

original Arabic terms because they consider them as Islamic terms. Althawbih and
Rabadi (2016) remind them that not all Arabic terms are Islamic terms. This means
that the Arabic word does not have any theological sense, for example, the word
dha’if in Hadith dha’if. The word dha’if is synonymous with ‘weak’ in the English
context. Therefore, for Western readers, ‘weak Hadith’ is easier to understand than
Hadith dha’if. However, with the increasing number of transliteration styles of the
Islamic terms, Juynboll (2001) reminds authors or translators that target readers
might consider that Islamic terms are all technical terms of specific Islamic Studies.
However, this is not the case. These are merely non-technical Arabic words that
people can exchange with similar target words without worrying that they might
replace the original meaning.
Islamic terms are also written in different orthographic styles. The variation
of orthographic style demonstrates people’s flexibility in the use of Islamic terms and
this is generally concerned with the conventional use of Islamic terms in a particular
context. The conventional use of the Islamic term orthographic styles indicates it is a
foreign word that is different from the host language. It could also show the author’s
intention to attract readers to a particular concept behind the term, as Islamic terms
commonly contain theological messages of Islam. Microsoft Word or other word
computer applications assist authors to present orthographic styles of Islamic terms
whether these are in italic, bold, parenthesis, or normal styles. Normal style, on the
other hand, seems to assume that Islamic terms have been assimilated into the target
language and, therefore, are treated the same as the host language. Whichever styles
are used, uniformity of styles is necessary to maintain the consistency of Islamic

14
terms throughout the text.

Islamic terms, in general, can be transliterated or translated. The cases of

translating Arabic terms from Arabic into English (Dweik & Shakra, 2011; Elshiekh
& Saleh, 2011; Hasan, 2016; Shayeb, 2016) and from Indonesian into English
(Farkhan, 2017; Purwanto, 2015) confirm the practices of transliteration and
translation of Islamic terms in both contexts. These studies seem to suggest that
translators likely tend to formulate Islamic terms into the forms of transliteration and
translation. Translated Islamic terms indicate that the translators change the terms by
their equivalent words or the description of the target words. On the other hand,
transliterated Islamic terms are a result of rendering similar Arabic sounds to the
target language sounds. According to Chebbo (2006, p. 81), “A transliteration key is,
therefore, required and provided at the beginning of the translation for the reader’s
convenience.” Therefore, this transliteration form denotes the preservation of the
source language words and is regarded as a foreign word in the target language
context.
There is a mixture of transliteration and translation of Islamic terms at the
practical level. Translators provide the Islamic term followed by its description in
brackets such as in Hadith (prophetic tradition) or Islamic terms, which are in
brackets such as prophetic tradition (Hadith). The word in brackets is usually
mentioned at the beginning of the text because, for the rest of the text, the word
Hadith or the prophetic tradition is used. The first example shows translators’
preference toward the Arabic terms while the second example is where there is a
preference to use target words rather than the transliteration form. Taibi and Qadi
(2016, p. 61) suggest that the absence of “parenthetical glosses or footnoted
definition” may preserve the strangeness of the terms because not all target readers
are familiar with them. On another occasion, some parts of the terms are translated
while others are transliterated. For example, Hadith dha’if becomes weak Hadith as
dha’if is equivalent to ‘weak’ in the English context. For the Indonesian context,
Islamic terms have even been combined with Indonesian affixes, for example, the
affix /pen/ is attached to the Islamic term dakwah and becomes pendakwah
‘preacher’.

The equivalency of the Islamic terms occurs as a result of the availability of

similar target references. Although there is no same thing in this world, both words

15
are considered similar if they have a similar reference, for example, ‘caliphate’ in
Arabic and ‘kingdom’ in English. To some extent, both words refer to a country, or
state, or territory ruled by a king or queen. In Arabic, a king is called a caliph.
Therefore, we can say that caliph is synonymous to ‘king’. On the other hand, when
one term does not have its specific reference in another language, the target language
commonly uses the original term to refer to the intended meaning. For example, the
word sajadah (praying mat) is not available in the Western context because
Westerners pray by sitting on a chair in church; while in Muslim countries like
Indonesia, the word sajadah is something that people use when they pray. Identified
for having a similar reference to sajadah, we can say that Indonesian and Arabic
share a similar framework of Islamic culture.

2.2.2 Cultural Aspects of Islamic Terms

The discussion of Islamic terms is situated among culture, language, and

religion (Mehawesh & Sadeq, 2014). Therefore, an understanding of Islamic terms
does not just embrace Islamic religion and Arabic language, but also Arabic or
Islamic culture. Aladwan (2012, p. 92), following the Halliday principle (Halliday,
1985), mentions that culture is the attachment of “meanings and values to what people
do on certain occasions.” He points out that meaning is bounded by the interaction
among people within a certain community. When such interaction does not exist in
other cultures, that meaning cannot be grasped because they have no specific
reference for it. However, when similar cultural references are found in other
cultures, this indicates cultural similarities, although we cannot say that both cultures
are the same, for example, as in the case of wudu in Arabic context and ‘ablution’ in
the Western context.

There are no specific references as to what culture is, as culture is a broad

concept (Doelle, 2013; Eller, 2016). However, in general, according to Eller (2016),
culture refers to three aspects – ideas and beliefs, a set of observable behaviours, and
material aspects (i.e., dress, food, etc.). Therefore, based on these above categories, it
implies that the search for the exact meaning of Islamic terms cannot be taken
literally but should be connected to their cultural aspects where the Western
community has no exposure to it. Both cultures – Arabic and English – have a wide
gap of cultural reference and their translation for this reason should consider its
16
reference to each culture. Considering that culture is a multifaceted concept, Faharani
and Mokhtari (2016) state that cultural words will consist of a variety of meanings.
This might suggest that when culture is discussed, Islamic terms can have multiple
meanings. The choice of the proper meaning will depend on its position or role in the
text context or culture (Matthiessen et al., 2010).

The Islamic term is originally taken from the Arabic context. However, not
all Arabic culture is immersed into Islamic culture, especially Arabic culture that is
irrelevant to the teaching of Islam, for example, raqs sharqi or the belly dance. Also,
in some Islamic beliefs, there is a different perception toward the use of the veil for
women that covers the head with only the face apparent. Arabic women even wear
the burqa to cover the whole body and protect their faces from hot weather and the
Arabian sand. However, for some Islamic groups, the burqa is considered part of
Islamic culture, and, therefore, Islamic women wear it even though they might not be
Arabic. These examples demonstrate that some cultures are Arabic while others are
Islamic.
Taibi and Qadi (2016, p. 61) suggest that Islamic terms should distinguish
between “culture-specific items and non-culture-specific lexical items”. The
differences must be considered since both terms call for different treatments from
authors or translators. The first category suggests that it only exists in one culture and,
therefore, cannot be found in other cultures, while the second category allows the
possibility of being universally translated into other cultures. The first category
should also differentiate between Islamic terms, such as culture-specific terms and
culture-specific concepts. The first refers to a concrete meaning, while the second
refers to the abstract meaning (Mehawesh & Sadeq, 2014).
According to AlGhamdi (2016, p. 79), the culture-specific term is said to be
‘material culture’ that is, less problematic for translators. Hijab, for example, is
translated into ‘head coverings’ or veil (Abdul- Raof, 2005). However, when it comes
to translating theological concepts, for example, God for Allah, there is a different
conception of God in Arabic compared to the Western community where God can be
plural, but not Allah. Islam is the teaching of monotheism, Tawheed, where God is
one and cannot be compared to other entities (Philips, 1994). Islamic terms in this
study fall into the second category, or mental material, as these contain Islamic
theological concepts behind the term.

17
 Given the consideration above, Arabic Islamic terms are considered as
“words that are not culturally equivalent” (Mahmoud, 2015). This asserts the
meaning that the formulation of Islamic terms in other cultures should be
underpinned by knowledge of Islamic culture. Therefore, non-Arab readers who are
not Muslim and do not understand the religion will still have an awareness of the
culture of Islam. Target readers who are non-Arab and Muslim – for example,
Indonesian Muslim – have the same Islamic references, so the existence of Islamic
terms in an Indonesian context will be different from Islamic term formulation in the
Western context where there is no exposure to it at all.

2.3 Islamic Terms in Several Islamic Studies

As people learn about various fields of Islamic study, they frequently

encounter Islamic terms based on the classification of each subject , such as Islamic
financial terms (Al Saleem, 2014), Islamic legal terms (Alwazna, 2013; Bostanji,
2010; El-Farahaty, 2015), Islamic Hadith terms (Al-Azzam, 2005; Juynboll, 2001),
Islamic Qur’anic terms (Al-Azzam, 2005; Ali et al., 2012; El-Khatib, 2006), etc.
Farkhan (2017) conducts a survey of Islamic terminology from 12 disciplines of
Islamic study in Indonesia (Language and literature, Dakwah, Economy and
business, Islamic jurisprudence, Law, Thoughts, Education, Banking and finance,
Politics and history, Hermeneutics, Sufism, and Miscellaneous). His poll reveals that
individuals are more engaged with Islamic terminology in Islamic jurisprudence than
in other disciplines of Islamic Studies.
The investigation of Islamic words in the various disciplines mentioned above
aims to determine the function of Islamic terms in the provided academic discourse
and how Islamic terms assist target readers in using Islamic terms correctly. Al
Saleem (2014) states that the translation of Islamic financial terminology into English
has become ambiguous, and that some utilise literal translation without providing
term information. The survey also finds there are a greater number of transliterations
of Islamic financial terminology. This highlights the fact that Islamic financial
terminology like mudarabah and sukuk are typically maintained and transliterated to
demonstrate that translators attempt to preserve Islamic financial ideas.

Juynboll (2001, p. 303) examines many Arabic technical terminologies used

18
in Hadith research. He discovers that several Hadith technical words used in Western
contexts are not equal to Arabic Hadith references, and “those technical terms were
not always used consistently or correctly.” In the Western setting, for example, the
notions of mutabi'at and tawatur are not present in Hadith guidebooks and
dictionaries, or even in the transliteration styles. These are the fundamental technical
terminologies used in Hadith science. Another phrase, maddr, which means ‘turning
point’, is not included in certain Muslim dictionaries or handbooks of Hadith
technical terminology. He also states that illegible technical terminology in Hadith
science might cause confusion among Hadith students.
Islamic legal words are not often immediately understood by Western law
academics since they are firmly associated with Islamic culture, which does not exist
in Anglo-Saxon legal vocabulary. As a result, legal document translators are more
likely to “use transliteration together with descriptive paraphrases and definitions to
represent the intended legal meaning of the word and generate the intended legal
impact thereof” (Alwazna, 2013, p. 905). In a legal context, he adds, "legal translators
seldom discover one-to-one connection when interpreting this specific word into
legal English" (Alwazna, 2013, p. 905). It assumes that whatever the phrase, it applies
if the case is as intended by the terms. For example, the term takhliya can refer to
two distinct things. First, it denotes “the permission of possession of an object for a
specified duration and price in the context of hire”; second, in the context of a sale, it
may denote “the permanent ownership of the sold item by the person who has made a
purchase thereof for a known price.” (Alwazna, 2013, p. 904). He further mentions
that “legal translators do not usually find one-to-one correspondence when rendering
this particular term into legal English” (Alwazna, 2013, p. 905). The precise meaning
will be returned to the legal case set in this situation.

The difficulty in translating Qur'anic terms into other languages stems from
“first, the style and expressions of the Qur’an and second, Qur’an is not a single book,
but an assembly of passages as a revelation from God” (Rahman, 1988, p. 24). Given
these realities, translating the Qur'anic into other languages is an interpretation rather
than a translation (Khalaf & Yusoff, 2012). As a result, the Qur'an is presented in
two languages: Arabic on the left and its target language on the right. When
individuals refer to the translation of a single word in the Qur'an, they can check it
straight from the original language.

19
 The term auliya ‘leader’ is a well-known example from the Qur'an that has
become a commodity for people's political agendas. Politicians often exploit auliya's
translation to encourage Muslim supporters to vote for the presidential candidate
based on their Islamic faith. However, linguistically, auliya is identical with a ‘close
friend,’ but it also has two additional meanings: ‘the protector’ and ‘the leader.’ This
example demonstrates that finding one-to-one comparable words is difficult but one
notion of an Islamic phrase may be supplied via people's interpretation since Qur'anic
Arabic is made up of metaphors, which are terms that are difficult to readily
understand. As the Qur'an is a bound text, Arabic understanding must be
supplemented with Islamic culture, as described in Hadith. Based on previous
research, Islamic words may be categorised according to the disciplines of Islamic
study. Their application in such schools of thought integrates some Islamic principles
into specific spheres of life. It is possible to translate or transliterate Islamic words
into other languages using translation or transliteration techniques. However, in other
situations, translation of Islamic terminology is not recommended since the words
are constrained by Islamic culture. As these do not exist in other cultures, the
persistence of Islamic lexical elements in other languages might be interpreted as
attempts to transmit messages to target readers for them to understand specific
Islamic conceptual themes.

2.4 Problematic Issues of Islamic Term Translation into English

Translating Islamic terminology is often a source of contention among

religious literature translators. The debate focuses on equivalence and
untranslatability, faithfulness, translation quality, and linguistic and cultural
realisations. Difficulties arise because of the inevitability of linguistic and cultural
disparities, particularly in the context of the sanctity of the words in the instance of
Indonesian to English translation.

Attempts to provide Islamic terminology in languages other than Arabic

prove difficult. According to Aldebyan's (2008) research, translating Arabic words
into English is significantly more difficult than translating English terms into Arabic.
Translators are frequently confronted with the unavailability of suitable counterparts
of Islamic words in the English context, which prevents the target audience from

20
comprehending the terms (Althawbih & Rabadi, 2016). The lexically missing Arabic
terms or concepts in the English context are caused by the vast cultural differences
between Arabic and English (Dweik & Shakra, 2010). It is believed that the
intercultural vocabulary gaps between the two languages impede the successful
transmission of Islamic terminology to worldwide audiences (El-Zeiny, 2017).
The issue of defining Islamic terminology also arises in an Indonesian setting.
Translation of Islamic terms in an Indonesian context is unique, because, unlike most
translations of Islamic terms, which involve two working languages from Arabic to
other languages, the translation of Islamic terms in the Indonesian context involves
three languages – Arabic, Indonesian, and English. This is illustrated as translation
takes place in Indonesian writings that contain Islamic words into English. In this
case, the Islamic words are translated indirectly, which, according to Gutt (2005),
creates a new difficulty due to insufficient information provided by the Arabic term
in its original language. The present situation is exacerbated by the Indonesian
translators' lack of Arabic understanding, as their primary pair of linguistic
competence is Indonesian-English. Arabic becomes the language that most
Indonesian Muslims can read, since they generally read the Qur'an, but they do not
comprehend Arabic as required for conversation.

2.4.1 Equivalence of Islamic Terms

The idea of equivalency is key to any translation process since it examines the
existence of resemblance or approximation between the source and the target texts.
However, even if a comparable idea of equivalence can be extracted, it still allows
the opportunity for semantic distinctions (Van Wyke, 2013), particularly with regard
to cultural terminology of Islam. Islamic words are derived from Islamic religious
writings – the Qur'an, Hadith, and their exegesis – which rarely have equivalent
meanings in other languages. For example, the Arabic word zakat cannot be regarded
as equal to the widely used translated phrases ‘alms’ or ‘charity’ since it refers to
required charity, as defined by Islamic law. Furthermore, the phrases ‘banned' and
‘allowed' in English appear to be used as equivalents to haram and halal in Arabic;
nevertheless, the definitions are incomplete without specifying what is permissible
and prohibited under Islamic law (Alhumaid, 2015). This type of equivalency
problem is thus invariably encountered by translators and merits additional

21
investigation in the Indonesian context.

According to Baker (2018), when translation fails to convey the exact

meaning of the original text, pragmatic equivalence can be utilised to assess meaning
in its socio-cultural context. This implies that cultural equivalency may be preserved
with a comparable meaning in the target text, making it seem more natural and
simpler to comprehend. However, if specific terms are non-equivalent for their
theological senses, this cultural equivalence is said to be harmful to the source text.
This means that the words are untranslatable and must be preserved in their original
form, as found in most religious writings, including Christianity (Long, 2013),
Buddhism (Crosby, 2005), traditional Hindu literature (Johnson, 2005), and Qur'anic
texts (Abdul-Raof, 2005). These translation works reinforce the argument that
religious writings are untranslatable.
Islamic concepts can be expressed in both comparable and non-equivalent
language. However, there is a point in the middle where Islamic terminology might
be somewhat equal. As a result, its translation cannot fully convey the intended
meaning of Islamic words. To express Islamic terminology in other languages,
equivalent words are translated since comparable meanings between two words may
be preserved, but non-equivalent words are transliterated to show the absence of
meaning in the target language. Hassan (2016, p. 128) describes the relationship
between non- equivalence/equivalence and translation/transliteration as follows.

Source language words

Equivalence Translation

Source language words

Non-equivalence Transliteration

Figure 2. 1 The relationship between non-equivalence/equivalence and

translation/transliteration

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 2.4.2 Untranslatability of Islamic Terms

The idea of culture-specific ST being untranslatable remains controversial.

The term "untranslatability" refers to the situation in which a one-to-one counterpart
does not exist in the culture of the target language. Theoretically, when there is a
considerable cultural gap between a source and destination language, the degree of
untranslatability increases, implying that the culture-specific signals encoded in the
ST cannot be translated. The idea of untranslatability is split into two categories in its
implementation: linguistic and cultural untranslatability (Catford, 1965). Linguistic
untranslatability arises when no lexical or syntactical alternative is discovered, but
cultural untranslatability refers to the lack of the target culture toward a certain
reference (Cui, 2012). Ping (1999) concludes that this untranslatability stems from
the message's ambiguous meanings.
As a result, culturally bound words, such as religious terms, are difficult to
translate. Debate continues as to whether the writings are translatable or not. The
debate is easily perceived from two opposing points of view. Kirk (2005, p. 65)
contends that cultural expressions' terms can be translated if "context-specific
meanings are accepted by the target audience." Crosby (2005), on the other hand,
argues that the restricted vocabulary of certain linguistic peculiarities in the target
language is the element that renders the terms untranslatable. The disagreement
regarding the translatability of Islamic terminology appears to be the result of uneven
usage of the Islamic term translation (Shayeb, 2016). Thus, while interpreting Islamic
notions, the terms translatability and equivalence intertwine to play out their basic
meanings. According to Dai (2015), this is due to “the existence of linguistic and
cultural disparities between the source text and the target text that affects the
untranslatability of specific linguistic and cultural issues.” With this in mind, the
translator is to examine not just the two languages, but also the cultures, in order to
identify concepts that may not be available in the target language (Mehawesh &
Sadeq, 2014).

23
 2.5 The Translation Strategy and Technique of Islamic Terms

Translation strategy and technique are concerned with the methods used by
translators to realise the lexical representation of Islamic words in the target
language. The selection of a certain translation approach demonstrates translators'
distinct decisions, which represent their theoretical and practical perspectives on
Islamic term translation. This study seeks to discover the general approach that
Indonesian translators often employ to translate Islamic words in the Indonesian
context, informed by their experiences in translating Islamic terms and triangulated
with their translation outputs. The chosen translation technique may also demonstrate
the mandated Indonesian translators' ways for dealing with the translation of Islamic
terms from Indonesian into English.
In general, Islamic term translation strategy and technique are discussed in
relation to the process of transliteration and translation into other languages. These
basic techniques are frequently employed in the situation of culturally bound terms.
It is a difficult decision for translators to select between translation and
transliteration. According to Elshiekh and Saleh (2011), translators must choose
between conserving the original language and replacing it with more legible and
understandable target texts, as in the instance of transliteration vs translation of
religious words. To help with comprehension of Islamic terminology, Alhumaid
(2015) advises clarifying the loanword to overcome comprehension gaps caused by
translation or transliteration techniques. This finding emphasises that giving lexical
item equivalency – which can only communicate approximate meanings – is
insufficient; they must also be described. Translation academics have proposed
methods for translating culturally constrained terms.
The research gathered translation approaches that may be used to translate
culturally unique materials from Newmark (1981, 1988), Vinay and Darbelnet
(1995), Molina and Albir (2002) and Baker (2018). These translation techniques or
procedures attempt to develop appropriate culturally bound terms in the target
language. Molina and Albir (2002) summarise their list of translation techniques
from Newmark (1988) and Vinay and Darbelnet (1995), but Baker (2018) provides a
list of translation techniques that include the basic translation strategy as opposed to
other translation strategy or technique classification.

24
 To cope with culturally unique elements, Newmark (1988) offers various
translation approaches. Transcription (transfer, loanwords, adaptation), literal
translation, naturalisation, cultural equivalent, functional equivalent, descriptive
equivalent, synonymy, through translation (loan translation), transposition (shift),
modulation, recognised translation, translation labels, paraphrase, reduction and
expansion, couplets and triplets, and notes, addition, and glosses are some examples.
These translation approaches or procedures try to develop the appropriate culturally
bound terms in the target language. In contrast to Newmark (1988), Vinay and
Darbelnet (1995) offer two techniques for literal and oblique translation in a
condensed version. Borrowing, calque, and literal translation are examples of literal
translation methods, whereas transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation
are examples of oblique translation procedures.
In a shorter version than Newmark (1988), Vinay and Darbelnet (1995)
provide two procedures for literal translation and oblique translation. The literal
translation procedures can be conducted through borrowing, calque, and literal
translation while the oblique translation procedures can be achieved through
transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation. Based on Newmark (1988)
and Vinay and Darbelnet (1995), Molina and Albir (2002) identify 18 translation
techniques as adaptation, amplification, borrowing, calque, compensation,
description, discursive creation, established equivalent, generalisation, linguistic
amplification, linguistic compression, literal translation, modulation,
particularisation, reduction, substitution, transposition, and variation.
Given commonalities among translation techniques discussed above, Baker's
(2018) translation strategy is used in which it encompasses all the preceding
translation strategies. She offers the following eight techniques for translating
culturally unique elements (Baker, 2018, pp. 25-45): (1) Translation by a more
general word; (2) Translation by a more neutral/expressive word; (3) Translation by
cultural substitution; (4) Translation using a loanword or loanword plus explanation;
(5) Translation by paraphrase using a related word; (6) Translation by paraphrase
using an unrelated word; (7) Translation by omission, and (8) Translation by
illustration. This study reduces these eight translation strategies into six strategies by
excluding strategies translation by a more neutral/expressive word and translation by
paraphrase using an unrelated word and by looking at common similarities with other

25
translation strategy frameworks by Newmark (1981, 1988), Vinay and Darbelnet
(1995), and Molina and Albir (2002).
Farkhan (2017) documents the techniques of Islamic phrase translation in the
abstracts of many disciplines of Islamic research in the Indonesian setting. He
compiles a list of seven techniques employed by Indonesian translators: preservation,
addition, omission, globalisation, localisation, transformation, and invention. He
discovers that the preservation approach is the most frequently utilised translation
technique among Indonesian translators in the Indonesian academic setting,
accounting for 90% of all translation strategies. Yulianita (2017) finds from her
research that in the Indonesian setting, pure borrowing and naturalistic borrowing
techniques dominate the translation of Islamic terminology. The first method
employs Arabic words directly in an Indonesian context, whereas the second
modifies the spellings of Arabic letter sounds.
To provide examples of some of the translation strategies above, Gazalah
cited in (AlGhamdi, 2016, p. 80) uses the following procedures (1) Literal translation:
= the Book, Scripture; (2) Direct equivalent + one explanatory word/phrase:
= fasting in the month of Ramadan; (3) Direct equivalent: = fasting, =
prayer; (4) Literal translation with explanation: = circumambulation around
the Ka’bah; (5) Explanation: = a compulsory charity to be delivered by every
Muslim towards the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting, and; (6) Transliteration
with explanation: = Ka’bah: the House of Allah and the direction of prayers.
In Indonesian literature, Islamic terms are written in transliteration of Arabic
words. This translation of Arabic terminology denounces certain notions of Islamic
messaging, and so their existence is clearly recognised as borrowing words since it is
lexically distinct from Indonesian words. However, the study finds that the attempt to
translate Indonesian texts into English creates a challenge due to the inconsistency of
Islamic terminology, which also occurs in the Arabic context (Kashgary, 2011) and
the Iranian context (Jahanshahi & Kafipour, 2015). From one translation to the next,
it appears that diverse interpretations of Islamic words are provided, and
consequently, the study discovers that the Islamic terms are transliterated differently,
and some are translated. Indeed, given the two options available, Althawbih and
Rabadi (2016) state that it is difficult for translators of Islamic terminology to decide
whether to maintain the transliteration style or to transform it into new words in the
target language.

26
 2.6 Research Gaps

The research gaps in the literature are identified for the current study in this
section. Among the published research within the translation area in the Indonesian
context (see 1.3), different sources of translation have been located such as novels
(Mahmud et al., 2018; Pudjiati & Ernawati, 2016), abstracts (Aminuddin et al., 2020;
Woodward, 1993), research papers (Farkhan, 2017), and Indonesian bulletins
(Suriadi, 2017). However, similarities of those published projects to the current
research can be taken. Most of the research were conducted from Indonesian to
English by Indonesian translators. They were concerned with the Islamic terms
although they were not quite specific to that of Islamic terms being investigated in
the present study. Most commonly, the research attempts to explore the mismatch of
Islamic term translation from Indonesian context to English.

Of relevant research in the field, three projects have been observed to have
shared similar academic context to the present study. However, differences can be
made to show the gap that exists in this research.

First, the present research took a small part of a larger academic text as
conducted in Farkhan (2017) and Woodward (1993). This present study is concerned
with an abstract in Hadith Studies that makes it different from the other research.

Second, the current research used a translation strategy framework from

Venuti (2018) that is further developed into the use of two translation strategy and
technique combination analysis from Newmark (1988) and Baker (2018). On the
other hand, Farkhan (2017) only relied on one of them. Both strategies in translating
Islamic terms are believed to be more comprehensive than singular reference.

Third, this research specifies on Islamic terms in Hadith Studies. Although it

seems to share a similar investigation on Islamic terms as studied by Woodward
(1993), however, different research focus is discovered. Woodward (1993) analysed
the terms matan and sanad to indicate the validity of a number of Hadith. This
appears to suggest that Woodward (1993) studied matan and sanad as a means of
understanding the Hadith validity, not the study about the jargons as developed in the
current investigation. Besides that, the current investigation includes 24 Islamic
terms, more than the numbers of Islamic terms in other research.

Fourth, the present research has a wider scope of research that includes

27
linguistics, culture, strategy, and quality of Islamic term translation. One of the
research findings has been published in Aminuddin et al. (2020). This research
article only takes a small part of translation strategies and techniques since it is
mainly concerned with the ways the Islamic terms are written, whether it is
translation or transliteration.

Fifth, this present study uses SFL approach to explore the linguistic
realisations of Islamic terms. The approach demonstrates the experiential structures
of Islamic terms to be similar or different from the source text. Using SFL approach
in nominal group of Islamic terms has rarely been used in the previous research.
Therefore, the use of SFL approach in this study may contribute to the Islamic term
translation quality.

Sixth, using translation as intercultural communication framework from

House (2001) has been used in a number of translation research, but none has so far
been discovered to have employed in the area of Islamic term translation quality.
Seventh, with similar framework, this present research explores the realisations of
Islamic terms from the culture point of views. It is important to make sure that the
translators are informed with sound justification from the Arabic culture when
translating certain Islamic terms (Khammyseh, 2015). This further suggests that
when the cultural concept is not present in the target text, for example to the case of
wudu and tayammum (Althawbih and Rabadi, 2016), therefore, leaving the Islamic
terms as original is the best option. This cultural analysis to the Islamic terms in
Hadith Studies has rarely been investigated. Therefore, such a cultural analysis is
strongly suggested to explore the conclusiveness of the Islamic term translation.

2.7 Summary
To summarise the entire linked literature studies, the attempt is to
demonstrate that translation of Islamic words, as an example of culture-specific
references, must be performed with care. Consequently, lexical representation of
Islamic terminology in a Western context from Indonesian should be contextually
appropriate with its original language without ignoring the theological principles
behind the phrases. Translators must consider Islamic terminology differently from
other generic words. Their techniques for translating Islamic terminology into other
languages hold repercussions for people's understanding of their religious views.

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 Chapter 3. Conceptual Framework

3.1 Introduction

This chapter explores the conceptual framework of the study comprising the
relevant theories and key concepts to describe the translation of Islamic terms into
English in the Indonesian context. As the previous chapter discusses the literature
review about Islamic terms and their related concepts used in the context of Indonesia
and the West, this present chapter specifically informs the translation of Islamic terms
by revisiting the key concepts in translation studies, Systemic Functional Linguistics
(SFL) application in translation, and translation as intercultural communication.
These three theories are integrated into the conceptual framework developed by
House (2001) popularly known as translation as Intercultural Communication.

3.2 Key Concepts

This subsection explains the two main concepts of translation and SFL and
generates several key concepts under each main concept. It also further clarifies the
third concept that integrates translation and SFL concepts. The clarification of the
key concepts provides theoretical background reference to the overall conduct of the
research. Of the total relevant sub-key concepts, the study does not include all key
concepts in SFL but discusses ideational meaning instead. This study is concerned
with the experiential structure of the Islamic term nominal group.
The study employs related translation concepts such as translation
equivalence, shift and strategy while Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) utilises
meaning metafunctions (ideational, experiential, and textual) of the text. The relevant
key concepts arising from the two concepts include untranslatability, cultural
translation, and translation quality. These key concepts are employed to explore the
research findings of Islamic term translation in the Indonesian academic context. The
following figure illustrates the interrelated key concepts of the study.

29
Figure 3. 1 Interrelated key concepts in the present study

3.3 Translation Concepts

The study discusses three key concepts of translation. It informs the relevant
theoretical basis to explore the data related to these three key translation concepts.
First, translation equivalence is a basic concept in House’s framework (House,
2001). The equivalence translation used in this study designates Islamic terms in the
Indonesian text to its correspondence in English. Second, the key concept that
naturally occurs in acquiring equivalence in meaning is translation shifts. In doing
their jobs, translators commonly make some adjustments to grammatical constituents
of, for example, nominal group of Islamic terms to fit in the target context. Lastly,
during the translation process, translators use certain strategies in coping with
translation problems. The translation strategies would appear to be differently
realised depending on the case problem that the translators are facing. All of these key
concepts in translation – translation equivalence, untranslatability, translation
strategy, are further elaborated on in the next section.

30
 3.3.1 Translation Equivalence

The concept of equivalence is fundamentally important in translation studies

as reflected in the translation definition by Catford (1965) and Nida and Taber
(1982). Catford (1965, p. 20) defines translation as “the replacement of one
language’s textual material and their equivalent in another” and Nida and Taber
(1982, p. 12) mention that translation is a matter of “reproducing in the receptor
language the closest natural equivalence of the source language message, first in
terms of meaning and secondly, in terms of style.” It appears that while Catford
(1965) adheres to translation “equivalent”, Nida and Taber (1982) claim “the closest
natural equivalence”. Thus, from the two definitions above, it is possible that
equivalents are available for some words that are not culture-specific or general to a
source culture and a target culture but may not be available for others that are culture-
specific. In this way, the way is paved for Islamic terms that are culture-specific.
As Islamic terms are culture-specific, their realisation in the target context
would appear to be less specific because similar cultural concepts might not be
available. In other words, the equivalence or the closest natural equivalence can
rarely be obtained. However, their translation might be possible when the two
contexts have similar cultural conceptions, although it may not completely reflect
the intended meaning of the source culture. The wide gap between the two cultures
in search of Islamic term equivalence is arguably the hurdle in non-Arabic contexts
(Hassan, 2016), and this endeavour becomes more challenging.

Van Wyke (2013) confirms that the perplexing situation of similarity or

approximation between the source text and the target text lies in semantic differences
of both texts, especially in the case of Islamic terms as cultural words. Islamic terms
themselves may include specialised terms in religious texts and specific terms taken
from the religious texts of Islam – Qur’an, Hadith or its exegeses – which barely have
similar meanings in other languages, let alone English (Abuelma'Atti, 2005). The
present study dominates the former rather than the latter since the text is not a
religious text, but contains specialised terms used in the academic context in Hadith
Studies. Alhumaid (2015) illustrates this in the case of the Arabic word zakat,
which cannot be considered equivalent to commonly used translated terms ‘alms’
or ‘charity’, because it has a sense of an obligatory charity, as intended by Islamic

31
rules. Also, the words ‘prohibited’ and ‘permissible’ in English seem to be used as
equivalent to ‘haram’ and ‘halal’ in Arabic. Literally speaking, their meanings
might be similar, but for Arabic words haram and halal, they are related to objects
that the terms refer to, for example, ‘haram’ for alcohol or pork, while halal for
anything that is permissible by Islamic laws. This example suggests that both
haram and halal are culturally or religiously attached while their English
counterparts are not.
The illustration of Islamic term translation above seems to suggest that
Islamic term meaning is considered incomplete because the equivalence of similar
concepts is not available in the target text. Consequently, the use of literal
correspondence as the translation of those Islamic terms does not suffice in
presenting the cultural or religious concepts of the terms. In this particular case,
Baker (2018) proposes that one can determine meaning in its socio-cultural context.
This might suggest that the translator should know how Islamic terms are used by
people in the source context so that they can determine similar cultural words that
show similar functions in the target context. For example, ‘ablution’ for ‘wudu’ is
an example of cultural substitution that refers to the specific rituals or practices in
Christianity and Islam where parts of the body should be washed before the rituals
start (see 2.2). Although differences in washing procedures are found between the
two religious terms as Burton (1988) argues, both terms share similar functions in
each religious context.
However, equivalence cannot always be taken as readily available in the
target context, and even when found, Baker (2018) states that many differences can
still be discovered within the similarities of equivalences between them, as shown
through the examples of ‘alms’ for zakat, ‘permissible’ for halal, or ‘prohibited’ for
haram (see Alhumaid, 2015). Nida (1964, p. 156) remarks that “there is no absolute
correspondence between languages” might describe this equivalence similarity in
translation. This indicates that although one specific concept might be substituted
with a similar concept in another culture, it does not mean that it is 100% equivalent
as Chidiac (1994) suggests. The incompatibility of translation equivalence occurs
due to the specific cultural concept that is hardly available in other contexts. When
this is the case, Baker (2018) suggests that it resorts to seeing the problem in terms
of its use in its socio-cultural context to retrieve the availability of a similar
function of its equivalence in the target context.

32
 Besides translation equivalence by its similar cultural concept, the opposite
can be achieved by changing cultural concepts into target words, which sound more
natural and easier to understand in the target context. Of course, this aims to adapt to
target reader orientation (Bassnett, 2014), which fulfils the text familiarity expected
by target readers. Although this might not be equal in terms of the concept, this
equivalent orientation meets the goal of any translation task in terms of
communication purposes (Nord, 2005). Either the first or the second equivalence
orientation becomes the option that translators choose. In Nida’s (1964) concept, the
former is called “formal equivalence” and the latter is “dynamic equivalence.”
Formal equivalence confirms its faithfulness to the source language form and content
while dynamic equivalence focuses on communication with target readers over
fidelity to the source language. In line with this, this study, therefore, explores whether
Indonesian translators prefer the former to the latter or vice versa for Islamic term
translation from Indonesian into English.
Equivalence in translation can occur at various levels. According to Baker
(2018), translation equivalence can be performed at the word level, above word level,
grammatical equivalence, textual equivalence, and pragmatic equivalence. Most
commonly, correspondence occurs at word per word meaning while above word level
it can be a combination of words or phrases. Grammatical equivalence informs the
similarity of the source text to the target text structure and textual equivalence refers
to the equivalency of text types. The last, pragmatic equivalence is examined through
the effect of the target text on target readers. Ideally, these equivalences at all levels
should be considered. In the case of Islamic terms, the study seeks the equivalency at
the word level for most of the analysis. However, some Islamic terms are viewed from
above word level because these appear in phrases such as manasik al hajj, arkaan al-
umrah, ifraad hajj, hajj mabruur, etc. (Shayeb, 2016).

3.3.2 Untranslatability

The concept of untranslatability of the culture-specific source text remains

problematic since it prevents translators from achieving the equivalence of the text.
The untranslatability concept refers to the condition where a one-to-one equivalent is
not available in the culture of the target language. Theoretically, when the cultural
distance is considerable between a source and target language, then the degree of

33
untranslatability is much higher. This means that culture-specific messages
embedded in the ST cannot be fully translated. However, it is necessary to emphasise
that the term untranslatability does not mean that a term cannot be translated at all
but rather that, as long as the meaning is concerned, it is possible to provide the
presentation of cultural words in the target text (Hatim & Munday, 2019). The
authors also remind the translators that the term untranslatability refers to the
unavailability of linguistic structure (grammar, vocabulary, etc.), not the meaning.
This may indicate that the absence of the corresponding word in the target text does
not necessarily stop the translator from coming up with target words, if the meaning
is involved.
Untranslatability, as Hatim and Munday (2019) explain above reiterates
Catford’s untranslatability classification. In its realisation, the untranslatability
concept is divided into two types - linguistic and cultural untranslatability (Catford,
1965). Linguistic untranslatability occurs when a lexical or syntactical substitute is
not found whereas culture untranslatability refers to the absence of target culture
toward specific reference (Cui, 2012). For example, hajj and umrah are two concepts
in Islam that are partially available in the Western context and refer to ‘pilgrimage’
in the West. However, this linguistic choice cannot distinguish one from another since
the two concepts refer to two different procedures of the pilgrimage. The umrah is a
short version of hajj and, therefore, is often called a small hajj or small pilgrimage
(Shayeb, 2016). The case of umrah, therefore, illustrates the linguistic and cultural
untranslatability, as Catford (1965) proposes where its corresponding word and such
a cultural and religious reference is not available in the target context.
That culturally bound words such as religious words are difficult to translate
in fact challenges translators whether the texts are translatable or untranslatable. The
debate is easily seen from two opposing perspectives. Kirk (2005, p. 65) argues that
the words of cultural expressions are translatable if “context specific meanings are
understood by the target audience.” Meanwhile, Crosby (2005) believes that limited
vocabulary of specific language idiosyncrasies in the target language becomes the
factor that makes the words untranslatable. From the umrah case which is culturally
and linguistically unavailable in the English language and culture, the addition of the
word ‘small’ to ‘pilgrimage’ as the translation of umrah makes it a specific case
different from hajj ‘pilgrimage’ (Gawthrop, 2020). In other contexts, translators
preserve the original term in the transliteration style for non-Arabic speakers to easily

34
recognise the sounds of the word in their phonological system as Shayeb (2016)
acknowledges. To translate or to preserve particular Islamic terms are choices made
by translators that often result in their inconsistent use of Islamic term translation
(Aminuddin et al., 2020; Shayeb, 2016).

3.3.3 Translation Strategies

Translation strategy can easily be identified through the changing form of

lexis and grammar. However, when it deals with the socio-cultural information, for
example Islamic terms, it poses more challenges to identify translation strategy from
the text’s cultural associations. This latter issue implies that meaning transmission of
Islamic terms is bounded with the specific culture of Islam and Arabic, and this
requires certain strategies to arrive at their proper translations in the target text
without reducing the meaning of the source text (Sabry, 2013). The author further
elaborates, saying that sensitive concepts make transferred religious meaning
different from general ones. If the specific meaning reference cannot be
accomplished, Akan et al. (2019) remind translators that target readers could be
misled in interpreting the message.
Besides the use of ‘strategy’, the study also uses the term ‘technique’ to refer
to the ways of translating the proper meaning of Islamic terms from Indonesian to
English or in Bardaji’s terms, these are known as translation process operators
(Bardaji, 2009). Besides strategy and technique, other terms also work within the
same function as the operators in the translation process such as methods, procedures,
tactics, etc. From these terms, strategy is commonly paired with tactics (Gambier,
2010) while methods are combined with procedures (Newmark, 1988). To compare
the two pairs of terms above, Sabry (2013) concludes that strategy works at the same
level as methods while tactics is similar to procedures.

Meanwhile, the term ‘techniques’ operates at the same level as procedures or

tactics (Molina & Albir, 2002). Using Newmark’s (1988) terms, the study concludes
that strategy and methods operate at the macro level while tactics, procedures and
techniques at the micro level. Therefore, when the reader-oriented approach, for
example, uses the domestication and foreignisation strategy, the specific measure
used to reflect the strategy is a technique. This simple illustration of both terms is

35
also reflected, for example, from Vinay and Darbelnet’s (1995) translation strategy
and technique classification. The authors claim domestication as a strategy with
transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation as relevant techniques.
They also claim foreignisation as another strategy with borrowing, calque, and
literal translation as associated techniques.
Strategy and techniques are distinctly depicted as general or abstract versus
specific or concrete (Kiraly, 1995). The general idea of strategy refers to planned
concepts to meet certain goals of translation while ‘specific’ describes techniques to
details of actions of solving a specific problem (Gambier, 2010). Krings (1986,
p.175) defines the strategy as “a translator’s potentially conscious plans for solving
concrete translation problems in the framework of a concrete translation task.” This
definition shows that whenever there is a translation problem, a strategy is needed.
Molina and Albir (2002) define translation techniques as “procedures to
analyse and classify how translation equivalence works”. This clearly indicates that
translation techniques perform as a set of action sequences to produce the
equivalence of translation. Both definitions confirm that strategy is a superordinate
of technique. This means several techniques may be generated from one strategy, and
from one technique to another, commonly sharing similarities of actions to solve
different translation problems.
The main problem, which translators always encounter when translating
cultural words – in this case, Islamic terms – is whether the translations are faithful
in preserving the source text images and references or substituting them with target
words. These two poles of texts can be reflected through foreignisation and
domestication strategy proposed by (Venuti, 2018). The study uses the translation
strategy concept from Venuti since it is relevant in describing translators’ behaviours
in translating Islamic terms. Previous translation studies have accommodated the
foreignisation and domestication strategies of Islamic term translation in an
Indonesian context into English or vice versa (Aminuddin et al., 2020; Farkhan,
2017; Suriadi, 2017; Usman, 2013). To date, these show that both strategies generally
appear to be used with strong likely realisation of foreignisation than domestication.
In the case of individual Islamic terms, research conducted by Aminuddin et al.
(2020) indicates that both foreignisation and domestication are variably realised from
one Islamic term to another.

36
 Different from individual Islamic terms, Islamic terms in phrases do not
always appear in foreignisation or domestication strategy only for both words,
however, they may appear in their strategy combination at the same time. This
indicates that one Islamic term might have its translation while another might not, as
seen from an example of the term Arkaan al umrah translated as ‘the rites of umrah’
(Shayeb, 2016). This example shows that the terms use the combination of both
foreignisation (umrah) and domestication (the rites). Having similar cases of Islamic
terms, therefore, this modification strategy is also employed in the present study.
Other modifications to foreignisation and domestication strategy are also
proposed by Pedersen (2005) and Lederer (2010). Pedersen (2005) generates the
third strategy to cover the case where the word does not belong to either
foreignisation or domestication as addition and omission. Meanwhile, since
foreignisation and domestication are concerned with linguistic forms, Lederer (2010)
suggests a clarification strategy that accounts for search for meaning rather than
linguistic forms. He illustrates that this strategy is to “get away from the surface
structure of the source text, to arrive at the intended meaning and avoid unwanted
formal interference” (Lederer, 2010, p. 177). Sabry (2013) adds while foreignisation
realises the source text culture, domestication and clarification strategy appear as the
opposite.
More modifications to foreignisation and domestication strategy are also
shown through the taxonomy of translation strategy by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995)
and Judickaitė (2009). Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) describe domestication into four
techniques (i.e., transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation) and
foreignisation into three techniques (i.e., borrowing, calque, and literal translation).
Additionally, Judickaitė (2009) proposes four foreignisation strategies (i.e.,
preservation, addition, naturalisation, and literal translation) and five domestication
strategies (i.e., cultural equivalence, omission, globalisation, creation, and
equivalence).

Those two modifications of Venuti’s foreignisation and domestication

strategies appear to have similarities but with different labels, for example, cultural
equivalence for adaptation, calque for naturalisation, preservation for borrowing,
globalisation for modulation. Some of the terms are newly inserted into the taxonomy
such as creation, addition, and omission. The modification of Venuti’s strategies

37
indicates that the development of foreignisation and domestication has taken place
and continues to develop. Based on an independent discovery concept that develops
foreignisation and domestication strategy (Venuti, 2018), therefore, translators or
translation scholars may create their own criteria and classify these based on
foreignisation and domestication strategy and techniques (Munday, 2009).
Although differences between strategy and techniques are mentioned above,
translator scholars remain in disagreement concerning terminological and conceptual
issues (Molina & Albir, 2002). Different labels, as illustrated in the translation
strategy taxonomy by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) and Judickaitė (2009), overlap
from one label to another. No consensus has yet been reached regarding the names of
the labels ‘strategies, techniques, procedures’. For example, ‘is omission a strategy, a
technique or a procedure?’ Having reviewed the differences, Molina and Albir (2002,
p. 509) propose translation techniques rather than strategies or procedures on the
basis of the following characteristics:
1) They affect the result of the translation
2) They are classified by comparison with the original
3) They affect micro-units of text
4) They are by nature discursive and contextual
5) They are functional (p. 509)

Molina and Albir (2002, p. 509) also predict that new techniques might
potentially be generated in the future. The authors subsequently establish one of the
criteria for their technique classification “to formulate new techniques to explain
mechanisms that have not yet been described.” For this reason, this present study
agrees to name techniques rather than strategies or procedures as Molina and Albir
(2002) suggest above. When there are several detail translation operators that run
within the same strategy, the researcher prefers to refer to these as translation
techniques.

The study, therefore, employs three translation strategies: foreignisation,

domestication, integrated strategies, and several detailed techniques within each
translation strategy. In more detail, based on the characteristics of Islamic terms, this
study categorises five translation techniques within the foreignisation strategy – pure
borrowing technique, borrowing technique with one corresponding word, borrowing
technique with describing words, new Islamic terms, and addition. These five

38
translation techniques do not completely follow the suggested translation technique
by previous translation scholars because their labels are meant to specify the
characteristics of Islamic term realisations in the target text. The additions of modifier
‘pure’ and qualifiers ‘with one correspondence word’ and ‘with describing words’ to
the borrowing techniques emphasise the specific characteristics from one technique
to another.

The term ‘borrowing’ from Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) is borrowed and
added to by the modifier and qualifiers as mentioned above. Meanwhile, the strategy
of domestication includes the following translation techniques – correspondence,
description, cultural substitution, generalisation, and omission. On the other hand,
integrated strategies do not specify any specific techniques. The study only observes
that when Islamic terms are translated, then it is domestication. Once compound
Islamic terms are translated or transliterated, these are then categorised into
integrated strategies. The entire techniques in foreignisation strategy or in integrated
strategies are based on the types of transliteration systems either in Indonesian or in
English (Aminuddin et al., 2020).
The following tables illustrate three translations strategies and four translation
techniques within the foreignisation strategy and five translation techniques within
the domestication strategy. These Islamic terms appear on the right column based on
translation techniques on the left. The first row shows Islamic terms within a complete
Indonesian sentence and their translation while the remaining rows provide Islamic
terms only. The tables illustrate some specialised terms used in the hajj and umrah
rituals in the Indonesian context such as miqat (see Table 3.1), wudu (see Table 3.2),
and haji mabrur (see Table 3.3).

Table 3. 1 Examples of translation techniques within the foreignisation strategy

Translation techniques Pakaian putih dapat dipakai setelah melakukan miqat.

within the foreignisation Clothes white can be used after doing miqat
strategy
/White clothes can be used after meeqat/
Pure borrowing Miqat

Calque Meeqat
Borrowing with Miqat (station)
correspondence Meeqat (station)

39
 Borrowing with a Miqat (a point some distance from Makkah beyond which a
description pilgrimage may not pass without Ihram)

Meeqat (a point some distance from Makkah beyond which a

pilgrimage may not pass without Ihram)
New Islamic terms Ihram can be used after miqat.
(Ihram: a specific name for white clothes)

Addition Miqat mosque

Meeqat mosque

Table 3. 2 Examples of translation techniques within the domestication strategy

Translation Muslim diharuskan berwudu sebelum salat.

techniques within the
domestication strategy /Muslims are required to perform ablution before praying/

Correspondence Ablution
Description Islamic Ablution

Cultural substitution Ablution

Generalisation Washing their bodies
Omission Muslims are required to perform praying

Table 3. 3 An example of integrated strategy

The integrated Setiap Muslim berharap menjadi seorang haji mabrur

strategy
Every Muslim wish to be a hajj blessed
/Every Muslim wishes to be a blessed hajj/

While modifications of foreignisation and domestication strategy are used to

identify translation strategies that are revealed from the translation texts, the study
also uses another taxonomy of translation strategies from Baker (2018) to classify
respondents’ translation strategy preferences. Baker’s (2018) translation strategy
features a broader scope of translation strategy references that the study argues is
more relevant in collecting general strategy information used by translators instead of
Venuti’s translation strategies that are more specific in examining non-equivalent
words from translation works. Also, Baker (2018, pp. 26-42) labels strategy rather
than techniques to provide general terms that are easily understood by translators and

40
more straightforward for them to avoid confusion of detailed techniques. Based on
the relevancy to the study, six translation strategies out of eight as proposed by Baker
(2018) are used as follows:
1. Translation by a more general word (superordinate)
2. Translation by cultural substitution
3. Translation using a loanword or loanword plus explanation
4. Translation by paraphrase using a related word
5. Translation by omission
6. Translation by illustration.

Baker’s (2018) general word strategy is similar to generalisation or

globalisation from Judickaitė (2009), for example, teaching for dakwah. Teaching
has a general sense of delivering messages while dakwah is specific to religious
messages. Cultural substitution provides similar terms in the target culture that have
similar function, for example, missionary in Christianity for dakwah in Islam. A
loanword is like borrowing terms of the source text to be used in the target text, for
example, Hadith. Paraphrasing terms is also sometimes used with terms that do not
have similar correspondence for example, sleeping platforms for balai-balai (Lestari,
2018). The last, translation by illustration is like giving description to the Islamic
terms as Table 3.1 shows and so is translation by omission. The study thus uses the
taxonomy of Baker’s (2018) translation strategy for surveying the frequency of every
translation strategy use in the questionnaire.

3.4 Systemic Functional Linguistics and Translation Studies

Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) proposed by Halliday (1985) views

language as a meaning making resource. This construction of meaning through SFL
perspectives is in line with the search for meaning in Translation studies. Several
scholars in translation studies such as Juliana House, Jeremy Munday, Mira Kim,
Marina Manfredi, etc. incorporate SFL in their translation research. This subsection
further introduces the role of SFL in text analysis, explores the SFL application in
translation studies, and looks at experiential meaning in the translation of Islamic
terms.

41
 3.4.1 The Role of SFL in Text Analysis

The SFL perspective is concerned with how meaning in a particular text is

realised. Manfredi (2008) points out that the construction of meaning is very
important in helping translators convey accurate meanings. The SFL-based textual
analysis examines the formulation of meaning in one language to another through its
own grammatical realisations (Fontaine, 2013). Shore (1992) states that different
languages have their own ways of delivering meanings; therefore, using SFL,
creating meaning in the target language can be compared to that of the source
language.
Fontaine (2008) describes how functions of language as the core of SFL
theory work in two ways. First, these identify how the functions that language may
serve or how people use language, for example, language for presentation, for
advertisement, or for interviews, etc. These examples show that language is used
differently depending on people’s different social purposes. Second, the function of
language refers to linguistic functions. This explores the roles of grammar and
semantics in the parts of language that can be illustrated, for example, the use of “the
players” as the subject at the beginning of the following sentences.

Sentence 1 The players kicked the ball.

Sentence 2 The players considered the game was not fair.

The example shows that the phrase “the players” in both sentences
grammatically functions as the participant. However, in terms of semantics, the
subjects of sentence 1 and sentence 2 function differently. The first one serves as an
actor, the participant that can perform material or physical action – “kicked” while
the second one does not function as an actor anymore, but it plays as “a sayer”, the
subject that is performing thinking action “considered”. Both sentences imply that
the same subject might play different semantic roles depending on the choices of the
verbs that follow. For this reason, translators need to be cautious with their verbal
choices because verbs they choose can play different semantic roles as the above
example illustrates.

Although the above example shows the textual analysis of semantic roles at
the Clause level, the present study is more concerned with those at the Group level.
42
This is mainly due to the reason that Islamic terms appears as a NG. The NG has its
own elements and semantic roles different from the Clause’s. The Clause itself
provides further information about the semantic roles that NG plays as one of its
constituents. The information on the NG constituents and their semantic roles can be
found later in section 3.3.3 about experiential meaning in the translation of Islamic
terms. When semantic roles at both levels are differently realised in the target text,
this may indicate that the translation inequivalence of the semantic roles has
occurred, and, therefore, this becomes an input for translators to revise their
translations as intended in the source text.
Besides describing the semantics and grammar of the language, SFL is also
concerned with the context of the text (Hasan, 2009; House, 2006). The context plays
an important role in providing specific information about the text. According to Hu
(2010), three types of contexts – context of culture, context of situations, and co-text–
should be taken into consideration when analysing the translation text based on SFL
perspectives. Context of culture refers to the larger context of a given community
where the text is practised while context of situations is concerned with field, tenor,
and mode of the text. The analysis of these three registers confirms texts’ situational
contexts about “1) what is happening, 2) who is taking part, and 3) the role of
language in the linguistic contact” (Shore, 1992, p. 37). The last context, co- text, is
the context where the semantic role constitutes the rank of the word, group, or a
clause within the lexicogrammar of the language. This context is an immediate one
that translators are commonly aware of when constructing the language. Hu further
confirms that the first two contexts are outside of texts while the last context, co-text,
is inside the texts. The three contexts of the texts, according to Gerrot and Wignell
(1994), create meaning in translation. In their views, meaning can be realised by
connecting text to its context.

Subsequently, understanding contexts is important to activate the

corresponding meta-functions – ideational (what things are or do), interpersonal (a
speaker’s attitudes and judgments) and textual (the relation of language to its context)
(Eggins, 2004). Meta-function is a functional component of “understanding the types
of meaning identified in the clause” (Fontaine, 2013, p. 10). At the meaning level,
the ideational meaning can be discovered through analysing the functions of the
clause elements and the forms, including the choices of their lexical item. The

43
interpersonal meaning can be identified through the choices of mood, modality, and
personal pronouns that indicates the use of emotive language by the participants
either in spoken or written text. Meanwhile, the textual meaning is commonly
recognised as the Theme and Rheme or New and Given information. Theme is the
focus of information in a clause, and usually appears at the beginning of the sentence
while another half of the sentence contains Rheme as the supporting information
about the Theme. If unintentionally misplaced between Theme and Rheme during
translation, the meaning of the target text is said to be textually unequal compared to
the source text. According to Hu (2010) and Manfredi (2014), any textual analysis of
translation texts generally aims to search for the equivalence of meaning, and
according to SFL theory, it can be reached through the identification of the three
language functions above. Hu (2010) explains further:

Seeking the equivalence of meaning is in fact seeking the

equivalence of situational context. In translation, equivalence should
not be based on one aspect of meaning (say ideational meaning); the
translator must pursue equivalence of three aspects of meaning at the
same time…

Given this SFL perspective for the textual analysis purposes, three language
metafunctions (ideational, interpersonal, and textual) should be taken into
consideration when comparing source and target text. These metafunctions must not
be treated in isolation for the language purposes only, but should be connected to the
contexts that provide socio-contextual backgrounds of the texts. It is quite important,
especially in translating Islamic terms, to understand that contexts play an important
role in determine specific meaning of the terms.

3.4.2 SFL Applications in Translation Studies

Traditionally, SFL has been linguistically and contextually applied as the

framework in translation research. Most commonly, SFL applications in translation
research are based on the analysis of three metafunctions. Among others, the study
introduces three SFL-based research in translation studies in different languages by
generating findings at each metafunction. Previous studies have investigated parts of

44
the Ideational meaning, Interpersonal meaning, and Textual meaning from Arabic,
Chinese, and Indonesian into English.

Al Saeedi and Alazzawie (2020) analysed news articles based on the

transitivity system from English to Arabic. Their study finds that some cases of
transitivity representations in the target text are dissimilar to that of the source text.
Firstly, translators translated clauses into different processes from the source text, for
example, from material into mental process. Secondly, there is a shifting of clause
constituents from participant to circumstance, for example. Thirdly, similar shifting
also occurs from simple clause level to complex sentence. Lastly, a changing role
also occurs in the participant’s semantic role from actor to sayer, for example. These
changing representations of transitivity system from English to Arabic indicate that
the meaning of the target text is not ideationally realised, as intended in the ideational
meaning of the source text.
Li (2017) analyses the modality shifts from English to Chinese translation
within the interpersonal metafunction. The analysis is concerned with the choices of
modality. An example where ‘can’ in English is substituted by ‘may’ in Chinese
indicates a reduced degree of strident political ideology. In the translation of two
novels by Chinese translators, it is revealed that Chinese translations contain fewer
instances of probability and the degree of its force is less than its English
counterparts. This finding may mean that there has been a shifting interpersonal
meaning from English to Chinese, and accordingly, this reminds Chinese translators
to use a stronger judgement of their modality choices to make it equal to the English
ones. Although the interpersonal meaning of the texts is excluded for current
investigation, this study demonstrates a changing interpersonal meaning in
translation studies that requires further attention from translators.

Zulprianto et al. (2019) conducted thematic structure analysis of two

Indonesian translators in translating English novel ‘Animal Farm’ into Indonesian.
They find the two translators do not show different thematic structure from the
original. However, some shorter paragraphs in the target texts are created from the
long paragraphs at the original source to offer easy reading for Indonesian readers.
They also find that the second translator is more faithful than the first one. It is argued
that changing translation norms occurring at different times from the first to the
second translator cause such a difference. Their research thus confirms that

45
Indonesian translations of ‘Animal Farm’ are not different in thematic structure from
the English version. This means that the original textual meaning is equivalent with
its translations.

The applications of SFL metafunctions above confirms the use of SFL in

translation studies. Following Hu’s (2010) remark about equivalence in translation,
the present study argues that translation equivalence can be functionally achieved
when three metafunctions share similar functions at both languages. As the SFL has
a broad coverage, the current study only employs the ideational meaning of the
experiential structure of the NG. Since Islamic terms mostly appear as NG, the study
is concerned with the shifting elements that might occur within the NG because of
the translation of Islamic terms from Indonesian to English.

3.4.3 Experiential Meaning in the Translation of Islamic Terms

As previously stated, translators are likely to examine three metafunctions.

However, prior to the research aim, this study was mainly concerned with ideational
meaning in evaluating the experiential structure of Islamic words nominal group
(Fontaine, 2017; Li, 2014, 2015) of the Islamic terms. It is important to note that
Islamic terms operate in the level of groups and function as Actor and Circumstances
in clause level. The analysis of Islamic terms’ experiential structure cannot be
detached from an environment where Islamic terms are present. According to Painter
et al. (2010), experiential structure analysis of the NG should be viewed from above
or from its role in the clause (univariate structure). The authors further investigate
analysis of the order of NG constituents in multivariate structure.
NG constituents consists of Head, Modifiers and Qualifiers (Fontaine, 2013).
The Head is compulsory while Modifiers and Qualifiers support the Head. Both
Modifiers and Qualifiers do not necessarily exist since they are the expansions of the
Head (Painter et al., 2010). While Indonesian Modifiers are generally the opposite of
English, few show that they may also occur before the Head. A simple illustration of
how NG modifiers move from Indonesian into English can be seen from the
following figure.

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Figure 3. 2 NG structure in Indonesian and English

Figure 3.2 above shows that Indonesian does not recognise the pre-and-post-
modifier concept as in English. If seen from the NG experiential structure
constituents, the first modifier is the pre-modifier of hajj while the second modifier is
the post-modifier in English. It can be observed that the changing order of functional
elements of Islamic terms from Indonesian to English starts with the movement of
‘blessed’ as the translation of mabrur to the pre-modifier position before the Head.
‘The’ is given before the pre-modifier ‘blessed’ to indicate that a shifting
definiteness has occurred from general reference of Haji mabrur to the specific one.
On the other hand, the second modifier remains its position from Indonesian to
English and it appears after the Head.
As discussed in 3.5.1, NG has several functional elements - Thing, Deictic,
Numerative, Epithet, Classifier, and Qualifier. When NG structure is transferred from
Indonesian to English, the syntactic order of NG elements also changes according to
the fixed NG structure. If, during translation, the structure of NG does not change,
for example, Haji mabrur for Haji mabrur, it shows that translators do not change
the functional element position based on the role of NG constituent order in English.
In this case, translators preserve the source text experiential structure in the target
context and thus regard it as one Islamic terms. Accordingly, this indicates that this
semiotics system has been constructed by translators to transmit culture through the
use of language (Halliday, 1985). Therefore, when the same order of NG is produced,
target readers might feel awkward and confused to read the NG source text structure
in the target context.

Every element of NG constituents has its own function. Deictics show a

definite or indefinite reference (Fontaine, 2017). The author further asserts that
definiteness provides an identity of the reference, which is definite in referring to a
particular object, as shown using the before the Head while indefinite reference does

47
not specify to which reference it refers, as shown by a and an. Another type of
Deictics – Demonstrative Deictic also needs to be considered in identifying Deictics
such as that, this, those, these (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014; Painter et al., 2010).
After Deictics, Numerative is also found as one of the NG constituents to signal the
numbers of the reference, for example, many, two, etc. Epithet describes the Head by
using adjectives such as old, good, etc. and by using adjective too, Classifier
functions to classify the Head for example ‘school’ in a good schoolboy. On the other
hand, Qualifier appears after the Head (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014; Painter et al.,
2010). It usually appears by using the preposition, for example, ‘in’ the man in jail,
and using Relative WH Questions such as in ‘the man who lives not far from here
(the Qualifier is in bold). The last functional element of the NG structure is Thing.
Thing is easily recognised as a proper noun. This is a compulsory element in NG
structure serving as the Head (Fontaine, 2013).
The study, therefore, observes the production of NG Islamic terms in translated
texts by looking at the NG structure constituents in the target texts. The translation
might be a medium of the syntactic changes of the NG experiential structure. The
case of haji mabrur can be translated as haji mabrur or ‘a blessed hajj” into English
context. While the latter is an expected translation of Haji mabrur, the same NG
structure as the source text might be regarded as a linguistic interference phenomenon
(Fontaine, 2013). From the cultural point of view, Halliday and Matthiessen (2014);
and Painter et al. (2010) conclude that this constructed structure is governed by
particular elements outside of the texts that are called the social context. It would
seem that the social context of Islamic Studies in an Indonesian context commonly
uses haji mabrur – this appears to be the reason for its use in the target text. In this
case, Halliday (1985) confirms that an understanding of context of situation and
context of culture is necessary for translators to realise the equivalent texts.

3.5 Integrated Concepts

This subsection covers the key concepts that are developed through the
relationship of Systemic Functional Linguistics and Translation studies. The study
outlines three key concepts known as integrated concepts. First, translation shifts
naturally occur during translation to adapt with the new language system. The
concept of shifts in translation studies is like the changing experiential structure of

48
the clause or the group. Second, translation quality is the concept that is based on the
measurement of three metafunctions to indicate the equivalence of the translation.
Third, cultural translation informs the socio-cultural information of the cultural
words and is thus concerned with the lexical choices of the ideational meaning as
general or specialised terms. The three key concepts are discussed in relation to the
SFL theory in translation studies.

3.5.1 Translation Shifts

Translation shifts are efforts made by translators to change lexical and

grammatical choices of the target text suited to their counterparts in the source text,
in this case from Indonesian to English. In other words, shifts in translation are made
to facilitate the target readers’ comprehension and understanding of the message and
the objective of the source text. The study observes the shift at the group level where
NG constituents of Islamic terms would commonly be shifted during translation to
adjust to the NG structure.
This translation concept is proposed by Catford (1965) as a reference to
linguistic changes from the source text to the target text by taking into consideration
“a number of contextual variables and typological differences between the two
languages concerned” (Kim et al., 2016, p. 12). It, therefore, can be concluded that
the linguistic changes can be form-based and meaning-based (Larson, 1984). While
form-based translation is concerned with the changing linguistic forms, for example,
the lexis and structure of the source text in the target text, meaning-based translation
places emphasis on the transference of the concepts. This latter basis of translation is
more commonly suggested in realising an equivalence of source and target
languages.
Shifts in translation modify the source text into the target text. According to
Catford (1965), this language modification occurs at levels of shifts and categories.
Changes at level of shifts occur when a particular level at the source text is substituted
by its target equivalence at a different level from clause to phrase, phrase to word, or
vice versa. For example, juru dakwah as a phrase in Indonesian is realised into
‘missionary’, a single word in English (Aminuddin et al., 2020). Meanwhile, levels
of categories are further classified into structural shifts, class shifts, unit shifts, and
intra-system shifts (Catford, 1965).

49
shows.

Figure 3. 3 NG structure in English

When this NG structure shifts into Indonesian NG structure, the shift appears
as follows:

Deictic Epithet Thing

This red Flower

Bunga merah ini

Thing Epithet Deictic

Figure 3. 4 Translation shifts of NG functional elements from Indonesian to English

Given the above considerations, this study identifies the translation shifts of
Islamic terms at word/group level and at structural shifts. The shifts also focus on the
NG that plays the role, as the participant or circumstance of the clause, as Halliday
and Matthiessen (2014) suggest. However, considering the time constraint, this study
limits the analysis to certain participants and circumstances that contain Islamic
terms. It is expected that by doing this, changes of Islamic terms within the context
can be clearly observed to create meaning, as intended in the source text. Translation
shifts, therefore, appear to make the target text easy to understand so that target readers
grasp ideas the text has to offer.

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 3.5.2 Translation Quality

Translation, in general, expects its quality in the target language to be

relatively like the source text. Since the text involves several Islamic terms needing
to be translated into the target context, their translations require deeper analysis of its
translation quality. It is taken into consideration that, according to Long (2005), if
this is concerned with religious status, the quality of the texts will not be the same as
the original. This implies that translation, to a certain extent, may cause the loss of
the sacredness of texts. However, the present study views translation quality from
linguistic and translation perspectives.

This study identifies translation quality from the text’s experiential meaning
and its readability. It is argued that these sources of translation quality are relevant to
the present study. Experiential meaning is shown by the choices of lexis and its group
structure within the clause level. This first feature of translation quality leads to the
second one, text readability. This study needs to examine whether translations are
readable since several transliterations of Islamic terms are involved. Since most
Western readers are unfamiliar with Islamic terms, how translators represent Islamic
terms in the target context might affect these readers’ understanding of the text.
Of three metafunctions in language (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014),
experiential meaning compels the present study to explore the message of the clause.
Clause as message is informed through the lexicogrammar (the combination of
vocabularies or lexis and its function in the grammar). Since Islamic terms as a
nominal group are concerned, the present study explores their roles as actors or
circumstances within the clause. This study also examines their experiential meaning
at group level. It focuses on the experiential structure of Islamic terms as a nominal
group that consists of Thing as the Head and Modifiers such as Deictic, Numerative,
Epithet, Classifier, and Qualifier. These structural elements are obviously observed
since the translation from Indonesian to English involves changes of these structures,
for example, the Indonesian nominal group ‘masjid kami’ (masjid=mosque; kami=
our) becomes ‘our mosque’ in English. If it remains the same in Indonesian group
structure, the quality of its translation might be obstructed. In other words, the text
becomes difficult to read.
This study argues that changes in experiential meaning may cause difficulty

52
this is another feature that the study investigates to measure translation quality. The
present study inquires if the translated text is readable by target readers. Since several
Islamic terms are involved, target readers might be confused by foreign words that
do not exist in their culture. For this reason, Ning (2013, p. 27) suggests that the
translation needs to be re-examined for the “untranslatability and intercultural
readability of translation works.” More commonly, the examination of the readability
test is shown by the readability score. A high readability score indicates the
communicative purpose of the text is successful (Permatahati & Rosyidi, 2017). The
analysis of readability commonly takes place at the clause or sentence level where a
complete idea of the text can be represented (Pilán et al., 2014; Vajjala & Meurers,
2014).

3.5.3 Cultural Translation

This study is concerned with cultural translation approach that becomes an

important concept in the translation of Islamic terms. It firstly defines socio-cultural
over the textual meaning and accordingly, asserts the importance of culture in
translation studies. Then, the study introduces the dichotomy of foreignisation and
domestication as cultural ideology in translation and includes the types of cultural
words to see where Islamic terms is categorised. Also, cultural linguistics as a cultural
concept relevant to the present study is proposed and lastly, it outlines previous
research analysis on culture in translation to introduce the background of the terms’
socio-cultural concept, not just merely a matter of lexical choices.

The recent approach to understand culturally bound words through cultural

translation underpins the importance of socio-cultural over textual meaning. This
comes into play, as language is part of culture and by knowing the culture, it
"facilitates communication, understanding and action between persons or groups who
differ with respect to language and culture" (Katan & Taibi, 2004, p. 17). This
objective of cultural translation brings awareness of culture influence to a language
that cannot be neglected during the translation process. As culture affects the
language the translator in translating, it is, therefore, essential for translators to act as
a bilingual and at the same time, bicultural mediator (Ringberg, et al., 2010). This
importance of culture is also reflected through the teaching of culture in translation

53
studies that aim to make students aware of cultural influence in their translations as
Sun (2020) argues. For this reason, the present study looks into translators’
understanding and their translations about the influence of a culture in translating
Islamic terms. However, the question about which culture predominates might
depend on the translators’ cultural ideology.

Calzada-Pérez (2014) raises the issue of ideology debate in translation studies

that is applicable to the present study. Culture may only be valid in a given society
and may not be applicable to others – although to some extent similarities between
cultures might exist, this situation places the translator in a delicate position at the
intersection of cultures. In cases where a source culture is textually represented in the
target text, this would create difficulties for target readers to understand; in other
cases, its substitution with target words would leave fewer traces of the original
culture. The present study uses the popular terms ‘foreignisation and domestication’
from Venuti (2018) to describe the issue above within the current project of Islamic
term translation. This study further responds to the question as to which culture
Indonesian translators would be obliged to give precedence when translating Islamic
terms from Indonesian to English.
As Newmark (1988, p. 94) defines culture in a broad term as “the way of life
and its manifestations are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language
assist means of expressions”, the present study specifies culture in terms of cultural
words or in Aixelá (1996), this is called ‘cultural specific items’ or CSI for short. CSI
exist in different types. Newmark (1988) categorises five types of CSI – (1) ecology,
(2) material culture, (3) social culture, (4) organisation, customs, activities in politics,
religions, and arts, (5) gesture and habits. Islamic terms are part of religion, and,
therefore, fall into the fourth category. Sharifian (2015) argues that since language is
a cultural product, CSI is, therefore, recognised as a reference to a particular culture
that reflects a concept of cultural linguistics. The concept of cultural linguistics
recognises CSI to reflect a culture, to carry a culture, and to reside in a culture.
Islamic terms, therefore, are viewed as a phenomenon of cultural linguistics because
their use is culturally tied to a given culture. Consequently, the analysis of CSI cannot
neglect its textual use in a socio-cultural context.
A procedure of CSI analysis is given by Abuelma'Atti (2005). His model of
CSI analysis involves the element of cultural context where CSI is situated. The

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context of culture serves as the socio-cultural background that specifies the use of
CSI. Secondly, it explores the lexical choices of the language that might and might
not be suitable to describe the intended meaning in the source text, including
omission, replacement, and addition. Thirdly, it deals with the structure of the
language that covers reordering/omitting parts of the structures of the information,
sentence, paragraph, or chapters. In SFL theory (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014), the
second one is concerned with the discourse meaning while the third deals with the
lexicogrammar of the language. Neither can be detached one from another but
operate simultaneously to determine the three metafunctions of the language –
ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunctions of the text. Based on these
linguistic and perceptual resources, the specific meaning of the text is finally defined.

3.6 Translation as Intercultural Communication Framework

This subsection denotes the framework of the study. This framework

‘translation as intercultural communication’ helps the study organise how Islamic
terms are understood within interrelated key concepts applied to the four research
questions of the study. The study begins by discussing the definition of translation,
how meaning is approached through understanding key meanings of intercultural
communication such as inter, cultural, and communication, and the use of register
analysis (Field, Tenor, and Mode) in the scheme of translation assessment quality
model as the framework employs.
The study follows the framework of translation as intercultural
communication proposed by House (2001, 2016, 2020) based on the consideration
that firstly, the translation of Islamic terms aims for communication purposes to non-
Arabic readers; secondly, it requires the functional approach to the translation of
Islamic terms; third, the translation of Islamic terms operates at semantic and
pragmatic level; fourth, it supports the links between context and text in translation
to uncover the term meaning; and fifth, it accounts for cultural differences for
communication purposes. With the fundamental idea of comparing the source text
and its translation, House (2001) mentions that this framework basically focuses on
function equivalence, context, and genre (cultural translation).

Translation is defined as “a universal cross-linguistic and cross-cultural social

55
practice” (House, 2008a, p. 135). House’s definition of translation acknowledges the
role of translation as a medium of cultural transference, which is missing from
previous translation definitions such as Catford (1965, p. 1) with “a process of
substituting a text in one language for a text in another” or Nida and Taber
(1969:12) with “…reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural
equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in
terms of style’. The “text” in Catford’s (1965) definition formulates linguistic forms
while Nida and Taber (1969) already include meaning of the message as the notion
to be rendered into the target text. The latter definition places stronger emphasis on
the closest natural equivalent, which still depends on the types of target linguistics
and culture (House, 2008a). From both definitions, it is not yet clear that translation
appears to be a communicative-pragmatic practice.
Translation with a communicative-pragmatic approach views the meaning in
terms of making its way from a functional role in the source text to the new
environment in the target context (House, 2008a). The framework of communication
across cultures may allow translators to highlight the idea of different cultural
perspectives when rendering the message to avoid misunderstanding of cultures
through the notion of intercultural communication (House, 2016, 2020). In this sense,
House (2008a, p. 137) believes that “translating is a form of intercultural
communication … ” where translation is no longer a linguistic procedure but “an act
of communication across cultures.” Given the context above, the present study
attempts to see the translation of Islamic terms from the communicative-pragmatic
perspective as House (2008a) suggests since it takes three different cultures into
consideration during the translation process. By considering communication across
cultures, the realisation of Islamic terms may, therefore, be meaningfully
communicated not just as the semiotic signs of foreign culture but as cultural
concepts that target readers understand.

The term “intercultural communication” has two notions – “intercultural” and

“communicative”. To deconstruct the term intercultural, House (2008b) breaks it
down into “inter” and “cultural.” She further elaborates that “inter” has a sense of
mediating while “cultural” pertains to a variety of cultures. When both are combined
as “intercultural”, it might mean “taking place or forming a communication between
cultures, belonging to or derived from different cultures” (House, 2008b, p. 7). The

56
term “communicative” implies “the linguistic side of the communicative process” in
culture crossing communication” (House, 2008b, p. 17). This suggests that the
formulation of language, in the case of Islamic terms, during translation should be
grammatically meaningful for communication to take place for non-Arabic readers.
This basic principle also underlies the notion that meaning is paramount in
translation, and accordingly, the search for meaning should be approached through a
cultural frame of reference.
In reference to the cultural translation, House (2006) continues to emphasise
the importance of text and its context as the solution to search cultural meaning. This
asserts that proper translation can be discovered by considering the meaning from its
textual context and its extra linguistic reference or socio-cultural information. The
consideration of intra- and extra-textual information of the text works as the source
of meaning decision-making that in Halliday’s (1985) terms requires co-text, context
of situation and context of culture. Hu (2010) explains that while co-text is the textual
environment within the text, other contexts exist outside of the text. The three
contexts provide information about language choices from the physical-textual
environment (co-text), followed by situational context where language is specifically
used that covers field (what it is about), tenor (what is the relationship between
participants involved in the text?) and mode (what are the circumstances in which the
communication takes place?), and context of culture that shows how meaning is
socially constructed within a given community (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014;
House, 2006). Being familiar with the contexts above assists translators to understand
the choices of their language, for example, when determining the meaning of Islamic
terms, during their translation process.
To put translation as an intercultural communication approach into practice,
House (2016) develops a scheme for analysing and comparing original and
translations based on the framework of translation as intercultural communication. In
the present study, this is achieved through considering the interrelated factors at play,
meeting the role of systemic functional linguistics and intercultural translation and
investigating linguistic and cultural realisations, translation quality and strategy of
Islamic terms from SFL and intercultural perspectives (see Figure 3.1). Thus, the
search for meaning and equivalence that underlies the framework of translation as an
intercultural communication approach (House, 2016) is relevant to the present
research – the translation of Islamic terms in an Indonesian context into English. The

57
comparison analysis between the source texts and the target texts based on the
House’s (House, 2016, p. 79) framework can be illustrated as follows:

Figure 3. 5 House’s scheme of comparison analysis between the source and target
text

Based on Figure 3.5 above, the present study starts to collect Islamic terms as
the source of the analysis. The analysis then reviews the Islamic terms functional
roles through their function in the lexicogrammar of the source text and compares
these to their functional roles in the target texts. From the three aspects of the register
analysis – Field, Tenor, and Mode – the study limits the scope of individual text
functional profile to the analysis of Field, as the study looks at the specificity of
realised lexical items of the Islamic terms as intended in the source text from its
ideational metafunctions in the group level.

58
 Within the group level, the study investigates whether there is a shifting
element of Islamic term experiential structure from Source to target texts. The
mismatch of information at this group level, according to Halliday (1985) and House
(2016), may indicate the inequivalence of the functional structure. Meanwhile, other
register analyses (Tenor and Mode) are excluded from this study in consideration that
the focus of the study is on group elements (participants and circumstances) where
Islamic terms are commonly embedded. This linguistic result is further examined for
its cultural representation in the target text. After examining the co-text of Islamic
terms, the study continues to analyse Islamic terms and their cultural meaning
associations by considering the context of situation and context of culture as Halliday
(1985) suggests confirming their relevant use as intended in the source culture. The
‘context of situations’ refers to the choices of registers and their uses in the
lexicogrammar of the text while ‘context of culture’ suggests the common social
practice where the context of situation commonly takes place.
As the existing framework is linguistically and culturally informed, the
present study completes both information about Islamic terms with their quality and
strategy translation into the overall framework. It, therefore, organises the study to
investigate Islamic terms from their linguistic, cultural, quality and strategy
translation in the Indonesian academic context. The framework also facilitates the
total research findings based on the types of Indonesian translators in translating
Islamic terms into English. To account for the four key concepts of linguistics,
culture, quality, and translation strategy of Islamic terms, the current study uses a
suggested framework – as illustrated in Figure 3.6 as follows.

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 Islamic Term Translation

Quality Strategy Linguistics Culture

Translation as Intercultural Communication

CTs TTs STs

Figure 3. 6 Framework of the study

3.7 Summary

This chapter describes the conceptual framework of the study - translation as

Intercultural communication from House (2001). The framework works on three key
concepts - translation studies, Systemic Functional Linguistics, and integrated
concepts. Each main concept is reflected through several branch concepts that are
relevant to the present study’s investigation on the translation of Islamic terms.

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 Chapter 4. Research Methodology

4.1 Introduction

This chapter describes the research methodology of this project. Specifically,

it describes the research design, participants, data collection, research ethics, and data
analysis.

4.2 Research Design

This section discusses the research design of the present study. It specifically
reviews triangulation as one of the mixed-method types and illustrates the process of
the present study. In this mixed-method, the triangulation technique uses qualitative
data to support the quantitative data, and this, therefore, serves as “a form of
confirmation and validation” (Stake, 2010, p. 123). Meanwhile, the process of the
present research derives from the intersection of the literature review and the
conceptual framework that becomes the basis of the investigated issues. From here, it
guides the types of the data collection techniques and analysis.
The study employs a mixed-methods approach with a triangulation technique.
Triangulation integrates both quantitative and qualitative data by “comparing,
contrasting, building on, or embedding one type of conclusion with the others”
(Creswell & Tashakkori, 2007, p. 108). It is relevant to the present study where it
uses various sources of data to answer research questions of this study. For example,
although translation quality is based on the scores given by the raters, the researcher
triangulates this information by accessing relevant information from the translation
tasks. This demonstrates that the overall study findings are the result of the
triangulation of different sources of data. Creswell and Clark (2018) argue that with
the practice of triangulation, their study complements and verifies the main data
findings by secondary information from other data sources with the expectation that
it contributes to the richness of the data.

The study employs this research technique to cross-check the response

arguments from different data collection sources such as interviews, questionnaires,
or textual analyses. In this study, triangulation organises the findings of

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translation quality from translated texts by utilising supporting information from the
translation tasks, interviews, or questionnaires where it is relevant in the discussion
section. The same data sources are also used to support the findings of linguistic and
cultural realisations of Islamic term translation in the translated texts. The findings of
the translation strategy in translation tasks are then complemented with supporting
interview and questionnaire data.
The research design further describes the flow of the research process. It
begins by identifying research issues that emerge from the intersection between the
literature review and the conceptual framework of the study. Four research questions
are finally taken into a further investigation – translation quality, translation strategy,
linguistic realisations, and cultural realisations in the translation of Islamic terms.
The first issue, the quality of the Islamic terms’ translation, is firstly described to
determine whether translations are readable and whether they do or do not convey
the experiential meaning of the source text. The second issue deals with translation
strategy that provides information about translators’ techniques to translate the
Islamic terms. The third and fourth issues are concerned with linguistic and cultural
realisations of the Islamic term translation. The study investigates the experiential
structures of Islamic terms at the group level where these commonly shift from
Indonesian to English. The same thing also applies to the choices of the Islamic term
representations in the target culture that might be similarly or differently reflected
from the source one.
To collect data for four research issues above, the study uses four data
collection techniques, namely, translation tasks, interviews, questionnaires, and
raters’ translation quality scores. The researcher firstly assigns participants to
translate the text, followed by an interview about their translation practice. Secondly,
the researcher sends an online questionnaire concerning the participants’ general
translation practice on Islamic terms. In addition to being given to the same
participants of the translation and interviews, the questionnaires are also delivered to
a larger scope of participants to elicit more responses. Lastly, translation quality is
assessed for its readability and experiential meaning by two appointed raters. In
general, the research issues and their data collection techniques are described as
follows:

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Table 4. 1 Research issues and their data collection techniques

Issues of research questions Data collection techniques

(RQ)
RQ1. Translation quality
RQ2. Translation strategy
RQ3. Linguistic realisations
RQ4. Cultural realisations
Translation tasks, raters’ translation quality scores
Translation tasks, interviews, questionnaires
Translation tasks, interviews
Translation tasks, interviews, questionnaires

In this study, these different data collections and analysis are individually
explored to describe the current practice in translating Islamic terms from translation
quality and strategy, and the realisations of linguistics and culture of Islamic terms.
The data collection is taken from raters’ translation quality scores and translation
tasks to determine the translation quality and the data for the remaining three
research questions (translation strategy, linguistic and cultural realisations) and
draws on questionnaires and translation tasks.
After data are collected, the researcher conducts the translation and SFL
based analysis. First, the translation quality is assessed by its experiential meaning
(House, 2016). Second, the data for translation strategy are analysed through the
classifications of translation strategy from Venuti (2018) with foreignisation and
domestication strategy dichotomy. Third, linguistic realisations are based on the
experiential structure of the Islamic terms at the nominal group level (Fontaine, 2017).
Fourth, the realisations of culture are approached through a cultural translation of the
culturally lexical choices and their cultural meanings (House, 2006; Katan, 2012).
Finally, the total processes of data analysis from different sources of information
above are discussed and interpreted. The findings of the total data are conclusively
reported as the overall result of the study. The complete flow of the research process
can be seen in Figure 4.1 below.

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Figure 4. 1 Flowchart of the research process

Figure 4.1 asserts the involvement of both quantitative and qualitative data.
As more commonly related previous studies in Islamic term translation
predominantly have been qualitative in nature compared to quantitative ones, this
present research contributes to current contemporary research in the translation of
Islamic terms by employing a mixed-methods design that requires a more complex

64
approach than would one. The quantitative data constitute the scores and frequencies
of translation quality while qualitative data are taken from the interviews,
questionnaires, and translation tasks. The qualitative data also involve numbers as
frequencies; however, this does not require further statistical analysis, but only
describes the comparison among translator groups for the data being investigated.

4.3 Research Participants

The researcher recruited Indonesian translators as participants. Three groups

of translators are classified – student translators (STs), teacher translators (TTs), and
certified translators (CTs). Both STs and TTs are at the university level, while the
CTs are from the Indonesian Translator Association. This section further reviews two
different recruitments of research participants, the conditionals that each participant
should meet, and how the participant recruitment is approached.
Two different recruitments were conducted to meet the requirements of
different data collection purposes. First, the researcher recruited 34 translators as the
total number of participants assigned to translate the text and undertake the
interviews. Second, to obtain larger questionnaire responses, another 56 participants
were added, bringing the total to 90 respondents as questionnaire participants. The
rationale for this is that additional participant recruitment for the questionnaire could
potentially provide larger numbers of translators compared to limited numbers of
participants for interviews and translation tasks. The researcher planned to recruit 10
participants as the least number of participants for interviews and translation tasks
and 90 participants for questionnaires. Within the given time, for the interviews and
translation tasks, different numbers of participants were recruited – 10 CTs, 11 TTs,
13 STs while for the questionnaires, 90 participants were distributed equally among
the groups. This means every translator group has 30 questionnaire respondents.
From the two recruitments above, it is discovered that the numbers of
participants for interviews and translation tasks for TTs and STs were amended,
while STs remained the same. The alteration of participant numbers could not be
avoided since they sent their late notice for their involvement into the research that
gave little time for the researcher to reconsider their recruitment status. Instead,
turning down their participation might be considered unethical which is against one
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of the five main ethical research principles that is to pay respect to every participant
in our research (Wester, 2011). Most of all, they were still recruited with the
consideration that if one or two participants dropped their participation, the last
recruited participant could substitute them. This anticipation is relevant to what
Malterud, Siersma, and Guassora (2015) advise in recruiting research participants to
collect more participants than the ones as planned in the research proposal to avoid
the risk of missing participants during the data collection.

If compared to the previous studies, 34 translators assigned for interviews and

translation task for the present study can be considered adequate to serve as the total
numbers of the research participants, representing three translator groups.
Khammyseh (2015) and Dweik and Helwah (2014) , for example, consecutively
recruited 23 and 20 MA translation students for their studies in investigating
religious expressions or texts into English. With more numbers of participants in
similar investigations, Al-Harahsheh (2013) employed 48 undergraduate students,
while Dweik and Shakra (2010) involved 35 MA translation students into their
studies. For Indonesian context, unfortunately, the present study could not locate the
involvement of translator participants since most commonly the research in Islamic
term translation have been based on the published translation products such as novels
(Mahmud et al., 2018; Pudjiati & Ernawati, 2016), research papers (Farkhan, 2017),
and Indonesian bulletins (Suriadi, 2017).

Participating translators in this study need to meet certain criteria to be part of

the research. This study requires them to hold translation backgrounds in either
formal or informal education and have experience in translating texts in Islamic
Studies. It is quite important for the purposes of this study to ensure that participants
have similar knowledge backgrounds before the research could begin. While the
former is imperative, the latter is contextually dependent on the availability of
translators with Islamic text translation experience. Most importantly, translators are
fully aware of participating in this study without feeling any pressure from external
parties. By signing the consent, participants agree to translate the text, undertake the
interviews, and fill in the questionnaire. They also reserve the right to receive
honorariums and gifts as acknowledgement for participation in this research.
The study also sets out specific criteria from one group to another. The
participants from ST group are required to submit their 500 TOEFL paper-based

66
score or equivalent to indicate their medium English mastery. The study reveals that
their TOEFL score is 511 in average (see Appendix 1). This means the students are
intermediate users of English (see https://www.ets.com). With this moderate
competence in English, it is expected that English is not a problem for the students in
translation. In addition to this, they should also have enrolled in two translation units
offered by the English department with the aim to provide basic knowledge in
translation. Translating experience is not compulsory, as they are still studying;
however, for TTs and CTs, the study expects at least two years’ translating
experience. According to Gile (2009), the length of translating experience may
indicate their professional work as translators. In the case of CTs, their expertise is
certified from Himpunan Penerjemah Indonesia (HPI) or the Indonesian Translator
Association that can be accessed in https://www.hpi.or.id. In addition, translators
must also hold a registered identity number to indicate they are qualified to offer
translating work professionally.

With the three translator groups in mind, the study organises different
recruitment approaches. The study starts with STs – here the researcher, who is one
of the faculty members at the university, attends their classes. Easy access to these
classes facilitates the researcher’s efforts to deliver the recruitment information
successfully. If they are interested in participating in this research and meet
participant recruitment requirements, students are invited to take the participation
consent home and send it through to the researcher later. In total, the study received
around 13 student participation consents, consisting of four male and nine female
students who then officially joined the research as participants. These students are
mostly third- and fourth-year students in undergraduate classes of English as a
foreign language program at an Islamic state university in Bandung, Indonesia.
In contrast to STs, the recruitment process for approaching TTs and CTs was
not as easy as planned. Translators were contacted through WhatsApp or emails as
this contact information is available in the teacher directory at the university or their
personal or professional social media platforms. Few replied and showed no interest
to join. The study also announced information about participant recruitment on the
Facebook walls of the personal or professional translator group. The study elicited
few TTs and CTs responses with little interest shown. After almost two months’
search through Facebook, the study finally received 11 TTs and 10 CTs participant

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consents to indicate their involvement in the present research.
The study reveals that TTs and CTs show various types of information
about gender, educational background, working experiences, and text expertise. TTs
and CTs consist of five females and six males for TTs and two females and eight
males for TTs. Members of the CT group generally hold undergraduate certificates
from an English department while two others’ certificates are from non-English
departments. Different from CTs, TTs consist of four PhDs and six masters in
TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) from English departments of local
universities. TTs are translator teachers that have taught translation units for a
period ranging from four to twenty years. Similarly, CTs’ translating experiences
range from nine to twenty-three years. These various periods of teaching or
translating experience underline their engagement with translation. In addition, TTs
and CTs also demonstrate various types of text expertise. They commonly offer
translation for different types of texts on topics such as education, law, religion,
politics, etc. Academic text translation in Islamic Studies, with which this study is
engaged, is another translation service these translators offer, especially in relation to
journals or print publications.

Once the first participant recruitment was completed, additional participants

were recruited for questionnaires. This second recruitment was not as rigorous as
the first since participants are TEFL teachers, certified translators from HPI or third/
fourth year students from English departments where they possess translation
experiences from Indonesian to English or vice versa. Thus, they were willing to
spend ten minutes to complete the questionnaire. For those who agreed to participate,
an internet link to fill in the online questionnaire was provided through their
WhatsApp number or Facebook personal wall. They could complete this anywhere
and anytime if they had internet access. The study received 56 replies to the
questionnaires and in return, each participant was given a key holder as a gift for their
participation.
Since the study involves several participants, it is important that certain codes
were made for identifying every participant’ data collection. Two codes were created
to identify the translator group and each translator member. Codes for the translator
group use the first letter of each group names, for example CTs for Certified
Translators, TTs for Teacher Translators, and STs for Student Translators. Referring

68
to the total number of participants in each group, the codes for identifying individual
translators within the group use numbers from one to thirteen. Using these codes
means participant identity is kept private. For example, ST1 means that the translator
comes from the student translator group and this translator is identified as number
one within the group. The same code rules also apply for other participants from TTs
and CTs. The complete codes for research participants can be seen as follows.

Table 4. 2 Codes for research participants

Certified Translators Teacher Translators Student Translators

(CTs) (TTs) (STs)
CT1 TT1 ST1
CT2 TT2 ST2
CT3 TT3 ST3
CT4 TT4 ST4
CT5 TT5 ST5
CT6 TT6 ST6
CT7 TT7 ST7
CT8 TT8 ST8
CT9 TT9 ST9
CT10 TT10 ST10
TT11 ST11
ST12
ST13

Above all, this study describes two recruitment systems, requirements, and
approaches to the research. This research recruitment must be ascertained before it
moves to collect data. Previously, this study required all participants to possess
experience in translating texts in Islamic Studies; however, due to a lack of qualified
participants, others were permitted to join as long as they met other prerequisites of
participant recruitment. Finally, 34 research participants and additional 56 for
questionnaire participants joined the research. Grouping participants into STs, TTs
and CTs assist in comparing data collection among the groups.

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 4.4 Data Collection

The data collection informs how the project collects data from the translation
tasks, interviews, questionnaires, and raters’ translation quality scores. This research
uses all data collection techniques to answer four research questions of the study.
This section organises the data collection into material and procedure. The material
describes the creation of necessary documents needed for these data collection
sources while procedure details the steps to collect the data.

4.4.1 Raters’ Translation Quality Scores

Raters’ translation quality scores confirm the level of translation quality

degree. Quantification data are required to measure translation quality differences
among translator groups. Two raters conduct measurements of translation quality to
examine realisations of the experiential meaning. This experiential meaning involves
the Islamic term lexical choices and their experiential constructions. The raters are
university lecturers with PhD backgrounds in translation studies and are engaged
with the translation of Islamic terms in their teaching and translation work from
Indonesian to English or vice versa. Further discussion about raters’ translation
quality scores will detail the required materials and procedures.

4.4.1.1 Scoring Sheets

The study provides one sheet of the original text and its translation and
another for the scoring sheet. The original text is paired with its translation. This
helps rate the quality of its translation because it provides an easy access to track
changes from the original to the translation. The text is broken into clauses. This
locates specific assessment to the role of Islamic term group as one of the
constituents in the clause. The text being measured is sealed from the information
about its translator.
Raters, therefore, have no information about specific translator names or their
translator groups. The text in this case is identified with specific codes, for example
TT2. The alphabets TT stands for Teacher Translator and 2 is the participant’s
number within the total number of the teacher translator participants.

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 Parallel with the previous sheet, the scoring sheet is given. The scores range
from 1 to 3 and apply to the text experiential meaning. The scoring system is adapted
from the general measurement of translation quality that identifies 1 for low, 2 for
medium, and 3 for excellent translation quality (Nababan & Nuraeni, 2012). If scores
are applied to experiential meaning, the score is given to the lexical choices and the
realisation of its experiential structure (see Table 4.3). A detailed scoring system
information for the experiential meaning translation quality measurements can be
seen in the following table.

Table 4. 3 Experiential meaning quality scores

High quality Lexical choices are easily understood, and the experiential
structure is used in the target language.
Moderate quality Lexical choices can be read but some words are difficult to
understand. Although its experiential structure is generally
used, the experiential structures still show few
ungrammatical patterns.
Low quality Lexical choices are difficult to understand, and their
experiential structures are unnatural in the target text.

4.4.1.2 Procedure

Translation quality is analysed through simple procedure. This study sent

required files through emails to the raters. The raters received an Excel file consisting
of the original text, the translation, and the scoring sheet. The texts and the scoring
sheet are made in parallel so that they could easily identify any changes that took
place from both texts. Raters are also provided with the scoring rubrics, as shown in
the figures above as the basis of their judgements. They are given two weeks to
complete the tasks and return them. In addition, they are given remuneration and gifts
as rewards for their involvement as raters in this study.

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 4.4.2 Translation Task

The researcher assigns participants to perform a translation task. Translation

tasks are used to collect information about participants’ translation products. This
data collection supplies information for all investigated issues such as quality,
strategy, linguistic, and cultural translation realisations. This is ample evidence of
participants’ translation and linguistic abilities. The study later uses this information
to triangulate studied phenomenon with participants’ interviews and questionnaire
data. The translation task further describes the required materials and the procedures.

4.4.2.1 Material

The material required for the translation task is an abstract of a Master Thesis
in Islamic Studies (see Appendix 2). The author of this study made the decision to
use this abstract as the text for translation because it contains 24 Islamic terms out of
367 Indonesian words. This study argues that it is important to see translators’
behaviours through a variety of Islamic terms that exist in the source text. The
original abstract did not have its English version because university policy before
2004 required every graduate student to write an abstract only in Indonesian. English
or Arabic versions are optionally used based on supervisors’ suggestions.
This academic abstract was further chosen for three reasons as a data source
for this project. First, the investigation is concerned with the translation, not the size
of the numbers of Islamic terms that might be available from a number of abstracts or
a corpus of Islamic terms. Therefore, this project is not oriented to corpus-based
research. Nor is it focused on the number of Islamic terms in the abstract. To meet
this goal, one abstract that consists of a number of Islamic terms is required for this
purpose since it studies how the Islamic terms are translated in a short academic text
in terms of translation strategies and techniques, quality, linguistic factors, and
cultural factors.
Since the focus is given to an academic text related to Islamic Studies, this
abstract may represent this academic text that contains Islamic terms needed for
linguistic (involving the Indonesian, Arabic, and English languages) and cultural
(involving Islamic and English cultures) analyses in the translation context. This
abstract accommodates these requirements, and thus, it is relevant for further
analysis. This second reason is also closely related to the abstract's selection over

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other abstracts in that the number of Islamic terms is deemed sufficient for further
investigation. The most difficult part in choosing the abstract for the translation is to
negotiate the numbers of the Islamic terms and to match them with the possibility to
explore them from the linguistic and cultural points of views.
This academic abstract was chosen further for a brief, clear, and complete
message about the topic of Islamic Studies, in which Islamic terms are used. It is
important to make sure that the Islamic term uses are easily understood since it
provides a clear context for the translators before the translation begins (Gutt, 2005).
Besides that, such an academic translation requires a high level of intercultural
translation knowledge, skills, and culture-appropriate attitudes that should be
reflected to every use of Islamic terms in the target text. Therefore, the analysis
qualitatively explores every Islamic terms used in the source text, and compares them
with their translations in the target text.

Table 4.4 shows twenty-four Islamic terms in the source text. Some terms
appear more than twice (numbers 1 to 12) while the rest appear just once. The most
common appearance is shown by Hadits with 21 occurrences. This specific jargon
appears as one word, as well as compound words. The word Hadits collocates with
ulama in ulama Hadits, ahad in Hadits ahad, dha’if in Hadits dha’if, and matan in
Hadits matan. These compound words are transliterated from the liturgical sounds of
those words in Arabic. Islamic terms in Indonesian context are written in the same
order as that of Arabic. Some Islamic terms also use Indonesian affixes such as
pendakwah (preacher) that derives from an Indonesian affix –pen combined with the
Arabic root word dakwah. The use of this specific jargon thus shows that this abstract
is intended for readers in Islamic Studies. A complete list of Islamic terms used in the
original text can be seen as follows.

Table 4. 4 List of Islamic terms in the source text, Indonesian

Islamic terms English translation*)

Hadits (prophetic tradition)
Ulama (scholar)
Nash (text)
Matan (content)
Sanad (chain)
Kitab (book)
Al Qur’an (Islamic holy book)

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 Hujjat (argument)
Shahih (valid)
Muhaddits (Hadith scholar)
Fiqih (Islamic jurisprudence)
Umat (people)
Takwil (to interpret)
Mungkir al-Hadits (Hadith refuter)
Hadits ahad (true Hadith)
Aqidah (belief)
Dalil (argument)
Hadits dhaif (defected Hadith)
Dakwah (preaching)
Tafsir (interpretation)
Al Sunnat (Hadith)
Mashlahat (benefit)
Tashih (to interpret)
Istinbath (to formulate)

*) own translation

The study classifies Islamic terms in Table 4.4 into two types - specialised
terms in Hadith Studies and general Islamic terms. This classification refers to the
case of specific financial terms as opposed to general financial terms when
translating financial terminology from Arabic to English (Abdihakim, 2019). The
differences between these two terms are based on the specificity of use in a particular
study (i.e. Hadith study). General Islamic terms are terms taken from Islamic texts
(al-Qur’an or its exegeses or other relevant texts) used by people in general or
Muslims (Islamic followers) in their everyday conversation, not necessarily about
Islamic-related issues. Besides that, specific Islamic terms are also considered
technical terms of Hadith study; terms that people inevitably use to learn Hadith. For
the rest of the project, this study uses Islamic terms to refer to both terms.

4.4.2.2 Procedure

The research procedures consist of steps to perform the translation. As soon

as participants agreed to join the research, the researcher directly sent them detailed
information about procedures to perform the translation and attach the text that they
needed to translate. The study provided a week for them to translate the text.
However, if, for some reason they could not make this deadline, they could notify the
researcher early to renegotiate a submission time. For those who agree to submit their
translation within seven days but fail to do so, the researcher reminds them again
about their obligation to send results of their translation. Finally, within three

74
months’ data collection, all translation products were eventually collected.
The study shows that different participants submitted differently – either
online through an email attachment or manually by handing over the translation
document. Almost all CT participants chose the former while STs and TTs chose the
latter. The preference is based on participants’ choices considering distance and time
constraints. Usually an appointment was made to meet somewhere on campus before
or after class. Translators handed over printed texts while only one participant from
TTs provided a handwritten text. The study downloaded the translated texts in
document files and scanned the printed papers into pdf files. The study labelled every
translation product by participant code and classified them based on translator
groups. All translation products were finally saved in a specific folder for easy future
access.

4.4.3 Interview

The study uses the interviews to identify participants’ verbal information about
certain language and translation issues encountered during the translation process.
Semi-structured interview questions are, therefore, developed to reveal translators’
rationales of certain translation actions related to given issues of the present study –
the quality, strategy, linguistic and cultural translation of Islamic terms. The next sub-
section, therefore, describes the interview protocol material and procedures used to
collect interview data.

4.4.3.1 Material

The study designs questions for interviews that may reflect participants’
behaviours during the translating process related to given issues of the research. The
questions fall into five categories – prior knowledge about Islamic term translation,
translation process, changes of Islamic terms, Arabic culture, additional information,
or suggestions. The study also develops several detailed questions to lead participants
to explore issues that emerge during the interviews.
The first category explores participants’ prior knowledge about Islamic term
translation. This also includes their translation experiences with general texts and
texts in Islamic Studies, some principles in translating Islamic terms, common beliefs
about translation equivalences and difficulties of the encountered Islamic terms.

75
While this category looks at the participants’ translation background, the second
category basically explores information about participants’ actual translation of the
chosen text. This translation practice further examines participants’ activities related
to understanding the source text, the translation duration, translation aids, and
revisions.
The third category is concerned with possible changes to the text as a result of
translation shifts from Indonesian to English. These shifts commonly appear in
forms, structures, and word choices in the target text. Naming the changes and the
reasons for such changes are, therefore, critical to explore. As choices of certain terms
are culturally bound, the next category confirms to what extent culture may influence
their translation, particularly the choices of Islamic terms in the target text. The
interviews conclude with the last category – additional information or suggestions
that participants might possibly have to wrap up the conversation.

4.4.3.2 Procedure

This procedure gives guidance on how to perform the interviews. It firstly

begins with conveying objectives and some technical information about the
interviews. Secondly, it highlights general issues that the study elicits from
participants. Lastly, the step-by-step procedures are informed for each stage – before,
during, and after the interviews.
To begin with, the researcher states the objectives of the interviews to discover
the translation process when they are assigned to translate the text. This also includes
the exploration of participants’ translation background knowledge that might be
necessary to explain the investigated issues. As these two objectives are kept in mind,
the next step is to notify participants of some technical information they should know.
First, the researcher informs the participant about the length of the interviews – around
10 to 15 minutes. Additional time may be potentially required if some contextual
information is needed to provide more information about given issues. Second, the
interviews are recorded, however, if certain information is private, participants may
request the researcher to turn off the audio recorder.
Certain information about the question category is generally highlighted. This
provides coverage of the interviews. Some details were not shared since these queries
might be different from one to another. Finally, information about interview

76
procedures was discussed. The interview began with queries about personal
information, followed by some detailed questions related to the issues being
investigated. During the interview, participants may take a break, for example, to
have a drink, or receive a phone call. Before the interview concluded, the researcher
generally asked the participants whether he/she had additional issues or suggestions
that have not yet been shared. The researcher played the recorder for thirty seconds
before the interview ended to make sure that it was working.

4.4.4 Questionnaire

This section shares information about materials and procedures featured in

the questionnaire. Questions are developed according to different types. The
instruction that follows should then distinguish one type from another. Since the
questionnaire is given online, the instruction should, therefore, be clearly stated and
wordings for detailed questions should be easily understood. For practical reasons,
participants should find instructions and questions simple and easy so they can
readily understand and complete the questionnaire.

4.4.4.1 Material

The questionnaire design formulates raw questionnaire materials, validates

the statements, and outlines question sections. The formulation of question materials
represents the issues of the study. These issues appear in different types of question
sections. Among the questionnaire sections, the Likert scale requires statements to be
validated. Other statements elicit comments on the questionnaire layout and choice
of words. When all revisions were confirmed, sections of questions were finally
generated.
Questionnaire materials were initially formulated from issues related to
Islamic term translation. Raw questions were then obtained and compiled to collect
the numbers of questions that may represent four issues of the study – translation
quality and strategy, linguistic and cultural translation. Selected questions were then
revised so that the wording was easily understood by respondents. The study also
used positive and negative statements or active and passive statements that contained
similar messages in the Likert scale section to indicate the consistency of
participants’ choices. This also aims to avoid random choices by respondents.

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 2. Problematic 4, 11, 14, 16, 20,
21, 25,30
Culture familiarity 28

The complete questionnaire layout consists of six sections – general

instruction, Likert scale statements, open questions, general translation strategy,
translatability of Islamic terms, and personal information (see Appendix 4). Each
section provides instruction and the list of questions. The questionnaire constitutes
different types of questions via a Google form.

The first page outlines the questionnaire objective and its general instruction.
The second section consists of 40 Likert scale statements that represent issues of
quality, strategy, linguistic, and cultural translation of Islamic terms. Respondents are
required to choose one out of five agreement options from strongly agree, agree,
neutral, disagree, to strongly disagree. The third section requires short replies to two
open-ended questions about first, common difficulties and their resolution in
translating Islamic terms and second, Islamic term practical and theoretical
translation with which translators are expected to be familiar.
The fourth section consists of six statements of translation strategy. These use
similar types of questions with five options for degrees of frequency – always,
usually, sometimes, rarely, and never to indicate translators’ regularity in using the
translation strategies. The fifth section investigates the translatability of Islamic
terms in English. Four options are provided – translatable, mostly translatable,
slightly translatable, and untranslatable. The last section requests supporting
information regarding the translator’s educational background, translation expertise,
and other personal information. A complete list of questionnaire sections can be seen
in the following table.

Table 4. 6 Questionnaire sections

Sections Number of
questions
Section 1 Objective and Instruction -
Section 2 Agreement statements 40
Section 3 Islamic term translation difficulties and their problem 2
solving

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 Section 4 Translation strategy 6
Section 5 Translatability of Islamic terms 1
Section 6 Supporting information 3

4.4.4.2 Procedure

The questionnaire features easy to follow, simple procedures. The study sent
the questionnaire link through email and WhatsApp contacts to 90 respondents. Total
participant numbers derive from 30 respondents from each translator group.
Respondents simply click the link and this takes them directly to the online
questionnaire. It takes around 10 to 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire. While
completing this, respondents are provided with assistance should they encounter any
problems. Once finished, respondents press the submit button and results are
automatically stored in the Google drive.

4.5 Data Analysis

The present study analyses quantitative and qualitative data of Islamic term
translation. Both types of data are analysed to respond to the four research questions
of the study (see 1.5). This study uses the analysis of translation, SFL, and a
combination of them to approach issues of translation quality and strategy and
linguistic and cultural realisations of Islamic term translation.

4.5.1 Translation Quality

Analysis of Islamic term translation quality is specific to the experiential
meaning of Islamic terms. The experiential meaning quality applies to the level of
lexis or groups where Islamic terms are mostly established. The present study
analyses the experiential meaning of Islamic terms from their lexical choices and
experiential structures. These two focus on quality analysis and pass through two
stages of analysis – quantitative and qualitative analysis. The statistical analysis
defines whether translation quality is significantly different among translator groups
while qualitative analysis attempts to provide examples or evidence of the former
analysis.

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 The statistical analysis undergoes several processes. It starts with inter-rater
reliability to ensure that raters have the same positive correlation tendency as a
prerequisite to doing further statistical tests. This test is conducted bearing in mind
that scores provided by both raters are not always similar and, therefore, every effort
is made to avoid subjectivity between the raters (Lune & Berg, 2016). Barbour (2018)
adds that inter-rater reliability aims to show the stability of data from the same
measurement performed by different raters. This study computes the Cronbach’s
Alpha reliability coefficient to show higher positive index between raters using SPSS
ver. 28. If a stronger reliability coefficient is discovered, then increased reliability is
established between raters (Plonsky & Derrick, 2016).
Once the inter-rater reliability is discovered, a series of one-way ANOVA
tests are conducted, beginning from Shapiro Wilk’s Normality test, Homogeneity
test, and one-way ANOVA test (Plonsky & Derrick, 2016). According to Lai and
Hitchcock (2015), the Normality test justifies that data are normally distributed if the
significance coefficient is greater than 0.05. The next statistical analysis is to ensure
that data are homogenous. Homogenous data are crucial in providing a foundation
for the one-way ANOVA test. With the significant coefficient higher than 0.05,
translation quality data are ready for the one-way ANOVA test. Finally, when these
three preliminary statistical tests are confirmed, the three groups’ translation qualities
are ready for one-way ANOVA test computed by SPSS ver.28.
The study conducts one-way ANOVA statistical tests to examine the
differences of translation quality among groups of translators involved in this study.
The current hypothesis confirms that H0: µ1 = µ2 = µ3. This explains that among
groups there is no difference in translation quality. Meanwhile, the alternative
hypothesis shows an opposite result to the null hypothesis that there is a significant
difference, which means an alternative hypothesis H1: µ1 ≠ µ2 ≠ µ3 is accepted. In
addition to that, a result can be shown that if the significant coefficient is higher than
0.05, translation quality scores are equal. If less than 0.05, translation quality
generated by different translator groups is significantly different. If diverse translator
groups have different translation qualities, further statistical analysis should be
conducted between translator groups.

When quantitative data are statistically processed, qualitative ones generate

the findings of translation quality concerning lexical choices and experiential

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structures of Islamic terms. Lexical choices are concerned with foreignisation or
domestication of Islamic terms. Examples for each strategy are given and the
meanings are examined as closely related to the intended ones. Analysis of meanings
is also given to the terms’ explanation in brackets. Meanwhile, experiential structures
are also observed for their proper shifts from Indonesian to English. When improper
experiential constructions occur, this indicates that there has been a violation of the
shifts of the Islamic term nominal group constituents that do not function as original.

4.5.2 Translation Strategy and Technique

Translation strategy and technique are referred to the translators’ approach in

dealing with representations of Islamic terms in the target text. The study begins the
analysis by tallying the frequency of translation strategy and technique from Venuti
(2018) with foreignisation and domestication that are discovered from the translators’
translation products. Since Islamic terms also appear in groups such as Hadits ahad,
an integrated strategy is also employed that combines foreignisation and
domestication strategies at the same time. Each frequency of translation strategies
and techniques is examined and results are discussed.
Once the translation strategies are discovered, the analysis uses translation
techniques from Newmark (1988) and Baker (2018) to classify translation techniques
found in their translation of Islamic terms. These translation techniques are generated
in accordance with translation strategies’ classification from Venuti (2018) (see
3.3.3). This study shows tallying to indicate the frequency of each translation
technique as shown in Table 3.1, Table 3.2 and Table 3.3 of Chapter 3, 3.3.3
Translation strategies). The findings are analysed based on the occurrence frequency
of each technique made by each translator group.
This present study also surveys translation strategies used by Indonesian
translators by employing the list of translation strategies from Baker (2018). This
counts the frequency of each translation strategy based on the regularity of their use
in translators’ translating experiences. These translation strategy frequency uses are
also supported with analysis of Likert scale statements that count the agreement
choices – strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree – to indicate
the translators’ agreement or disagreement with each Islamic term translation- related
statement. The last analysis is conducted to explore interview data confirming the

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rationales of their strategy use. The analysis starts by classifying arguments based on
similar theme emerging from the interviews. The study then discusses results based on
the frequency of each theme occurring during the interviews.

4.5.3 Linguistic Realisations

Analysis of linguistic realisations focuses on the findings of Islamic term

nominal group constituents that are shifted into English. The analysis is conducted
based on the proper shift of the nominal group constituent such as Deictic,
Numerative, Epithet, Classifier, Thing, Qualifier, and Focus into the intended
function in the target text. For easy code of each function above, the first letter of
each constituent above is used. Basically, this current study compares the presence of
each realised nominal group constituent and generates the experiential construction
of the Islamic term nominal group.
The analysis of Islamic term experiential construction indicates that the
current study seeks the proper constituent of the Islamic term nominal group to play
its similar function as the source text. This study analyses the suggested experiential
constructions from Indonesian in the target text by identifying the code that
represents each nominal group constituent for every experiential construction found
in the target text. For example, the source term Hadits ahad (TC) appears in the
target text in ‘True Hadith’ (CT). Meanwhile, experiential variants are discovered
from the new experiential construction resulting from the addition or omission of
certain constituent of Islamic term representation. For example, the same Islamic
term Hadits ahad is not realised as above, but ‘Hadith that has a true status’ (TQ).
The current study, therefore, examines every constituent that builds the nominal group
shifting from Indonesian to English to indicate linguistic realisation of Islamic terms.

4.5.4 Cultural Realisations

Realisations of culture in the translation of Islamic terms appear in the choices

of Islamic terms as culture-specific to Arabic and Islam. This means the study
identifies the realisations of Islamic term representations in the target text for lexical
forms including transliteration or translation. If translation is realised, the analysis
identifies the meaning correspondence that Islamic terms create in the target text.

83
This is examined for its similarities with the intended meaning of the source text.
When Islamic term representations are discovered, the study reveals the ideology of
Islamic term translation that may show the likelihood of foreignisation or
domestication ideology of Islamic terms. Therefore, this study incorporates tallying
to show frequency of transliteration and translation of Islamic terms, including new
ones generated by the Indonesian translators.
The tallying frequency is also shown to classify interview data concerning the
role of culture in the translation of Islamic terms. This analysis classifies the
interview data based on the necessities of Arabic culture in the assigned text, the
relationship between language and culture, and the reflection of culture use in the
translation process. Excerpts from the transcript indicating each of the classifications
above are employed. The present study also explores the role of culture in the
translation of Islamic terms from the survey. It identifies the Likert scales – strongly
agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree to indicate disagreement and
disagreement with the statements. The analysis counts the frequency of each
agreement choice and discusses the findings of the six statements provided in the
questionnaire.

4.6 Research Ethics

Research ethics requires every research project that involves human

participants meets the ethic review and seeks approval from the Human Research
Ethics Committee (HRECs). This approval ensures that the research has
demonstrated its compliance to the Australian research ethical principles and thus is
reviewed to be ethically acceptable. This research project has, therefore, received its
ethic approval under the Australian Human Ethics Project H12531. This means that
the HRECs have examined the research procedures that might potentially project any
violation to the rights of the research participants during the research process and
have verified that the participants are free from any external forces and all their rights
are fulfilled during the research including data protection, confidentiality, and
anonymity.

During the fieldwork, the researcher carefully recruited translators by

adhering to the ethical principles that they are free to join or decline to participate in

84
the study (see 4.4.1.2, 4.4.2.2, 4.4.3.2, and 4.4.4.2). The information of participant
recruitment is publicly shared through social media and fliers in campus. The
researcher only makes further contacts to those who have shown their interest and
have met the study requirements to join the research. This recruitment shows no
coercive push to the translators from external parties to join the research but with
their own willingness. Their involvement is thus confirmed through a research
consent that they have understood and signed prior to the commencement of the
research, and this consent indicates that they are aware of their responsibilities and
rights.
The participants have several responsibilities and rights in this research. First,
the participants’ task is to translate an abstract that consists of 367 Indonesian words
into English and is advised to return the result within a week period. A week period
is given with the consideration that it allows the participants to manage the time for
translating the abstract and for doing other jobs. The interviews provide a freedom
for translators to decide to which channel the interviews might be conducted either
face to face or phone call and to decide where they want to meet for the interviews.
They also have the right to cancel and stop the interviews at any time without giving
any reasons or consequences and request that certain information that is considered
confidential not be recorded. They can also fill in the questionnaire anytime within a
week. As the reward for completing all the tasks, their involvement is compensated
with research honorarium for $30 and given a key holder as a gift from Western
Sydney University. Doing all the tasks above shows that the research has complied
with the ethics that sustains the freedom for the participants without feeling burdened
or being pushed to do the tasks and, at the same time, is concerned with the welfare
of the participants.
The study protects the data by storing them in a personal computer folder and
backs them up in the cloud. The data are kept confidential and are only used for
research purposes. This study also ensures that the participants’ personal information
is disclosed from public where their representations are anonymous and identified
with certain codes (see 4.4). The code aims to conceal the participant identity and this
indicates that no personal information is published that reveals their identity. These
data confidentiality and anonymity are upheld to protect the safety standard of
participants’ privacy throughout the research process.

85
 This project updates its annual report to the HRECs to monitor the research in
progress. The ethical report also records any amendments of the materials and
procedures of the research methodology during the study. Through the ethic progress
reports, the research complies with the research ethical principles throughout the
project life. This is an important part of the research assurance to always uphold the
ethics throughout the research process.

4.7 Summary

This chapter has described a mixed-methods approach as the research design

of the study. Qualitative and quantitative data are obtained from raters’ translation
quality scores, interviews, questionnaires, and translation tasks. A review of research
participants, data collection, research ethics, and data analysis is also presented. The
study uses triangulation to combine relevant data to support research questions of the
study. In short, the research methodology explains details of research procedures
employed in conducting the present research.

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 Chapter 5. Translation Quality of Islamic Terms

5.1 Introduction

This chapter describes the findings concerning the quality of Islamic term
translation in an Indonesian context. Translation quality is measured by identifying
experiential meaning quality, which involves two focuses of quality measurement –
Islamic term lexical choices and their experiential structures. The scores for both
translation qualities are taken from two raters using the translation quality rubric from
Nababan and Nuraeni (2012). The mixed-method study involves the translation
quality findings from quantitative data as well as qualitative data.

5.2 Quantitative Translation Quality of Islamic Terms

This section details translation the quality from the quantitative data. As it
involves three translator groups (STs, TTs, and CTs), it, therefore, examines whether
the translation quality is different among these translator groups. The current study
employs one-way ANOVA statistical analysis using SPSS ver.28 statistical software.
This statistical analysis is chosen because it considers the presence of categorical data
(translator groups) and numerical data (translation quality scores). Thus, it basically
compares at least three data groups that match with the current studies’ three
translation quality data generated from three translator groups.
The current study focuses on Islamic term lexical choices and their
experiential structures. This means the study lists qualities of Islamic term lexical
choices in terms of whether they use appropriate transliteration or translation.
Another translation quality analysis pays attention to experiential structures of
Islamic terms that examine the position of Islamic terms within other constituents of
Islamic term nominal groups. Both translation quality elements combine to produce
experiential meaning quality that the study investigates to determine the translation
quality of the Islamic terms.

The current study undertakes several stages of preliminary statistical analysis

before it proceeds with the main comparison analysis. Firstly, the intra-class
correlation coefficient with Cronbach’s Alpha identifies internal consistency between

87
two raters is considered robust (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.88). This means the two raters
provide good stability of quality scores. When conducted separately to the quality
scores of lexical choices as well as experiential structures, they also showed sound
reliability between these where the Cronbach’s Alpha for lexical choices showed
0.85 and experiential structures 0.84. It can be concluded that the data generated by
the two raters have a higher reliability (see 4.5.1), and, therefore, the statistical test
can proceed.
The study conducted the Shapiro Wilk’s Normality test to gauge whether the
data do or do not have a normal distribution. The statistical calculation shows that
translation quality data are normally distributed across translator groups where the
Shapiro-Wilk p-value, 0.7435, is higher than 0.05. The next statistical test attempts to
ensure data are homogeneous. A significant value was observed to be 0.511, higher
than 0.05. After being identified as homogenous, the one-way ANOVA statistical
analysis was next conducted to investigate differences in the translation quality
among the translator groups. If proven different, it could be said that translation
quality is significantly different among translators. Thus, if there is no difference,
there would be no significant difference between translation qualities among
translator groups.
The one-way ANOVA statistical analysis attempts to examine whether
translation quality among translator groups is different or the same. The one-way
ANOVA is generated by SPSS ver.28 to compare translation quality data among the
three translator groups. The results show that the translation quality of Islamic terms
is not different among the translator groups where the result showed F=1.378 and p-
value=.267 (see Table 5.1). Since p-value > α (.05), Ho is accepted, this means the
averages of all translation quality scores among translator groups is considered equal.
If observed individually, the means of translation quality are slightly different among
translator groups (STs=2.4; TTs=2.54; CTs=2.65).

Table 5. 1 One-way ANOVA statistical test of the experiential meaning quality

Source of SS df MS F P-value F crit

Variation
Between Groups 0.349189634 2 0.174594817 1.378474239 0.266979 3.304817
Within Groups 3.926398601 31 0.126658019
Total 4.275588235 33

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 Since translation quality scores derive from two elements of experiential
meaning quality, the one-way ANOVA is also conducted in terms of the qualities of
lexical choices and experiential structures. Like experiential meaning quality, the
individual one-way ANOVA also shows no different translation quality produced by
STs, TTs, and CTs where results show F=.997 and p-value=.38 for lexical choices
and F=1.761 and p-value=.188 for experiential structures (see Table 5.1). Since both
p- values are higher than 0.05, Ho is, therefore, accepted. The average translation
quality scores for both elements are of moderate quality (see Table 4.3). Since the Ho
hypothesis is accepted – which means no difference of translation quality among
translator groups – the study, therefore, does not continue to examine the difference
between groups. Complete results of its statistical analysis appear as follows.

Table 5. 2 One-way ANOVA statistical test of the lexical choices

Source of SS df MS F P-value F crit

Variation
Between Groups 0.301596051 2 0.150798026 0.997899144 0.380187 3.304817
Within Groups 4.68458042 31 0.151115497
Total 4.986176471 33

Table 5. 3 One-way ANOVA statistical test of the experiential structures

Source of SS df MS F P-value F crit

Variation
Between Groups 0.511649527 2 0.255824763 1.76126725 1 0.188588 3.304817
Within Groups 4.502762238 31 0.145250395
Total 5.014411765 33

The means for translation quality scores at lexical and experiential structures
do not appear to show as much difference among translator groups. For lexical
choices, for example, the means show the lowest 2.2 for STs and TTs (rater one) and
the highest (2.5) while means for the highest made by rater two is 2.2, the lowest
score for STs and TTs (rater two) and the highest (2.3). From these data, it is evident
that the lowest means was shown by STs whereas STs and TTs received the same

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means for the lowest scores for lexical choices quality scores. These quality scores
may suggest that rater one and rater two provide different means scores. TTs
appeared to be the highest for rater one while rater two showed the opposite.
At the experiential structures, the same means scores were shown for CTs
(2.3) while others showed different mean scores. Rater one’s score (2) showed a little
higher than rater two (2.2) for TTs and the same thing also occurred to STs where
rater one (2) was higher than rater two (1.9). The current study observes that rater two
considered the means for STs’ experiential structures were of low quality, which
means their experiential structures were unnatural. Besides that, with one point
higher than rater two, experiential structures of Islamic terms are categorised into the
moderate level where it is considered that experiential structures are used with few
ungrammatical patterns.
Overall statistical results confirmed that translation quality at the lexical level
was not determined by the translator group. This may suggest that Indonesian
translators produced similar Islamic term translation. The next section provides
further discussion about qualitative data concerning Islamic term representations in
the target text. Both lexical choices and experiential structures also revealed no
different statistical result i.e., that Islamic terms would look similar in terms of
experiential structures in the overall text. However, the translation quality assessment
by rater two for STs’ experiential structures should be taken into consideration since
it is categorised as low quality.

5.3 Qualitative Translation Quality of Islamic Terms

This section provides qualitative data concerning Islamic term translation

quality. This constitutes supplementary information to describe the quantitative data
of translation quality as previously discovered. Qualitative data consist of two
elements of experiential meaning quality – lexical choices and experiential structures -
and both are examined further in Chapter 7. Lexical choices explore the options of
Islamic term representations in the target text, either transliteration or translation.
Meanwhile, experiential structures focus on the order of Islamic terms at group level
that comply with the English syntax system.

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 5.3.1 The Translation Quality of Islamic Term Lexical Choices

Lexical choices of Islamic terms appear to show in transliteration, translation,

and integration. These three linguistic realisations are the focus for raters to assess
translation quality from the lexical choices’ element. Most commonly, Islamic terms
in transliteration indicate that these terms are specific to Arabic or Islam so they have
barely compatible correspondences in the target text. As a result, the same or
modified version of transliteration would be used. Transliteration of Islamic terms
should be carefully observed for their similar representation in the target text because
it might be possible that translators simply use source text transliteration in the target
text that already has its own transliteration for associated Islamic terms. This study
argues that the transliteration system is relevant according to the target context
transliteration system, for example, Hadith in English and Hadits in Indonesian.
In relation to the dichotomy of transliteration and translation in translating
Islamic terms, this study provides an example of transliteration and translation of
ulama into English. Table 5.4 shows that ulama was most preferably translated into
‘scholars’. According to Esposito (2004) and Jones (2007), ulama derives from basic
word aalim, which means ‘the learned ones’. This may indicate that Indonesian
translators generally choose the appropriate translation of ulama. Table 5.2 shows
80.5% of Indonesian translators used translation rather than transliteration in the case
of ulama. However, the translation of ulama in Islamic phrases ulama fiqih ‘Islamic
law scholars’ was mistranslated into ‘lawyer’. This meaning is certainly not in line
with the original one because the meaning of scholars is reduced. The translation
quality may find this a reduction in translation quality scores.

Table 5. 4 Examples of translation and transliteration of ulama

STs TTs CTs Total

Ulama(s) 16 9 17 42 (12.0%) 19.5%
Ulema(s) 8 9 0 17 (4.9%) (transliteration)
Mufti(s) 0 9 0 9 (2.6%)
Scholar(s) 64 62 75 201 (57.4%) 80.5%
Expert(s) 35 24 16 75 (21.4% (Translation)

Leader(s) 0 6 0 6 (1.7%)

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 The translation of Islamic terms involving their irrelevant transliteration has
potential to create confusion amongst target readers. This, accordingly, might reduce
the quality of these Islamic term translation so that translators would assign different
quality scores to the appropriate ones. Most commonly, raters gave higher scores to
translation quality of proper transliterations while those with correspondence and
description receive moderate scores (see Table 4.3). This also includes the
complexity of writing the Islamic terms in the target text where the Islamic term
Hadith, for example, appears in different translation and transliteration writing styles.
The study discovered the term Hadith appearing in six different styles of
transliteration and in five different styles of translation as can be seen in Table 5.5
(see Aminuddin, et al., 2020, p.22).

Table 5. 5 Transliteration and translation techniques (TTT) of Islamic terms with

examples

TTT of Islamic terms Examples

Transliteration Upright transliteration Hadith

Italic transliteration
Italic transliteration with
explanation in brackets
Italic transliteration with
explanation without bracket
Transliteration with
explanation in brackets
Transliteration with
explanation without the
bracket
Translation Upright translation
Italic translation
Italic translation with
explanation in brackets
Translation with explanation in
brackets
Translation with explanation
without brackets
Hadith
Hadith (prophetic tradition)
Hadith or prophetic tradition
Hadith (prophetic traditions)
Hadith or prophetic tradition
Prophetic tradition
Prophetic tradition
Prophetic tradition (The prophet
Muhammad’s sayings and actions)
Prophetic tradition (The prophet
Muhammad’s sayings and actions)
Prophetic tradition or the prophet
Muhammad’s sayings and actions

The representation style of Hadith also contributes to the complexity of

Islamic terms writing. The analysis shows that the term Hadith appears in six variants

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such as Hadith, Hadits, Hadeets, Hadeeth, Hadist, and Hadis. Of these variants, it
was found that one translator wrote three of them in one text. The total number of
appearances of Hadith’s different representations in the text is around 120 times.
Considering this frequent use, if inconsistent use of Islamic terms is preserved
throughout the text, its translation quality might be affected. In another case, the term
dha’if ‘weak’ was discovered differently presented as in dha’if, daif, dhaif, daeef.
The terms dha’if has already had its correspondence in English; however, some
translators still prefered to use its transliteration style in the target text instead.
Unfortunately, although translators have the right to use transliteration or translation
based on their beliefs, the use of different transliteration styles makes it unfriendly
text for target readers because of inconsistent use of writing different styles in
representing Islamic terms in one text.

The study reveals the case of source text Islamic terms transliteration in the
target text. In fact, the frequency of source text transliteration use was higher than
that of target ones (see Table 6.4 and Table 6.5). In terms of translation quality, the
use of the source text transliteration system reduce the quality of texts because
translators used irrelevant terms inappropriate to the target context. For example,
although some translators used the term matan as the ‘contents of Hadith’ or ‘texts’
in English, most Indonesian translators preferred to use this term instead of matn.
Such cases of using source text Islamic terms in the target text raise issues of
irrelevance in translation.

Due to their unfamiliarity, some Islamic terms were also found to provide
brief explanatory information in brackets. The analysis finds that these short
explanations appearing in brackets occurred more frequently compared to other short
explanatory styles. Table 5.6 shows that TTs became the group using short
explanations in brackets at a higher frequency compared to STs and CTs. In view of
the fact that CTs were the lowest frequency user group of short explanations use, this
indicates that CTs preferred to use pure transliteration without any short explanatory
use. In contrast to CTs, TTs seemed to frequently provide brief explanations for
Islamic terms.

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Table 5. 6 Term’s brief explanatory notes

Short explanation STs TTs CTs Examples

Brackets 36 60 48 sanad (chains)

Comma 8 1 2 matn, a content of a Hadith
Dash 1 0 0 a matan- core of Hadith
Oblique line 0 1 0 proper source/origin
Or 4 0 1 Hadith dha’if or weak Hadith
Total 51 62 49

Some Islamic terms with brief explanations figure in the first appearance of
terms, and others have the additional words. However, this creates unnecessary
information that might jeopardise the layout of the text. Using one or two words as
short explanatory notes to accompany the terms would achieve nothing if these were
only a few Islamic terms. However, if many Islamic terms require these short
explanation, this is not good practice in translation, as the text becomes too wordy,
lengthy and more difficult to read. In fact, the study recorded the longest description of
the Islamic terms in this study involving 14 words in brackets (see Table 5.7). Some
Islamic terms with examples of their long explanatory are provided as follows.

Table 5. 7 Examples of Islamic terms with long explanation

Hadith (the narration of an event from the life of Prophet

Muhammad)
some muhaddith (specialists who profoundly know and narrate Hadith)
the Hadits ahad (the Prophet’s saying told and strengthened by two or more
people)
Sanad (people who receive the hadith from Prophet Muhammad
saw)
Sanad (a group of persons that connect the content of Hadis to
prophet)
Hadith matan (the content of Hadits which refers to prophet statement/
action mentioned after sanad)

Hadith matan (referring to content consisting statement or action by

prophet and is mentioned after sanad)

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 Translation quality was also affected by Islamic terms with correspondence
and description appearing throughout the text. Words in brackets supply additional
detail to the text, and this creates extraneous information for target readers. This
becomes especially evident when translators translate abstracts for academic papers
that should be concise not superfluous in style. In describing both comparisons of
Islamic terms’ correspondence and description, Table 5.8 shows that Islamic terms
with description appeared to twice as frequently as correspondence. This finding
substantiates the fact that Indonesian translators treated Islamic terms they were
translating as culture-specific. In other words, they need to describe the words to
provide explanation for the meaning of the terms.

Table 5. 8 Islamic term explanation

Islamic term explanation STs TTs CTs Total

Islamic terms with correspondence 13 29 22 64

Islamic terms with description 55 46 20 121

Translators attempted to provide correspondence and description in brackets

to accompany terms. The study analyses that correspondences generally closely
agreed with the intended meaning, for example, ‘texts’ for matan or ‘chains’ for
sanad. However, these words are corresponding words that describe general meaning
but fail to convey specific meaning as the original. For example, the text for matan is
considered general because the intended meaning refers to ‘the content or text of a
Hadith report’ (Esposito, 2004, p. 196). The same case also occurs to sanad, which
was translated into ‘chains’. The study argues that ‘chains’ is insufficient to send a
complete message about sanad, but should appear in context to ‘the chain of the
narrators of a Hadith’ (Çakan, 2010). Çakan (2010) and Brown (2017) agree that both
matan and sanad are two important components of Hadith measurements.
The short or long explanation of Islamic terms aims to provide description
about the meaning of the terms, as these words do not have their correspondences in
the target text. Providing terms’ description should be performed carefully because
additional words might impact the number of words in the text, especially if the text
being translated is an abstract of an academic paper. For this reason, when translators

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provide additional information about terms, this should be as brief as possible. Table
5.8 above clearly provides examples of lengthy description that consist of more than
ten words. The two descriptions of sanad (see Table 5.8), for example, manage to
refer to the meaning of sanad, thus having the two descriptions of Hadith matan.
However, not all descriptions of the terms successfully conveyed the meaning
of the terms. For example, fiqh is described as ‘an understanding of Islam in general’.
This description is not erroneous because, based on its etymology, fiqih originally
means ‘knowledge’ or ‘understanding’ taken from the verb faquha, which means ‘to
know or to understand’ (Jones, 2007). However, the study found that the translator
seemed to choose another meaning of fiqh, which was not intended in the text. The
associated meaning of fiqh, as the text requires, refers to ‘the law’ that deals with the
body of legal rules in Islam (Esposito, 2004). Given the meaning interpretation of the
terms, fiqh is an example of a multi-meaning word that translators should be careful
with when selecting appropriate meaning according to the text (Qorchi, 2017).
Another case of fiqh also showed the same occurrence when combined with the
Indonesian word ahli ‘an expert’ to become ahli fiqih ‘Islamic law scholars’. One
translator translated this as ‘a lawyer’, which the study argues is irrelevant in the
context of arguing Hadith in Islamic Studies.

When a multi-interpretation of Islamic term meaning occurs, as an example

of fiqh above, this would reduce the quality of its translation. However, when Hadith
is interpreted as Bible or hujjat is interpreted as ‘blasphemy’, the quality of the
translation depicts these as meaning errors. As a result, translation quality is graded
using the lowest score because these are incorrect meaning interpretations. These two
examples of meaning errors confirm that although translating Islamic terms should
be handled differently from translating general texts, due to meaning specificity,
errors of meaning interpretation occur and this might result in ambiguity. Two STs
were found to substitute Hadith for Bible and the study finds this leads to different
references. Similarly, one CT made an error with hujjat, interpreting this as
‘blasphemy’. The study considers this an intolerable error, which points to the fact
that some translators seemed to ignore the context of translation. The study argues
that the translator failed to understand the context of Hadith validity measurements
since ‘blasphemy’ is not a register of the text context. Failure to understand context
results in poor translation quality.

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 Translation quality also considers attempts the translator conducts to decipher
meaning of Islamic terms. The study argues that not all Islamic terms should be
rewritten in the target context. These should be seen from their translatability in the
target text – as Baker (2018) confirms, cultural terms can be translated with certain
degrees of translatability. In relation to the terms’ translatability, the survey finds that
most Indonesian translators believe Islamic terms can only be partially translated.
This means there is still a degree of terms to be translated, although translation cannot
completely convey specific messages, for example, ‘texts’ for nash or ‘books’ for
kitab. Generally, the study identified that the two translations resembled both Islamic
terms. However, since they referred to divine manuscripts such as the Qur’an and
Hadith, some translators added the word ‘religious’ to texts (religious texts) or ‘holy’
to ‘books’ (holy books). In terms of translation quality, this makes the texts more
specific, and as a result, the translation quality improves.

5.3.2 Translation Quality of Islamic Term Experiential Structures

The present study identified that the translation was not only concerned with
changing or preserving Islamic term lexical choices, but also another focus of the
translation quality of Islamic term experiential structures should be examined. As
Islamic terms appear to be part of the nominal group, the study is concerned with the
translation quality that deals with the completeness and the orders of the nominal
group constituents in the target text. When these two aspects of experiential structures
occur, omitted and disordered constituents would influence text comprehension.
However, Indonesian translators have managed to successfully shift the functions of
the Islamic term nominal group into the target text although a few experiential
constructions still reveal ungrammatical patterns. Indonesian experiential structures
are the opposite of English. This means the order of the nominal group constituents is
different. For example, Hadith dha’if would be translated as reversible into ‘weak
Hadith’. Dha’if as the classifier for Hadith occured after the Head noun. After
translation, its position moved to before the Head noun to comply with the English
syntax system as in the above shown example. The following example may illustrate
how the repositioning takes place based on the appropriate nominal group constituent
order from Indonesian to English.

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 Indonesian: Hadits dha’if

English: Weak Hadith

While general experiential structures are reflections of the original

experiential structures, a few ungrammatical patterns of the experiential structures
were discovered. For example, when Hadits dha’if was translated into ‘weak
Hadith’, as the example above shows, a few Indonesian translators preserved the
Indonesian nominal group constituent order in the target text. In terms of translation
quality point of view, these phrases might create confusion for target readers trying to
understand the concept that the Islamic terms try to project. As a result, since such an
order is not commonly practised in an English context, its translation quality can,
therefore, be affected and raters might assign low scores for this. While such a term
might be considered as culture-specific, from the linguistic point of view, the study
argues that the case of dha’if serves as a classifier for Hadith; therefore, its function
should be preserved, not the position as the original. An illustration of this
inappropriate nominal group constituent order can be seen as follows.

Indonesian: Hadits dha’if

English: Hadith dha’if

Since the translation of Islamic terms generates Islamic terms with

correspondence and description, from an experiential point of view, the analysis
discovered that this added new constituents to the existing nominal group
experiential structures. From a translation point of view, this may suggest that new
experiential meanings can be argued to have changed from the original. Accordingly,
translation quality would also change because the target text no longer resembled the
source text. These variants, as the study discovered, exceeded the suggested types of
experiential structures of the source text by generating 6o variants as the new
experiential structures in the target text, part of 20 suggested experiential structures in

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the source text (see 7.5). Examples of Islamic terms with correspondence and
description can be seen as follows.

Indonesian: Shahih (Shahih=Thing)

English: Shahih (authentic) (Shahih=Thing1; authentic=Thing2)

The example above shows an addition of accepted variant of experiential

structures. Given the target text consisted of Thing1 Thing2, which was previously
Thing only, this new experiential structure did not change the original meaning
because the other Thing (Thing2) referred to the same reference as Thing1. However,
in terms of translation quality, the addition of terms’ correspondence and description
in brackets to the whole terms in the text would lower the translation quality, as the
supply of extra words can be argued to create a decrease in text comprehension.
The addition of Islamic terms with correspondence and description has not
always resulted in Islamic terms losing original meaning. For example, when kitab
was translated as ‘books’ in English, both preserved the function as the Thing (the
Head noun). However, a few translators were found to add ‘holy’ to ‘books’ to
become ‘holy books’. A new meaning was found where ‘holy’ – acting as classifier
to ‘books’ – makes Islamic terms more specific so that the word ‘holy’ associates
with the divine books, in this case, the Qur’an and Hadith. From the translation quality,
this improves the readability of terms because when it is left as ‘the books’, target
readers might regard it as a regular text. However, another case of addition to
existing experiential structures – that change the meaning when a new word replaces
the position of existing functions of the original – is illustrated as follows:

Indonesian: Hadits shahih (Hadits=Thing)

English: Hadith’s status which is valid (Hadith’s=Possessive Deictic)

The above example shows that a shifting translation creates irrelevant

experiential meaning. Changes in constituent position are common in translation;
however, it becomes inappropriate when this shifting changes the function. It was

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observed that Hadits in Indonesian played as the Thing. When it moved to English, it
was preserved at the beginning of the terms and confirms a different function was
created that is Possessive Deictic. This new function occured in the target text but
failed to communicate the same function as the original. Shahih, another example,
played the role of Classifier to the Head noun (Hadith). However, the new position
functions as Qualifier – providing extra information that is not as essential as
Classifier. As a result, this changing function certainly results in inferior quality
translation.
There were several excessively long sentences in the source text. The
presence of the Qualifier at group level contributes to the text's complexity. Because
Qualifiers provide additional information to the Head noun, their appearances are
frequently incorporated into the clause's participants or circumstances. These would
start with a preposition to create an embedded phrase, and with relative pronouns or
use of verbs to result in an embedded clause. More qualifiers in the text complicate
the Islamic term nominal group as constituents make it too wordy to read. The
addition of Qualifiers, as shown by the second and third examples, accordingly,
affects Islam terms translation in terms of it becoming overly wordy and superfluous.
The following examples illustrate Qualifiers (identified with single and double
brackets) within the Islamic term nominal group.

a Hadith [as a hujjah]

a fiqih (Islamic law expert) [[who has an ability to comprehend

the meaning of Hadith]]
the second book [[functioning as a guideline of the
Islamic followers after the Quran]]

This current study discovered that experiential structures of nominal groups

mirrored the source text within the target text. This means that translation quality
may consider these as appropriate experiential structures. Generally, the study
showed that experiential structures of Islamic terms were mostly categorised into
moderate levels where text was readable and understandable with few errors found.
Few errors deal with the replacement of the constituent function that creates
incompatibility between functions in the translation contexts. Ultimately, experiential
structures are crucial elements in translation quality as they determine shifting
meaning.

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 5.4 Summary

The present chapter describes findings concerning translation quality of

Islamic terms. Statistical analysis confirms that translation quality shows no
significant difference between translator groups. This translation quality positions all
translator groups as being of moderate quality where lexical choices are easy and
understandable yet may still contain a few ungrammatical patterns. Two translation
quality data are presented – Quantitative and Qualitative data – and these aim to
provide comprehensive results for translation quality. This mixed-method study
confirms that translator groups do not contribute to any differences in translation
quality of texts they are translating. Two elements of translating quality – lexical
choices and experiential structures – complete the factors involved in looking at the
qualification of Islamic term translation quality.

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 Chapter 6. Translation Strategies and Techniques of
Islamic Terms

6.1 Introduction

While Chapter 5 is concerned with the quality of Islamic term translation, this
chapter investigates their influence on translation strategies and techniques of Islamic
terms used in academic abstracts of Islamic Studies in an Indonesian setting. First,
using Venuti's (2018) translation strategy framework with foreignisation and
domestication strategies, the study discovers the different types of translation
strategies and techniques observed in translation products. Second, based on Baker’s
(2018) translation strategy, this study investigates the frequency degree of translation
strategy use. Third, this study also reveals the rationales of Islamic term translation
use in questionnaire and interview data.

6.2 Translation Strategy and Technique: Translation Products

This section discusses the findings of three translation techniques employed

by three groups of translators in translating Islamic terminology in their translation
output. The study first describes the overall frequency of each translation strategy
and technique, followed by the production of each translation strategy and technique
among translator groups. Second, each strategy frequency per group is indicated in
the study. After mentioning the frequency, the decision is reached to link what the
frequency means to the overall translation strategy and the translator groups.

Table 6.1 summarises the translation strategies and techniques employed by

the three translation groups in order of frequency – foreignisation, domestication, and
integrated strategies. The study found that the majority of translators appeared to
employ the foreignisation strategy the most. This accounts for more than half of the
total strategy frequency that the foreignisation strategy collected. This demonstrates
that, when translating Islamic terminology into English, most Indonesian translators
favoured foreignisation over other types of translation strategies. The domestication
approach came in second with 646 total strategies produced, followed by the

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integrated strategy with 519 total strategies produced. This last strategy frequency
was employed in particular to translate a small number of phrases of Islamic terms.

Table 6. 1 Frequency of translation strategy in target texts

Types of Translation Translator groups Total

strategy STs TTs CTs (n=34)
(n=13) (n=11) (n=10)
Foreignisation strategy 434 352 333 1119
Domestication strategy 232 221 193 646
Integrated strategy 204 167 148 519
Total 1304 1092 1007 3403

Translation strategy frequencies produced by the three translator groups

differ. According to the frequency of translation strategies used by each translator
group, STs used 434 foreignisation strategies, followed by TTs (352) and CTs (333).
The frequency of uses of foreignisation strategy revealed that Indonesian translators,
as represented by these three translator groups, preferred to adopt foreignisation over
domestication strategy. A similar frequency trend from high to low was observed
through the domestication strategy by STs (232), TTs (221), and CTs (193).
Although occurring fewer times than foreignisation, domestication strategy was
demonstrated to be used by Indonesian translators when translating Islamic terms
into English.
Integrated strategies were developed in the case of Islamic phrases. The two
words in Islamic phrases illustrate that the first word might be realised in
foreignisation and another in domestication or just one of them might appear in both
words. This study discovered that STs, TTs, and CTs implemented varying
frequencies of integrated strategies. The use of these integrated strategies reveals that
Indonesian translators not only do not supply Islamic terminology in foreignisation
or domestication, they also employ them simultaneously. According to the findings
of this study, this may be dependent on the degree of translatability of specific
Islamic words and phrases. The overall translation strategy frequency, like the
individual strategy frequency per group, reveals distinct strategy frequencies per
group – STs (1304), TTs (1092), and CTs (1007). This might imply that STs were
more productive than TTs and CTs in terms of translating Islamic words and phrases

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utilising these integrated strategies. This research expands on each translation strategy
by producing numerous translation techniques.

6.2.1 Foreignisation Strategy

Within the foreignisation strategy, this study found five translation

techniques. The first three borrowing techniques include pure borrowing, borrowing
with correspondence, and borrowing with description. The pure borrowing technique
was distinguished by its use of simply transliteration, whereas the other techniques
utilised transliteration with extra expressions. Each translation strategy was shown in
turn, for example, by translating aqidah into the target text, as in (1) aqidah/aqeeda,
(2) aqidah or creed, and (3) aqidah ‘belief system in Islam’. The final two techniques
– new Islamic terminology and addition – were also part of foreignisation strategy,
which required further discussion in terms of each translation technique.
According to the findings of this study, most Indonesian translators employed
a foreignisation approach based on pure borrowing (881), followed by borrowing
with description (121), borrowing with correspondence (64), new Islamic words (30),
and addition (23) (see Table 6.2). Although the pure borrowing technique was mostly
used in translating Islamic terminology into English, other translation techniques
were also used. While new Islamic words and addition procedures were used less
frequently, the total frequency of the first three borrowing techniques appears to indicate
that foreignisation strategy was most commonly used.
This investigation also revealed that certain Islamic term transliterations were
accompanied by correspondences and explanations to help target readers
comprehend certain phrases. When contrasted with and without any description or
relation to these foreign terms, the latter clearly outperforms the former. This
demonstrates that the whole translation groups chose to use Islamic terms in the
original or target transliteration scheme rather than providing brief information about
the terms. In other words, they merely copied the keywords and inserted them into
the target text using a comparable or modified transliteration version (Aminuddin et
al., 2020). However, when comparing the words with correspondence and
description, the latter demonstrates more strategies than the former. This shows that
Indonesian translators prefer to discuss Islamic concepts rather than offer
correspondences for them.

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Table 6. 2 Translation techniques within the foreignisation strategy

Types of translation Translator groups Total

techniques STs TTs CTs (n=34)
(n=13) (n=11) (n=10)
Pure borrowing 349 257 275 881
Borrowing with 13 29 22 64
correspondence
Borrowing with description 55 46 20 121
New Islamic terms 7 14 9 30
Addition 10 6 7 23
Total 434 352 333 1119

Table 6.2 also reveals that the total technique frequencies provided by the
three translator groups differ. STs, CTs, and TTs used the pure borrowing technique
in different ways. The frequencies of pure borrowing techniques in these groups
appear to be greater than the frequencies of other translation strategies. This might
imply that translators' attempts to use transliteration appear to be more practises than
those with the words' brief information. In other words, they simply used or adjusted
the source text's transliterations of Islamic phrases. Similarly, the other two
borrowing techniques with correspondence and description revealed a variety of
realisations of respective technique frequencies. Borrowing with the descriptive
technique, for example, was seen to be performed differently by STs (55), TTs (46),
and CTs (20).
Similarly, the other two borrowing techniques with correspondence and
description also showed various realisations of their technique frequencies. For
example, borrowing with descriptions techniques were observed to be differently
practised by STs (55), TTs (46), and CTs (20). The same is true for borrowing with
the correspondence technique, where TTs yielded 29 technique frequencies, followed
by CTs (22) and STs (13). These data frequency discrepancies showed that each
translation group used a distinct borrowing technique frequency. According to the
study, this might be due to the varying degrees of translatability of specific Islamic
words. Furthermore, it appears that Indonesian translators did not use any of the
proposed strategies for translating Islamic terminology into English in the Indonesian
context.

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 After the borrowing techniques, the last two techniques – new Islamic terms
and addition – were also invariably generated. The new Islamic term technique, for
example, were distributed differently by TTs (14), CTs (9), and STs (7). From these
frequencies, TTs were observed to be higher than CTs and TTs, and this might
indicate that TTs were more productive in creating new Islamic terms than other
translator groups. It seems that the idea to use new Islamic terms is to specify certain
Islamic term references as TT3, for example, considered using the new Islamic term
da’i for juru dakwah ‘religious preacher’. Another example was also given by two
certified translators (CT2 and CT9) that used specific terms faqih as the translation of
ulama fiqih ‘fiqh scholars’.
Additionally, as the least used technique, foreignisation strategy was used as a
translation technique to insert new words into specific Islamic terms, for example,
the word ‘Holy’ in ‘the Holy Quran’ (CT5). This addition seemed to imply that the
translator wanted to make target readers recognise that Qur’an is the holy book for
Muslims, the same status as the Holy Bible for Christianity in the Western context.
This study recorded 10 additions for STs, 7 for CTs, and 6 for TTs. Although they
appeared in a small number of frequencies in this study, their realisations should be
considered as they made differences to the target text.
The study discovered that the three borrowing techniques were not similarly
realised by each translator group. This was shown by the overall total frequency of
the five types of translation techniques within the foreignisation strategy where STs
generated 434 total frequencies, higher than TTs (352) and CTs (333). This might
indicate that by using more borrowings, new Islamic terms, and addition, STs largely
sustained the foreignisation strategy compared to other translator groups.
Further analysis might be concerned with transliteration styles that translators
use in the three borrowing techniques. This study discovered that Indonesian
translators used Islamic terms in the Indonesian transliteration system, despite the
fact that the English transliteration system should appear in the target text. In the case
of pure borrowing technique, Indonesian translators used English transliteration,
Indonesian transliteration, and the combination of both transliterations for Islamic
term phrases (see Table 6.3). Although in principle English transliteration was used,
its total frequency (433) appeared to be not far from the Indonesian transliterations
(404). In addition, integrated transliterations showed the least frequency of all with
44 transliterations.

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Table 6. 3 Types of transliteration styles in pure borrowing technique

Types of transliteration Translator groups Total

styles STs TTs CTs (n=34)
(n=13) (n=11) (n=10)
English transliteration 175 124 134 433
Indonesian transliteration 157 123 124 404
Integrated transliterations 17 10 17 44
Total 349 257 275 881

Like the total frequency of each transliteration type, the total transliterations
of each translator group also showed that translators produced different frequencies
of transliteration techniques. Table 6.3 indicates that the highest translation frequency
was generated by STs (349), followed by CTs (275) and TTs (257). STs appear to
employ higher not only in the total frequency, but also in English (175) and
Indonesian transliteration technique (157). For integrated transliterations, STs and
CTs shared equal transliteration frequency (17). These data imply that the use of
English and Indonesian transliterations does not show a large difference between
them. This further indicates that Indonesian translators seemed to be confused as to
which transliteration styles they had to comply with. This fact certainly raises a
question of source text transliteration relevance in the target context.
Like in the pure borrowing technique, English and Indonesian transliterations
were also used in the borrowing technique with correspondence. However, this time
Indonesian transliterations (46) showed higher use than English (8). This interesting
fact demonstrates that when Islamic term transliterations are accompanied by their
correspondences, Indonesian translators generally prefer to represent Islamic term
transliterations in the target text in Indonesian, not in English, as a suggested
transliteration. Meanwhile, the uses of English transliteration (8) and integrated
transliterations (10) were not largely practised by Indonesian translators. This study
considers that fewer frequencies of these transliterations resulted from the difficulties
they were facing in translating Islamic terms into English. The distribution of those
transliteration styles can be seen in the following table.

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Table 6. 4 Types of transliteration styles in borrowing with the correspondence
technique

Types of transliteration Translators’ groups Total

styles STs TTs CTs (n=34)
(n=13) (n=11) (n=10)
English transliteration 3 2 3 8
Indonesian transliteration 8 24 14 46
Integrated transliterations 2 3 5 10
Total 13 29 22 64

Table 6.4 also shows that the total transliterations of the entire transliteration
styles were differently managed by TTs (29), CTs (22) and STs (13). The data
indicate that TTs and CTs used more transliterations than STs in the borrowing with
correspondence technique. The study further identifies that TTs produced 24
Indonesian transliteration styles, higher than CTs (14), and STs (8). These
frequencies are higher than English and Integrated transliteration styles. English
transliterations were shared almost equally while integrated transliterations seemed
to be differently distributed among the translator groups. These data confirm that the
three translator groups showed differences in using types of transliteration styles in
borrowing with correspondence due to translation and transliteration issues in
translating Islamic terms into English.
Like the use of borrowing with correspondence, different types of
transliterations were also realised in the borrowing with description technique. Table
6.5 shows that Indonesian transliteration (77) is predominant compared to English
(34) and integrated transliterations (10). With the use of more Indonesian
transliterations, the study interprets that it would be no problem for target readers to
understand Islamic terms since their description after the transliterations might help
them with their meanings. However, when the total frequency of transliteration per
group is counted, STs managed to be the highest (55) of the total transliterations styles,
which previously occurred as the least total frequency use in the borrowing with
correspondence technique. This time, TTs (46) and CTs (20) came in the second and
third frequency use that shifted them from the first and second position in the
borrowing with correspondence. Detailed information about types of transliteration
styles in borrowing with description technique can be retrieved from the following
table.

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Table 6. 5 Types of transliteration styles in borrowing with description technique

Types of translation Translators’ groups Total

techniques STs TTs CTs (n=34)
(n=13) (n=11) (n=10)
English 20 7 7 34
transliteration
Indonesian 33 33 11 77
transliteration
Integrated 2 6 2 10
transliterations
Total 55 46 20 121

The table above also shows that Indonesian translators implemented the total
transliteration styles into practice. The highest frequency use (33) was shared
between STs and TTs for Indonesian transliterations while the least frequently
occurring (2) was shared between STs and CTs for integrated transliterations.
Observed to be the most used for English transliteration, as well as the Indonesian
one, STs appear to be at the intersection of which transliteration styles translators had
to follow. Instead, translators practised both Indonesian and English transliteration in
the borrowing with description technique. On the other hand, for integrated
transliterations, STs and CTs managed to share similar frequency use while the
highest was shown by TTs (6). This demonstrates that in the case of Islamic terms in
phrases, one Islamic term was transliterated in English, and another in Indonesian.
This was illustrated in the phrase of ‘matan Hadith’ in the target text. The terms
matan was in an Indonesian transliteration while Hadith was written in an English.

6.2.2 Domestication Strategy

The domestication strategy communicates the original text message in the

target language. According to the study’s findings, this strategy was the second most
employed after foreignisation strategy in translating Islamic terms into English (see
Table 6.6). This domestication strategy was subsequently expanded into five
translation techniques, as shown in the following table: correspondence, description,

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cultural substitution, generalisation, and omission. The study found that among five
translation techniques, Indonesian translators seemed to employ correspondence
technique more than the other four. This highest frequency showed that, as part of the
domestication strategy, translators often substituted Islamic terms with a single target
word, such as ‘chains' for sanad (CT1), with just a few exceptions using two or more
words, such as ‘root source' (TT6).

Table 6. 6 Translation techniques in domestication strategy

Types of translation Translators’ groups Total

techniques STs TTs CTs (n=34)
(n=13) (n=11) (n=10)
Correspondence 175 180 159 514
Description 23 19 13 55
Cultural substitution 12 5 7 24
Generalisation 11 11 6 28
Omission 11 6 8 25
Total 232 221 193 646

Table 6.6 also indicates that the five translation techniques were distributed
differently across the three translator groups. The correspondence technique was the
most common of all translation techniques. In this case, Islamic terms were
represented in target words such as ‘creed’ (ST8) or ‘belief’ (ST12) for aqidah. Also,
aqidah was represented in its description technique. TT8, for example, described it as
‘a principal religious belief’ while ST9 used ‘belief system in Islam’ as the
domestication of aqidah. These correspondence and description techniques were
revealed as having the first and second highest frequency among the groupings when
viewed individually.

Other translation techniques emerged less frequently than the previous two.
STs and TTs, for example, had a comparable frequency for the generalisation
technique. This technique substitutes Islamic terms with their general sense
equivalents, such as expert for ulama (ST3). According to Zaman (2010, 2015),
ulama is the plural form of ‘alim, a person who is knowledgeable in Islamic Studies
or is commonly referred to as a Muslim religious scholar, whereas ‘experts’ refer to a

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general understanding of any fields of activity. CT4 used the term ‘religious scholars'
to refer to ulama in the academic context in Islamic Studies, rather than a general
meaning phrase such as ‘experts.' The word ‘religious' was added to the word
‘scholars' to pinpoint the intended allusion.
The final two techniques, omission, and cultural substitution, had virtually
identical frequencies. The terms penilaian keshahihan Hadits (penilaian=evaluation;
keshahihan=validation) do not contain the word kesahihan in their translations of
‘the evaluation of Hadith' as TT1 experienced. In the target text, this resulted in an
incomplete message. The last one was concerned with cultural realisations in which a
specific cultural reference from the original text was substituted by the target cultural
word, such as ‘proselytisers' or ‘missionaries' for dakwah. ST2 added the term
‘Muslim' to the target word ‘missionary,' resulting in the cultural translation ‘A
Muslim missionary.' While the term ‘missionary’ is culturally associated with
Christianity, the addition of ‘Muslim’ mediates the target readers' awareness of
different cultures in the text they are reading.
These remaining three translation techniques appear in lower frequency and
do not differ substantially from generalisation, omission, and cultural substitution.
The study indicated there were 28 frequencies of generalisation, 25 of omission, and
24 of cultural substitution. These uncommon usages were most likely used to address
a few Islamic words that needed to be integrated into the target text logical structure
and meaning. While individual translation techniques evolved at varying frequencies,
total translation techniques were demonstrated from high to low by STs (232), TTs
(221), and CTs (193). This clearly shows that STs evolved more translation
techniques than TTs and CTs within the domestication strategy.

6.2.3 Integrated Translation Strategies

Integrated translation techniques were applied to a small number of Islamic

phrases in the abstract. This translation strategy was firstly explored through the
foreignisation and domestication strategy. Following this is an analysis of
transliteration styles of Islamic words in either English or Indonesian. Table 6.7 shows
that foreignisation strategy frequencies occurred twice more than those of
domestication. There were 345 frequencies indicated for foreignisation and 174 for

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domestication. These data confirm that integrated strategies consist of more
foreignisation than domestication strategies. This may imply that Islamic phrases are
also culture-specific, like Islamic words where their correspondences in the target
culture are rarely found.

Table 6. 7 Types of translation strategies in the integrated strategy

Types of translation Translators’ groups Total

strategy STs TTs CTs (n=34)
(n=13) (n=11) (n=10)

Foreignisation 139 109 97 345

Domestication 65 58 51 174

Total 204 167 148 519

The integrated strategy employed, as shown in Table 6.7 above, ranged from
high to low frequency as shown from STs, TTs and CTs. This gradable pattern of
foreignisation and domestication strategy frequency also showed that STs dominated
the higher frequency for both foreignisation and domestication strategy, followed by
TTs and CTs with its foreignisation –which is considered twice as common as its
domestication for all translator groups. Total frequency for foreignisation and
domestication for each translator group also showed a similar pattern to individual
translator group where CTs were discovered to be the least group of all to use the
integrated strategies.
Meanwhile, Table 6.8 reveals that Indonesian translators achieved more
English transliteration (207) than Indonesians (141). This higher frequency of
English transliteration indicates that Indonesian translators used the target text
transliteration system correctly. This finding appears to be the inverse of
transliteration style use of all Islamic terms, where Indonesian transliteration style
was shown to be more common than English. With English transliteration being
higher than the Indonesian, it is possible that a limited number of corresponding
words for the Islamic term target phrases is used.

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Table 6. 8 Types of transliteration styles in the integrated strategy

Types of Translators’ groups Total

transliteration styles STs TTs CTs (n=34)
(n=13) (n=11) (n=10)
English transliteration 81 63 63 207
Indonesian transliteration 59 48 34 141
Total 140 111 97 348

Table 6.8 also reveals that each translator group experienced varying
frequencies of transliteration styles. Among the three translator groups, STs were
found to have a higher frequency of both English and Indonesian transliteration
styles than the other two. Also, TTs and CTs had a similar frequency for English
transliteration style, whereas TTs had a higher frequency for Indonesian. Total
frequency for the transliteration style in the integrated strategy was also shown by
STs, followed by TTs and CTs.
This current study intentionally distinguished Islamic terms in compound
words from single words, as revealed by the fact that not only were Islamic terms
used at the word level, but also at the phrase level. It was shown that not all the words
in the compound words Islamic terms were translated into the target text. According
to the findings, one of these was left in its transliteration style, either in Indonesian or
in English. Even though the English transliteration system was ostensibly used, this
study discovered that some Islamic terms were written in the source text
transliteration style. The following examples show some Islamic terms that feature
both transliteration styles.

Source text: Ulama Hadits

Target text: Hadits scholars (TT7) (Indonesian transliteration)

The Hadith scholars (CT10) (English transliteration)

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 6.3 Frequency Degree of Translation Strategy Use

As the types of translation strategy are previously discovered, this section

focuses on the degree of frequency in the use of these translation strategies. The
frequency degree appears in five options such as never, rarely, sometimes, usually,
and always. These frequency degrees are chosen to indicate the frequency of using a
particular translation strategy in the list. The study uses six translation strategies from
Baker (2018) that provide wider choices of translation strategy.
The study surveyed the frequency of translators’ use of Baker’s (2018)
translation strategy. It discovered that translators mostly selected ‘usually’ for five
out of six translation strategies excluding translation by omission strategy and this
becomes the highest frequency of all translation strategies (38.1%). The second total
frequency fell into ‘sometimes’ where translators showed the highest frequency for
three translation strategies (see translation strategy no.1, 2, and 5 in Table 6.9). The
only highest translation strategy for ‘never’ was found in translation by omission. As
most of the translators selected ‘never’ or ‘rarely’ to omit the Islamic terms, this
means they would translate and preserve Islamic terms in the target text by using the
translation strategies as suggested by Baker (2018).
The survey shows that the translators’ favourite strategy in translating Islamic
terms was translation using a loanword (46). This implies that Indonesian translators
preferably borrow the Islamic terms and use them in the target text. On the other
hand, when the loanword strategy is supplemented with its explanation, the
translators seem to use it less frequently. This indicates that Indonesian translators
prefer to borrow Islamic terms without providing their explanation.
The second favourite strategy was using cultural substitution (44). This
strategy is in keeping with Islamic terms that are heavily loaded with religious and
cultural associations so that their similar meanings are substituted by their religious
and cultural counterparts in the target context. In the third order, the translators
preferred to use translation by general word (40). When a specific reference to
Islamic terms is not available in the target context, providing general words could be
an alternative to represent Islamic terms in the target text. Translation by
paraphrasing was in the second least favourable strategy used by translators where
Islamic terms were replaced by related target words. Finally, translation by omission

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 Total 47 76 160 206 51
(8.7%) (14.1%) (29.6%) (38.1%) (9.4%)

The survey reveals no responses were made for certain translation strategies
at certain frequency levels shared by two translator groups. STs and TTs made no
‘never’ responses for translation by general words. Meanwhile, zero ‘never’
responses were made by both groups in translation using a loanword, translation
using a loanword plus explanation, and translation by paraphrasing using a related
word. These zero responses indicate that the two groups used almost all types of
strategies in different levels of frequency. On the other hand, no ‘rarely’ responses
were made in translation using a loanword plus explanation by TTs and CTs. This
suggests that both translator groups used other levels of frequency in translating
Islamic terms.
The study also discovered that individual groups of translators were also
observed to provide zero responses at certain frequencies for translation strategies.
CTs did not respond for ‘usually’ and ‘always’ for translation by omission. This
informs us that the professional translators do not make use of omission with their
translating habits. Zero ‘always’ responses were also found in translation by general
words (TTs), translation by paraphrasing using related word and translation by
omission (STs). This means TTs and STs did not always use the designated strategies
in translating Islamic terms. Lastly, TTs became the only group that did not generate
‘never’ responses in translation by cultural substitution. This means that TTs were
aware that cultural substitution is likely to be used at different levels of frequency for
translating Islamic terms while there were still members of both groups who
considered that cultural substitution would not be suitable for use in the translation of
Islamic terms.

6.4 Rationales of the Strategies in Translating Islamic Terms

This subsection explores the rationales of using certain strategies in

translating Islamic terms. These rationales are concerned with the practice and beliefs
of Islamic term translation strategy. Respondents are assigned to select one of the
agreement degrees to indicate their preference toward the questionnaire statements.

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consistent with statement no 5 where every Islamic term required different translation
strategies. Statement no 2 and statement no 6 shared the same idea that translation of
Islamic terms was required to make the text more understandable and readable for
Western people; target text readers who are strangers to Arabic. Statement no 4 and
statement no 9 also shared similar findings, namely, that translators used Islamic
terms in their transliteration because of their special purpose .
In a further comparison between Table 6.10 and Table 6.11, it was revealed
that the agreement for translation strategy practices was rated higher than that of
other beliefs whereas its opposite was found on the neutral level. These survey
results imply that statements about translation strategy practices strongly described
the Indonesian translators; by contrast, statements about the beliefs categorised them
into uncertain. Uncertainty of belief in translating Islamic terms may indicate that
some Indonesian translators did not show strong conduct of their Islamic term
translation. In other words, some were still unsure about how Islamic term translation
was principally taking place.

6.4.2 Rationales of Islamic Term Translation Strategy: Interview Data

This section provides information about why translators choose certain

strategies in translating Islamic terms. As translators constantly make decisions
throughout their roles, Baker (2018) reminds them to be aware of their choices’
reference information that justify their actions. The interviews thus explore the
reasons for any decisions made by translators during the translation of Islamic terms.
The study finds that four rationales emerge from the interview data and the following
section describes each in detail.

Table 6. 12 Translators’ rationales for using translation strategy

Rationales Frequency
Common practice 26
Reader orientation 22
Types of texts 17
Personal motives 12

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 Table 6.12 shows four rationales for using certain strategies in translating
Islamic terms. The translators most referred to practices where previous translation
works on Islamic terms were made. It seems that by imitating other translators’
works, a clear foundation for them to perform their role is offered. However, some
translators were concerned as to who was going to read their translation when
deciding whether to translate or transliterate the terms. Like the readers’ priority,
translators considered the types of the texts. For them, translating specific text for
specific readers is certainly different from translating general texts for general
readers. The last consideration was the translators’ personal decisions that were
argued to be based on their long practice. According to Del Mar Haro-Soler (2017),
this personal motive most commonly can be ascribed to translators who feel
competent.
The study found that published translation texts appear to be references for
translators in this study to imitate specific translation for Islamic terms. Now different
published texts with Islamic issues, for example – journal articles, dictionaries, books,
are easily accessible on Internet. As these published texts were believed to be
generally accepted academically by publishers or scholars, translators assumed that
accordingly, this validated previous translators’ works. This justification was evident
from one of the translator’s remarked that “I just simply follow the accepted translation
of the terms from the published texts. Search and follow the common spelling of the
terms. That is what I always do” (TT3). Another instance confirming the reference
over translators’ previous works can also be seen from CT5 that clearly asserted,
“Published works in English from other languages are in fact the works of translation. I
just think that when published, the dispute whether certain Islamic terms are
translated or transliterated is no longer an issue. Professionally, translators had to
follow those previous practices.”
It is not just previous practices that translators referred to; the study found
that they also considered readers as their reference in translating Islamic terms.
Identifying the target audience for the translation helped translators mitigate specific
translations of Islamic terms. One CT stated,

We need to know who is going to read our translation. It is important to

find out this information because changing specific registers that have
been an accepted term in particular text, in this case, Hadith texts, may

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 create confusion to the readers of the Hadith Studies (CT7).

In a similar vein, TT3 had the idea, “the reader who wants to know in specific
about Hadith, they should be familiar with the specific-register terms.” For this
reason, the implication is that choices of terms should be made based on given readers
familiar with specific terms.

Concerns over readers’ confusion were further identified. Other translators

suggest that word description should be limited, but brief and clear to avoid confusion
and keep readers’ attention (CT2, CT3, CT4, CT5, CT8, ST8, TT7, and TT10). For
example, ST8 stated, “Since for example, the term sanad has its translation word
chains of narrators of Hadith, I am afraid too many parentheses will ruin the layout
of the text and probably will make readers feel confused to read it.” Further, CT4
added that “If the explanation were a bit longer, I am afraid that the readers would
be distracted. So, I reduced it a little bit.” This information highlights the
importance of considering readers when translators choose strategies for translating
Islamic terms.
The next consideration for choosing a certain translation strategy was to pay
attention to the characteristics of texts. Islamic texts are commonly characterised by
the use of Arabic jargons that explain certain Islamic concepts. The presence of
Arabic terms can be used to identify scholarly works in Islam. This textual
characteristic also helps identify academic Islamic discourse, that the study argues,
attempts to change terms, which might be regarded as distorting cultural and religious
concepts.

Terms such as matan, perawi, sanad, shahih in Hadith Studies

cannot be omitted and changed into English words since they are all
one package. Through the lens of culture, it helps us understand that
when discussing Hadith, certain terms are inevitably used to learn
Hadith. We cannot just translate it into ‘reasons’ for hujjat since
specific meaning cannot be attached to ‘reasons’ but hujjat (TT10).

The previous three references for choosing a certain strategy in translating

Islamic terms derived from factors external to translators. Unlike the first three
references, the last reference was internally driven with the translator taking personal
motives into account in reference to the translation of Islamic terms. These personal

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motives appear to involve self-knowledge, opinions, and translation skills, which
show the uncertainty of word meanings (e.g., discipline-specific, or culture-specific
terms) following a lengthy search of different sources. As a result, this adds to
translators’ frustration and sense of feeling lost, especially when translation of a
Hadith study is not their area of expertise as TT2 described

I am not sure myself because I am not an expert in Islamic Studies. I

am not familiar with some of the Islamic terms either. I just play safe
when I feel uncertain about a particular word; then I just used the
word again.

In addition, translators also relied on their opinions for these personal

motives. This personal judgement can be illustrated as ST8 said, “I just don’t think
that the terms are really important. That is why they need to be translated. They are
just part of Hadith and their realisations are not important in this text.” This opinion
was also based on translators’ personal experience. TT9 further confirmed, “If we
have experiences and a solid reference of readings to it, I believe we have the
freedom to mean something as we wish that depends on the references and
experiences.”
Several suggestions for compromised translation concerning the dispute
above were discovered in this study. It was revealed that first, an inconsistent use of
translation strategy occurred in their translation. This confusion is mostly based on the
status of Islamic terms as subject-general or subject-specific terms. It is important for
translators to understand the status of Islamic terms that are generally terms in a
particular register of Hadith study. Second, the arguments for and against the use of
certain translation strategies should be cautiously managed. The idea of changing or
preserving Islamic terms in the target text should refer to its context as TT11
explained:

… in the beginning, I just look for what possibly the equivalent word
for the Islamic term in the target language. When I think if it makes
sense in the context, then just translate the word. However, if it does
not, do not push yourself to translate the word. If you do, then I’m
afraid the real meaning will not be made, and the readers do not
understand what we mean.

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 The four rationales above are concerned with translators’ considerations as
to why they use a translation strategy. Decisions made in translating Islamic terms,
in fact, represent critical informative processes in translators’ justifications for their
actions, as Haleem (2018) suggests. The study collected these four rationales for
choosing certain strategies in translating Islamic terms and these, respectively, were
based on common practice, reader orientation, text characteristics, and personal
motives.

6.5 Summary

This chapter presents the findings of strategies and techniques in translating

Islamic terms into English in an Indonesian context. It is found that foreignisation
with pure borrowing technique dominates other strategies and techniques used by
Indonesian translators. Information from the survey concerning translators’ strategy
and technique use is also presented, as well as rationales from interviews that justify
translators’ decisions to use a particular strategy and technique.

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 Chapter 7. Linguistic Realisations of Islamic Terms

7.1 Introduction

This chapter presents the findings of linguistic realisations of Islamic terms.

The linguistic analysis was done at a group level where Islamic terms are mostly
established. Informed by systemic functional linguistics (Fontaine, 2017; Halliday
& Matthiessen, 2014; House, 2020), the researcher examines experiential meaning
of Islamic terms through analysing their experiential structures. Firstly, it reveals
the role of each Islamic term nominal group in both source and target texts.
Secondly, it investigates experiential structures in the source text and suggests
experiential structures in the target text. Thirdly, it generates the variants of the new
experiential constructions in the target text. Lastly, it shows shifting errors of the
functional roles of Islamic term nominal group constituents.

7.2. Functional Roles and Experiential Structures of Islamic Terms in

the Source Text

Every constituent of the nominal group has its specific functional role that
constitutes the experiential structure of Islamic terms. These specific roles are the
same in all languages although each position might differ from one language to
another. For example, Hadits dha’if in Indonesian shifts to ‘weak Hadith’ in English.
Although Islamic term constituents move its position from one language to another,
both Islamic terms retain the same function where Thing remains represented by
Hadith or Hadits and Classifier is represented by dha’if or weak. The classifier
provides a specific function as a modifier of classifying the Thing, while the Thing
functions as the entity being referred to, and serves as the Head of the noun. Every
functional role is explored, and examples of each realisation are provided in terms of
how it shifts from source to target experiential structures.

Table 7.1 shows that the experiential structures of the source text consisted of
different functional roles in diverse experiential constructions. Seventeen experiential
constructions were discovered in the source text to indicate experiential structures of
the Islamic terms. The constructions of Thing Classifier and Thing indicate the

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higher numbers of experiential constructions were found in the source text. The third
number was shown through Thing Qualifier constructions, while the remaining 13
experiential constructions showed the shared number of frequency between four,
three, two and one occurrences.

Table 7. 1 Source text experiential constructions

Experiential Constructions Total

Thing Classifier Deictic 1
Thing Qualifier 7
Thing Deictic Qualifier 2
Thing Deictic1 Deictic2 4
Thing Deictic 4
Thing Classifier Qualifier 2
Thing Classifier 23
Thing 20
Thing Numerative 1
Thing Numerative Qualifier 1
Numerative Thing Qualifier 2
Numerative Thing 2
Deictic Thing1 Thing2 1
Deictic Thing 2
Focus Thing 1
Focus Thing Qualifier 3

The above results show that Indonesian Islamic term experiential structures
were mostly characterised with Classifier and Qualifier that determined the referred
Head noun. According to Fontaine (2017), a number of Classifiers and Qualifiers
function to make the text more complex since both provide specific and additional
information about the terms. The classifier in an Indonesian noun group appears after
the head noun, for example Hadits ahad ‘valid Hadith’ (ahad=Classifer). Its
classifier position is the opposite of English. Qualifier positions in Indonesian are
like English in that these appear after the head noun. These function to provide
additional information about the Thing, which is mostly recognised using the
preposition tentang ‘about’, sebagai ‘as’ and the relative clause yang ‘which’ or
‘that’.

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 Table 7.2 shows the distribution of functional roles in the source text. It was
discovered that functional roles appear in existing experiential structures from the
highest to the least shown as follows: Thing, Qualifier and Deictic, Classifier and
Numerative, and Focus. Thing, as the obligatory function, appeared the most. This
means Islamic terms most frequently appeared as the Head noun. Qualifier and
Deictic appeared next to add extra information and specified the reference. Classifier
and Numerative shared the same occurrences in source text experiential structures.
Finally, Focus appeared in the second last position that was recognised as another
identification system of the reference while Epithet – which specified the
characteristic of the Thing or speakers’ expressions toward the Thing – was absent
from the text.

Table 7. 2 Distribution of functional roles in source text experiential constructions

Functional Experiential Examples

roles Constructions (EC)

Types of EC Total of EC
frequency
Deictic 6 14 Hadits tersebut ‘The Hadith’
Numerative 4 6 Beberapa ‘Some Hadiths’
Hadits
Epithet 0 0
Classifier 4 28 Hadits ahad ‘Valid Hadith’
Thing 17 77 Ulama ‘Scholars’
Qualifier 6 15 Matan Hadits ‘Hadith’s texts
[sebagai [as arguments]’
hujjat]
Focus 2 4 Salah satu ‘one of the
ulama scholars’

Note: Words in bold show the assigned functional roles of the left column.

In an Indonesian context, Deictic appears before or after the Head noun. The
current study found a variety of Deictic in Indonesian text such as nya ‘his’, lain
‘other’, tersebut ‘the’, and sebuah ‘a’. Deictic possessive nya can be found in ilmu
Haditsnya ‘his Hadith science’. In this text, the Deictic nya in bold refers to a name
of a person in the text and appears after the Head noun. Secondly, Deictic

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Demonstrative adjective lain ‘other’ can be found in Hadits lain ‘other Hadiths’.
Thirdly, the Definite article tersebut ‘the’ can be found in Hadits tersebut ‘the
Hadith’. This specified the known Hadith, which is the opposite of a n indefinite
article sebuah ‘a’ as found in sebuah Hadits ‘a Hadith’. It shows that the English
translations of Deictic nya, lain, tersebut moved before the Head noun to become
‘his’, ‘other’, and ‘the’. On the other hand, the only Deictic before the Head noun
sebuah remained in its position in English. In addition, while Deictic appeared in the
second rank of EC types with six EC, it was distributed in 14 experiential structures
or in the fourth place.

The current study found Numerative in beberapa ‘some’ and kedua ‘second’
such as in beberapa Hadits ‘some Hadiths’ and kitab kedua ‘the second book’. These
examples show that Numerative in an Indonesian context may appear before and after
the Head noun. On the other hand, Classifier in an Indonesian context is the opposite
of English, as seen in Hadits ahad ‘the valid Hadith’. The example shows that the
Indonesian Classifier appears after the Head noun while English is before the Head
noun. In addition, Numerative and Classifier shared four types of EC or in the third
rank. However, they were realised differently in their total frequency where
Numerative was found in the fifth rank with six experiential structures while
Classifier was discovered in the second rank with 28 experiential constructions.

Thing appears as the most used function that Islamic terms played in the text.
This means that Islamic terms in the word level was mostly found after Thing
Classifier (see Table 7.2) such as matan ‘texts’ and sanad ‘chains’. The Thing was
discovered as the highest function to appear in 17 types of EC, as well as in the total
frequency of EC. After the Thing, Qualifier appears in the second rank with six types
of EC and was distributed in 15 total frequency of EC or the third production of the
total. Qualifier was identified with the preposition tentang ‘about’ such as penelitian
[tentang Hadits] ‘research [about Hadith]’, sebagai ‘as’ such as matan Hadits
[sebagai hujjat] ‘Hadith’s texts [as arguments]’ and with the relative clause yang
‘which’ or ‘that’ such as ulama [[yang menjadi pemerhati Hadits]] ‘the scholars
[[that becomes a hadith observer]]’.

The last functional role was shown by Focus, another identification system
besides Deictic. Focus appears in the beginning of the nominal group in Indonesian
and English, for example, salah seorang mungkir al Hadits ‘one of the Hadith

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refuter’. In this case, translators used Focus as one way of identifying a specific
mungkir al Hadits from several mungkir al Hadits. Martin (2010) identifies Focus as
a branch of an entity group, for example, a slice of bread, or one member of the
family. From the entire functional roles, Epithet was the only one that was not
available in the source text. Given that all functional roles are at stake, the study
further investigates their suggested functions in the target text.

7.3 Suggested Translations of Experiential Structures of Islamic

Terms

This section presents suggested translations of Islamic term experiential

structures. Table 7.3 shows one suggested translation of source text experiential
structures. This study discovered three suggested translations that preserved the same
order of constituents – Deictic Thing, Numerative Thing Qualifier, and Deictic
Thing1 Thing2. These three experiential constructions remained the same when they
moved to English as shown in Table 7.3. On the contrary, the fourth experiential
construction, Focus Thing, preserved the Focus, but changed Thing into Deictic
Classifier Thing.

Table 7. 3 Suggested translations of experiential structures of Islamic terms

Source text EC: Deictic Thing

Sebuah Hadits

Suggested EC: Deictic Thing

A Hadith

Source text EC: Numerative Thing Qualifier

Beberapa Hadits [[yang dikeluarkan oleh
beberapa muhaddits]]
Suggested EC: Numerative Thing Qualifier
Some Hadith [[which were issued by several
Hadith scholars]]

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 Source text EC: Deictic Thing1 Thing2
Baik matan maupun sanad
Suggested EC: Deictic Thing1 Thing2
Both matn and Sanad

Source text EC: Focus Thing

salah seorang mungkir al

Hadits
Suggested EC: Focus Deictic Classifier Thing
One of the Hadith refuter

Besides the same EC, the current study also discovered EC experiences change
due to the shifting process from source to the suggested target EC. According to
Fontaine (2017), changes in nominal group constituent positions naturally occur due
to lexicogrammar requirements of the target text. The new constituent also
commonly occurs especially in the case of a definite article that specifies the
reference in English from Indonesian. These types of Deictic are commonly given to
the Thing that is already known. This study reveals that almost all experiential
structures from Indonesian required Deictic to specify the reference. It was found
that translators seemed to invariably add Deictic to Islamic term nominal group, as
they believed this should be done to accommodate the new lexicogrammar of the
target text (Fontaine, 2017). The author further suggests that although the addition of
Deictic creates changes to the specificity of the reference – which is absent in the
source text - this does not change the intended meaning.

Table 7. 4 One suggested translation realisation from the source text experiential
structures

Source Text EC Suggested EC translations Frequency

Deictic Thing1 Thing2 Deictic Thing1 Thing2 1

Deictic Thing Deictic Thing 2
Focus Thing Focus Deictic Classifier Thing 1
Numerative Thing Qualifier Numerative Thing Qualifier 2

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 Numerative Thing Numerative Thing 2
Thing Classifier Deictic Deictic Classifier Thing 1
Thing Deictic Qualifier Deictic Thing Qualifier 2
Thing Deictic1 Deictic2 Deictic Thing 4
Thing Deictic Deictic Thing 4
Thing Numerative Deictic Numerative Thing 1
Thing Numerative Qualifier Deictic Numerative Thing Qualifier 1

Deictic in Indonesian appears in different positions – in the last position

within the group (Thing Classifier Deictic), in the middle of the group (Thing Deictic
Qualifier), and at the beginning of the group as in English (Deictic Thing). In
addition, Deictic also appears in two Deictics at the parallel position (Thing Deictic1
Decitic2). These Deictics were found to move to the beginning of the group after
translation. Meanwhile, Qualifier in Indonesian and English remains in the same
position after the Head noun while the Thing in Indonesian, most commonly
occurring at the beginning of the group, should move to the position following
Deictic. This study also found the merging of two Deictics into one, as shown in the
following examples. Although one Deictic was omitted, this did not change the
meaning in the target text.

Table 7. 5 The merging of two Deictics into one

Source text EC: Thing Deictic1 Deictic2

Ulama lain nya

Suggested EC: Deictic Thing

Other scholars

Table 7.6 presents more suggested translation realisations of target text

experiential structures. This means that one type of source text experiential structure
can generate more types of experiential structures in the target text. This study
discovered three source text EC, which made two realisations of suggested EC
translations and two source text EC generating four types of suggested EC
translations. This would appear to show that producing more realisations from the
same source text EC may depend on the choice of translation words in the target text.

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Table 7. 6 More suggested translation realisations of the target EC

Source Text EC Suggested EC translations Frequency

Focus Thing Qualifier Focus Thing Qualifier 1
Focus Deictic Thing Qualifier 1
Thing Classifier Classifier Thing 17
Thing Qualifier 1
Deictic Thing Qualifier 4
Deictic Classifier Thing 1
Thing Classifier Qualifier Classifier Thing Qualifier 1
Deictic Classifier Thing Qualifier 1
Thing Qualifier Deictic Thing Qualifier 2
Deictic Epithet Thing 2
Thing Qualifier 2
Epithet Thing Qualifier 1
Thing Thing 19
Deictic Classifier Thing 1

Table 7.6 above shows that one source text EC can generate both the same
and different positions into the target text. The current study found the position
remains the same as found in Thing, for example, ‘scholars’ (Thing) for ulama
(Thing). The same position could also be seen from penelitian [tentang Hadits]
(Thing Qualifier) to ‘research [about Hadith]’ (Thing Qualifier). Furthermore, it
also generated different positions of nominal group constituents, for example, from
Thing Classifier to Classifier Thing. This shifting position occurred because of the
English syntax system, which determined that the classifier should appear before
the Head noun (see 3.5.1).

Besides regular shifting positions, the study also observed other new
nominal group constituents such as Deictic, Epithet, Classifier, and Qualifier.
Deictic and Classifier, for example, could be found from the translation of mungkir
al Hadits (Thing) to ‘the Hadith refuter’ (Deictic Classifier Thing). Deictic appears
to denote previously known Hadith refuters specific to the person being talked

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about in the text, and Classifier referred to Hadith. Epithet appears as the exchange
of Qualifier in the source text. This could be seen from juru dakwah [[yang intelek]]
(Thing Qualifier) to ‘an intellectual preacher’ (Deictic Epithet Thing). From this
example, the Qualifier was shifted to Epithet by changing its position from post to
pre-Head noun. The original meaning was restored, but only the position changed
from Qualifier to Epithet. In addition, it was also found that Deictic appears to
denote an indefinite reference of a preacher in the given example. This example,
therefore, indicates that the Qualifier in Indonesian nominal group constituent can
move to Epithet without changing its intended meaning.
The present study also reveals different frequencies of experiential structures
in the source text as shown in Table 7.3 and Table 7.4. It was found that the
suggested EC of Thing and Classifier Thing appears at higher frequencies than other
suggested ECs. This finding suggests that Islamic terms in the source text generally
appear in the nominal group that consists of one word that functions as the Thing,
and that of two words that function as Classifier Thing. Most Islamic term
experiential structures occurred once or twice in the source text, with a few, such as
Deictic Thing Qualifier and Deictic Thing, appearing four times.

7.4 Suggested EC Translations of the Islamic Terms in the Target Text

The section presents the translation of suggested EC of the Islamic terms. The
study discovered 19 EC of different total frequencies in the target text where each
translator group generated a different number of EC productions (see Table 7.7).
Among the translator groups, as seen in Table 7.7, the study found a different total
frequency of EC production where STs produced 911 as the highest of all, followed
by CTs with 829, and TTs, the least group with 699. STs’ higher production
of suggested EC indicates that among the groups, ST more generally followed
suggested EC translations while TTs did not entirely use EC translation of the
source text.

Table 7. 7 Suggested EC translation realisations in the target text

Suggested EC translations Source Target Text Total

Text STs TTs CTs
Deictic Classifier Thing 3 30 33 31 94

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 Deictic Thing Qualifier 7 140 110 137 387
Deictic Numerative Thing 1 5 4 7 16
Deictic Classifier Thing Qualifier 1 10 9 13 32
Deictic Classifier Thing1 Thing2 1 3 5 3 11
Deictic Numerative Thing Qualifier 1 7 6 6 19
Deictic Thing1 Thing2 1 17 24 17 58
Deictic Epithet Thing 2 28 25 21 74
Deictic Thing 10 267 195 216 678
Numerative Thing Qualifier 2 16 7 16 39
Numerative Thing 2 25 6 9 40
Epithet Thing Qualifier 1 2 0 6 8
Classifier Thing 17 57 50 42 149
Classifier Thing Qualifier 1 17 22 23 62
Thing 19 213 168 173 554
Thing Qualifier 3 55 21 109 185
Focus Thing Qualifier 2 9 3 0 12
Focus Deictic Classifier Thing 1 2 2 0 4
Focus Deictic Thing Qualifier 1 8 0 0 17
Total 76 911 699 829 2439

Table 7.7 also shows that the total frequency of suggested EC translations in
the target text did not always align with the total number of suggested EC translations
in the source text. This indicates that Indonesian translators added more EC
translations that were shifted from other EC. For example, if seen from the total
number of suggested EC in the source text, Thing was the highest. Therefore, it
should generate the highest total frequency of EC translations in the target text.
However, it transpired that Deictic Thing, the third total frequency of suggested EC
in the source text, became the highest total frequency of suggested EC translation in
the target text. In other words, this indicates that Indonesian translators were
confirmed to add more frequently Deictic to the Thing such as from matan (Thing) to
‘the text’ (Deictic Thing) as Apriyanti et al. (2016) suggest.

After Deictic Thing as the highest EC translation, Thing was the second place,
followed by Deictic Thing Qualifier. This EC translation moved one rank to the third
place after being found to be the fourth EC in the source text. Indonesian translators
created this EC translation by adding Deictic to specify the reference and Qualifier to
provide extra information to the Head noun. This might reflect that Islamic terms are
largely identified by the addition of specific references and extra information to the
Head noun of Islamic terms such as in the following examples.

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Table 7. 8 Islamic terms are largely identified by the addition of specific references
and extra information to the Head noun of Islamic terms

Source text EC: Thing Classifier

Masalah aqidah
‘issue’ ‘creed’

Target text EC: Deictic Thing Qualifier

The issue [of aqidah or creed]

The addition of Qualifier to the Thing also occurred in Thing Qualifier as the
fourth target text EC. Indonesian translators seemed to add extra information to the
Thing by adding Qualifier function to the Head noun. CTs were found to be the
highest group that provided extra information to the Thing while TTs appeared to be
the opposite. Producing more Qualifier means that CTs created more complex text
than other translator groups. The fifth rank in Table 7.8 was shown by Classifier
Thing. The function Classifier was added to distinguish the given reference from
other references while Qualifier provided extra information to the Head noun.
Examples of Thing Qualifier and Classifier Thing are as follows.

Table 7. 9 Examples of Thing Qualifier and Classifier Thing

Thing Qualifier From Thing Qualifier

Hadith [as blasphemy] Hadits [sebagai hujjat]

Classifier Thing From Thing Classifier

Hadith Scholars Ulama Hadits

Table 7.9 also identifies a higher production of one suggested EC translation

as shown in Classifier Thing Qualifier and Deictic Thing1 Thing2 compared to the
other suggested EC in the target text. On the other hand, the least two suggested EC
translations occurred in Epithet Thing Qualifier and Focus Deictic Classifier Thing.

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The least number of EC can be argued to occur because they have been shifted to
create other EC variants. Variants were created by translators to fit into the
lexicogrammar of the target text. However, variants should also be cautiously
examined for shifting functional roles that might have taken place and omitted the
intended meanings. Overall, total variants appeared fewer than the suggested EC
translations in target text.

7.5 EC Variants of the Islamic Terms in the Target Text

This section presents EC variants of Islamic terms in the target text. This
study discovered 60 EC variants, three times higher than the number of suggested EC
translations (19 EC). Although higher than suggested EC translations in terms of the
total number of EC, the EC variants’ total production was less than that of the
suggested EC translation. This means, in general, Indonesian translators generated
EC as suggested by the source text. This study observes that Indonesian translators
seemed to realise these EC variants because of adding or omitting one or two parts of
nominal group constituents so that new EC were discovered.

Total number of EC variant realisations varied among translator groups. The

analysis reveals that TTs generated the highest EC variants while CT produced the
least. This highest number of EC variants accordingly made TTs’ translated texts
consist of more different EC realisations from the source text than other translator
groups. This certainly created a function different from the intended constituents of
the nominal group. When different functions were discovered, Indonesian translators,
therefore, generated more new meanings than the intended ones. Conversely, it
seems that CTs attempted to comply with the suggested EC translation in the source
text so that the creation of new meanings, because of adding more EC variants – can
be avoided.

Table 7. 10 A short list of EC variants

EC variants STs TTs CTs Total

Thing1 Thing2 14 38 18 70
Deictic Epithet Thing Qualifier 7 5 10 22

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Classifier Thing1 Thing2 5 8 3 16
Classifier1 Classifier2 Thing 11 0 5 16
….

(see Appendix3)

Total 90 146 64 300

Table 7.10 provides a short list of EC variants with higher fourth production.
The highest was shown in Thing1 and Thing2. The first EC variant shows that
Indonesian translators tended to provide a short explanation after the terms, for
example, tafsir (interpretation). This commonly appears at the beginning of the text
to provide information about the terms while the rest of the text only used the original
term, tafsir. Among translator groups, TTs were discovered to produce this EC
variant. Deictic Epithet Thing Qualifier, on the other hand, was in the second highest
EC variant frequency such as in ‘a sustained growth [of Hadith]’. This newly
invented EC appears to be a condensed phrase from information in the text where
Hadith appears to function as the Qualifier, not the Thing of the group.
Classifier Thing1 Thing2 and Classifier1 Classifier2 Thing were EC variants
that shared the same higher production of EC variants. In the former EC variant,
Thing1 was the original Islamic terms while Thing2 was its translation in brackets as
seen in ‘aqidah problem, an Islamic creed’ (aqidah=Classifier, problem=Thing1, and
an Islamic creed’=Thing2). The same thing also occurred to the latter EC where
Classifier2, appearing in the bracket, was the translation of Classifier1 as the original
Islamic terms, as discovered in ‘law (fiqih) experts’ (law=Classifier1,
(fiqih)=Classifier2, and experts=Thing). These new EC indicate that both were not
the translation of Indonesian suggested EC since translators added Thing2 and
Classifier2, the additional functional roles, to the given EC. This, therefore, may
suggest that although additional functional roles are added, the original meaning can
still be retained for the same position of the suggested EC realised.
Although EC variants appear in many EC types (see Appendix 3), the current
study found that their individual appearance in the target text occurred once or twice
more frequently while a few showed fewer than eleven times. It was further found
that some EC variants recorded zero frequency, for example, STs (19), TTs (16), and
CTs (41). From these data, CTs were found to create fewer EC variants than STs and

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TTs. It would seem that CTs are more faithful than the other two translator groups in
terms of creating new experiential structures of Islamic term nominal group. It also
revealed that while suggested EC constituents consisted of four constituents as the
highest constituent number of a nominal group in the source text, the target text
recorded five or six functional constituents that constituted one nominal group. Total
frequency for the former was 15 and the latter was five while the remaining EC
variants generally consisted of fewer than five constituents. Examples of six and five
constituents are as follows.

Table 7. 11 Examples of six and five constituents

Deictic Numerative1 Numerative2 Epithet1 Epithet2 Thing

The second most widely Used book

Numerative Epithet Classifier Thing Qualifier

some credible hadith experts [[which their books became the
second
holy bible after Al-Qur’an]]

7.6 Errors with Shifted Functions in Islamic Term EC

This section describes the errors caused by shifted functions in Islamic terms.
Errors indicate that the functional roles were no longer the same due to omission,
addition, or misplacement of the constituent position. Firstly, the case of omission
removed one of the nominal group constituent in the target text so that constituents
of the Islamic term nominal group were no longer complete. For example, the
translation of matannya (matan=Thing; nya=Deictic) should provide a complete
function as ‘his matn’ (his=Deictic; matn=Thing). However, several translators
merely provided matn (Thing) instead of ‘his matn’ (Deictic Thing). This means the
function was no longer the same since the Deictic ‘his’ was removed from the
Islamic term nominal group. Although the Deictic was present such as ‘the matn’, it
was also considered an error of shifted function because it referred to another
identification of a reference different from the intended one.

Omission also occurred in the translation of masa perkembangan Hadits. This

nominal group consisted of two nominal groups, masa ‘period’ (Thing) and

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perkembangan Hadits (Classifier Thing) ‘Hadith development’ (Thing Classifier).
When both EC were translated into English, it would appear as in ‘the period of
Hadith development’ (the=Deictic; period=Thing; of Hadith
Development=Qualifier). The process of shifting position indicates that although the
constituent position changed, the translation still preserved the intended meaning.
However, the shifting process fell when for example, it was translated into ‘the era of
Hadith’. It was found that ‘development’ was removed from this EC and this made
the Qualifier element incomplete. Another example of omission can be illustrated by
the following example where keshahihan ‘validity’ was omitted from the Islamic
term nominal group in the target text.

Table 7. 12 Another example of omission

Source text EC: Thing Classifier

Classifier Thing
Penilaian kesahihan Hadits
‘evaluation’ ‘validity’ Hadith
Target text EC: Deictic Thing Qualifier
the evaluation [of Hadith]

Secondly, an error of shifted functions can also be caused by an addition of a

new function into the nominal group constituents. For example, the word ‘position’
was inserted into the translation of Hadits dha’if that became ‘Hadith’s position [as
weak]’ (Deictic Thing Qualifier), instead of ‘weak Hadith’ (Classifier Thing). The
present study found that the translation created an error of shifted function because
Hadith as the Thing was replaced by ‘position’. Hadith, in fact, moved as the
possessive Deictic while ‘weak’ now functioned as Qualifier, which should act as
Classifier.
A similar error also occurred in another Islamic term nominal group such as
Hadits shahih, which was translated into ‘Hadith’s status [[that is valid]]’ (Deictic
Thing Qualifier). In the target text EC, the Thing now became ‘status’, not ‘Hadith’
because ‘Hadith’ now acted as possessive Deictic. Although the first and second
examples shared similar EC, they were different in the Qualifier where the first used
preposition ‘as’ while the second one used the relative pronoun ‘which’. While one

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addition might create an error, another may not do so because it only added another
function to the nominal group without making changes to the given function, as seen
in the following example.

Table 7. 13 One addition adds another function to the nominal group without making
changes to the given function

Source text EC: Thing

Al Qur’an

Target text EC: Deictic Classifier Thing

the holy Qur’an

Thirdly, misplacement of the constituent position also contributes to errors in

the shifted function. The translation of Hadits shahih was an example of
misplacement of the constituent position. In this case, Hadith was supposed to be the
Thing, but acted as Deictic in the new EC. This was clear from observing the shifting
position where Hadith moved from Thing to possessive Deictic (Hadith’s) in
‘Hadith’s status [[which is valid]]’. This case confirms that the shifting position,
because of the translation process, did not necessarily preserve the intended
meaning, but could create a different function that was certainly different from the
original EC.
Finally, the present study also discovered that several Islamic term nominal
groups such as Hadits ahad, Hadits dha’if, Hadits shahih, ulama Hadits, ulama
tafsir, and nash Hadits were translated into the same original constituent order of
the nominal group. This means translators simply moved the same EC to the target
text, and this may create a confusion among target readers because these Islamic
term nominal groups did not experience any shifting constituent position, as
determined by the English nominal group system, for example, ulama Hadits into
‘Hadith scholars’. The study argues that Indonesian translators were influenced by
the source language system in applying this into the target language. In addition,
these Islamic term nominal groups could also be regarded as cultural-specific to
Indonesian and this drove Indonesian translators to use the same Islamic terms
regardless of which context they might be translating.

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 7.7 Summary

Functional roles commonly shift from the source text to the target text to
maintain the same function within the group rank. However, a few functions shift to
different ones because they must conform to the new lexicogrammar of the target
text. For this reason, this chapter describes functional roles and experiential
structures of Islamic terms in the source text, suggested translations of experiential
structures, and EC variants of the Islamic terms in the target text. Finally, errors with
shifted functions in Islamic term EC are explored.

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 Chapter 8. Cultural Realisations of Islamic Terms

8.1 Introduction

After exploring linguistic realisations of Islamic terms in the previous

chapter, this chapter investigates the realisations of Islamic terms from a cultural
perspective. Cultural realisations of Islamic terms are discovered from the
translators’ ideology of Islamic term translations and their Islamic term realisations.
It further explores the role of culture in the translation of Islamic terms. The first
information derives from the interviews that deal with the requisites of Arabic
culture in the source text, the relationship between language and culture, and the
cultural use in the translation of Islamic terms. The second information comes from
the questionnaire that seeks for cultural understanding, aspects of Arabic culture,
embedded sacred messages, cultural context differences, Arabic and Anglo- Saxon
culture, and the need for cultural information for translators.

8.2 Target Text Cultural Realisations

The translation of Islamic terms aims to show that translation is intrinsically

linked with and cannot be detached from the context of culture. Being specific to
culture, the translation of Islamic terms is thus analysed by considering Venuti’s
translation ideology – foreignisation and domestication of Islamic term realisations
(Venuti, 2018). This study further analyses Islamic term realisations in the target text
and categorises them based on the types of its representations.

8.2.1 The Ideology of Islamic Term Translations

The ideology of translation – foreignisation and domestication – is

investigated in the translation of Islamic terms. It was revealed that foreignisation
ideology occurred twice more than domestication. Given this foreignisation ideology,
this indicates that Islamic terms translated into English in the Indonesian context
were culturally bound words whose target cultural replacements were not
correspondingly available. Among the translator groups, STs were revealed as the

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most preferred translator group to preserve Islamic terms as cultural words. These
cultural words were identified as being cultural because they were written in
transliteration styles in both English and Indonesian.
Of these two transliteration styles in the target text, the analysis revealed pure
Indonesian transliteration was employed more frequently than the target one.
Transliterations lacking brief explanations were culturally identified as
representations of Islamic terms in the target text. This appears to confirm that
Islamic terms were culture-specific with Indonesian transliteration. This finding
certainly raises a question regarding the use of Indonesian transliteration in English
text considering that every language has its transliteration style because of diverse
phonemes and pronunciations in different languages (Hoseinmardy & Momtazi,
2020).
Islamic term transliteration with description was discovered as having a higher
incidence than that of with correspondence. This might be interpreted that Indonesian
translators fell the need to describe Islamic terms that were strange to target readers.
For example, Hadith ahad was known only by academics who were concerned in
Hadith Studies. However, when the description in brackets is provided after the
terms, for example, Hadith ahad (a Hadith narrated by only one narrator), and the
general reader may immediately understand the meaning. Similar phenomena were
also found in Grijn’s (2011) study that discovered words between brackets playing
an important lexicon in a number of Arabic loanwords in old Indonesian
manuscripts.
Among the translator groups, CTs seemed to avoid providing the terms
description as they most commonly used pure transliterations. It appears that these
professional translators were familiar with the way these specific terms were
supposed to be represented in the target text. Also, it seemed to suggest that
providing terms’ descriptions might be regarded as making the text more ineffective
because of wordiness. Since it was the abstract translators are translating, adding
more words into this academic text might damage its layout – whereas an abstract
should be concise, dense, and clear as Hyland (2019) suggests. If these basic
academic writing requirements are not fulfilled, To (2017) reminds us that the ability
to understand text meanings might be impacted.

It sums up that the translators used not only the target text transliteration

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system but also the source one. This interchangeable use of source and target text
transliteration system adds to the inconsistency of cultural features in the translation
of Islamic terms. Secondly, the analysis of culture may also be observed from the
replacement of Islamic terms by their target text translations. This cultural
substitution is further examined for its meaning associations, as intended in the
source text. Both cultural analyses describe the socio-cultural information of Islamic
terms and, accordingly, verify them as information for representation of culture in the
target text.

8.2.2 Islamic Term Realisations

The previous subsection presents the cultural ideologies in translating Islamic

terms. This subsection, accordingly, intends to provide realisations of Islamic terms
based on previously discovered cultural ideologies. The analysis firstly categorises
the Islamic term realisations into translation, transliteration, and integrated
approach. Then, each Islamic term is explored for their possible correspondences,
and their translation choices are hence compared to the intended meaning of the
Islamic terms.
This study discovered that 24 Islamic terms under investigation were grouped
into different realisations – seven translations, fourteen transliterations, and four
integrated (see Table 8.1). The categories are based on the general indication that
Islamic terms are most realised. This general realisation is key in identifying the
tendency of the possible translation of Islamic terms. Given this finding, this study
seemed to confirm the belief that Islamic terms were slightly untranslatable where
fourteen Islamic term transliterations and seven translations were found. There were
half the number of transliterations compared to translations and this seems to suggest
that Islamic terms translated in this study were culture-specific. This means their
correspondences were scarcely available because there are no similar cultural
references in the target text. As a result, their representations in transliteration
confirmed the cultural differences between Indonesian/Arabic and English.

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Table 8. 1 Islamic term realisations

Translation Transliteration Integrated

Ulama ‘Scholar’ Hadits ‘Hadith’ Keshahihan ‘Hadith
Hadits validity’

Kitab ‘Book’ Hujjat ‘Argument’ Ulama ‘Hadith

Hadits scholars’

Dalil ‘Argument’ Shahih ‘Valid’ Ulama ‘Exegeses

tafsir scholars’

Juru dakwah ‘Preacher’ Aqidah ‘Creed’ Ulama ‘Islamic

fiqih law
scholars’
Mentakwilkan ‘To interpret’ Muhaddits ‘Hadith
scholars’

Mentashihkan ‘To validate’ Sanad ‘Chains of

narrators’

Menginstinbath- ‘To formulate’ Matan ‘Texts’

kan
Al Sunnat ‘Hadith’

Al Qur’an ‘Qur’an’
Hadits dha’if ‘Weak Hadith’
Hadits ahad ‘True Hadith’

Nash Hadits ‘Hadith texts’

Matan Hadits ‘Hadith texts’

Mungkir al ’Hadith refuter’

Hadits

Table 8.1 shows Indonesian translators generally found translations for seven
Islamic terms. This means these Islamic terms were substituted with their
correspondences in the target text. Some Indonesian translators were also found to
use words such as Islamic, holy, or sacred to specify references, for example, Islamic
scholars for ulama, and holy book or sacred book for kitab. Indonesian translators
seem to use these additional words to relate these correspondences to certain cultural
groups. If these attributes were removed, specific correspondences could not be
distinguished from general references. This showcased the observation that since
definite correspondences were barely available for Islamic terms, providing certain
cultural attributes might help target readers recognise the intended meanings.

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 Another cultural reference was found in the case of ‘missionary’ for juru
dakwah (a preacher). This example suggests that cultural substitution appears to
occur between Islam and Christianity. Although this cultural replacement was rarely
available among cultures, Baker (2018) suggests this might facilitate target readers’
familiarity with the terms. However, it is quite interesting to see that CT6, one of the
professional translators, added the word ‘Islamic’ as a cultural attribute to
‘missionary’. He used ‘Islamic missionary’ for juru dakwah to mediate the
considerable cultural gap that existed between Arabic and Western contexts.

However, translations of Islamic terms should be carefully undertaken, as

errors can result in incorrect translations. For example, two student translators were
observed to replace Hadits with ‘bible’ which clearly denoted two different
references – one referred to prophetic tradition, while the Bible was the holy book for
Christianity. Similar errors were also found in the case of ‘blasphemy’ for the
translation of hujjat. This was taken from one of the CTs who presumably thought of
another meaning for hujjat that was different from its intended meaning. With its
connotation to blasphemy, the translator referred to hujjat as the expression of
condemning other religions, which iswas certainly not the case in the context of this
study. By failing to provide its proper translation, it would seem the translators do
not comprehend the context of the text.
In addition, this study also revealed one teacher translator producing improper
translations such as ‘linguistic expert’ for ulama tafsir or ‘lawyer’ for ulama fiqih.
The present study argues that both translations did not reflect the true meaning of the
original Islamic terms. The analysis found that linguistics and tafsir ‘exegeses’ were
two different things while ‘lawyer’ referred to a member of a specific profession
hired for his expertise in defending people before the court. This meaning certainly
did not reflect the intended meaning of ulama fiqih as interpreted by Islamic law
scholars. This study concludes that it is critical for translators to avoid both incorrect
and improper translations in the translation of Islamic terms, so that target readers do
not grasp the wrong concept of Islamic terms.
This study discovered that translations of some Islamic terms were substituted
for other Islamic terms. This interesting finding might be regarded as a drawback
from an intercultural communication perspective where target readers might become
more confused in understanding meaning. On the opposing side, this indicates that

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the attempt to provide new Islamic terms aimed to offer specific references of the
source text Islamic terms in the target text. The analysis found seven new Islamic
terms – three TTs and four CTs. This shows that both TTs and CTs demonstrated
their knowledge competency by discovering these new Islamic terms while STs still
had much to learn about this issue. These new Islamic terms were specific references
to source text Islamic terms as reflected within the following table.

Table 8. 2 New Islamic terms

Source text Islamic terms New Islamic terms English translation

Ilmu Hadits Ummul Hadits Hadith Studies
Juru dakwah Da’i A preacher
Ahli fiqih Faqih Islamic law scholars
Ulama Hadits Hadith mufti Hadith scholars
Ulama tafsir Mufassir Exegeses scholars
Hadits ahad Khabari Hadith Valid Hadith
Muhaddits Muhaditsin Hadith scholars

8.3 The Role of Culture in the Translation of Islamic Terms

An interview was conducted to examine participants’ responses toward the

role of Arabic culture in helping translate Islamic terms. Two main questions are
addressed – first, to ask whether knowledge of Arabic culture is necessary for the
process of translating Islamic terms, and second, to find out whether knowledge of
Arabic culture can be reflected through the text they are translating. These two
questions generated three issues for further discussion – the importance of Arabic
culture in the assigned text, the relationship between language and culture, and the
reflection of culture used in the translation process.

8.3.1 Requisites of Arabic Culture in the Assigned Text

The question of Arabic cultural requisites in the assigned text aims to uncover
the role of Arabic culture to assist translators in identifying Islamic terms in the text.

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According to the findings of the study, most translators (n=30) confirmed their
positive responses concerning the assistance of Arabic knowledge regarding the texts
they translated. Only four translators disagreed with this statement. Three translators
in CTs and one in TTs confirmed their disagreement with the role of culture in
translation. The only translator group committed to positively responding to the issue
was STs, while few translators in TTs and CTs appear to hold differing opinions to
that of the majority.
Invariably, a consensus of agreement on the issue of cultural role in
translation was generated. The first was the group that expressed strong agreement,
such as "very much needed/important," "has a big influence," "absolutely yes," and
"absolutely required." The second group consisted of those who demonstrate a lower
level of agreement than the first. This group appears to agree on the importance of
culture in translation, but not as strongly as the first. This group's expressions
included “I believe so”, “I believe it will help”, “I will need it”, “help me
understand”, and “it may help”. The final group was the group that disagreed with
the statement, and would say things like “not necessarily”, “I think not”, “not
necessary”, and “I don't think so.”

Most of the agreement was for knowledge of Arabic culture to play a role in
providing more contextual information about the meaning of Islamic terms in the
text. CT7 confirmed this, stating, "Arabic culture is required for translators to
understand the entire text." CT1 specifically mentioned the importance of Arabic
culture in understanding Islamic terms. Because Islamic terms are cultural, Arabic
cultural association may help to inform the reference of their meaning to their use in
the given culture. Because the terms are in Arabic, translators must be familiar with
their meanings. TT4 gave an example of how the same word in Arabic and Indonesia
had different meanings.

Culture, in my opinion, is required to provide information regarding

the appropriateness of the terms' use. I've noticed that meanings
shift. In Arabic, for example, the word fitnah has a universal
meaning, whereas in Indonesian, the word fitnah has a specific
meaning. As a result, culture strives to ensure that the meaning is
conveyed. Details and specific meaning cannot be retained without
knowledge of its culture (TT4).

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 Culture was also requisite in providing context when a term was used in the
real world. In Islamic terms, TT7 argues about context when the words surah or ayah
were chosen to provide contextual information, such as in the case of wudu and
tayamum. Although these both referred to the same concept, they were implemented
differently in practice. The differences can be traced back to when people in the desert
lacked water and relied on sand for dry washing (tayamum), as opposed to when water
is available for washing (wudu). The differences between the same concepts of
washing for ritual praying are easily identified in this study based on their contextual
information in the given context. By illustration, TT6 described “The translator
understands how salat is unique to Muslims and is commonly practised by Arabs in
their daily lives. It is customary in their culture to perform such worship” (TT6).
The culture assisted translators by providing additional information when the
word required it, as the first attempt to understand the word was based on its literal
meaning from the dictionary. TT11 illustrated this as he described:

All I know is that translation is about more than just the mechanical
aspects of both ST and TT, but also about the cultures of both
languages. As a result, we must be familiar with the culture of the
language into which we are translating. In the case of Arabic terms,
we must at the very least have a basic understanding of the language.
When the basic meaning of a term is easily retrieved, we do not need
to delve deeper into the term. However, beyond the basic meaning, it
is time to retrieve the term from cultural context information, which
we call contextual meaning (TT11).

8.3.2 The Relationship between Language and Culture

Islamic terms (culturally bound words) are Arabic words that project Islamic
concepts rooted in Arabic/Islamic culture. When the word spellings are close to their
original Arabic sounds, lexicalised Islamic terms indicate that their presence in other
languages is cultural. When non-Arabic people associate with the cultural association
of the lexical representations of terms in Islam or Arab, it shows that language and
culture are inextricably linked. In the case of Islamic term translation, most
participants are aware of the relationship between language and culture, though a few

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translators do not explicitly mention it.

According to the findings of the study, the role of culture was expressed in
interviews. Some participants stated that it was the concept of meaning that prompted
them to consider culture. The search for meaning was not simply defined as the act
of finding a synonym in the target language; rather, meaning can be retained in its
cultural context. Because Islamic terms are cultural words, their meaning should be
associated with Arabic culture. Without doing so, one might claim that it made
obtaining meaning more difficult, as expressed by CT1 “When we are looking for
meaning in culture, it is difficult to do so if we do not know anything about its culture.
When it comes to translation, culture is often overlooked after grammar and
meaning.” This demonstrated that the translator was unfamiliar with the culture
because he was preoccupied with grammar and meaning.
In terms of meaning, one translator raised the point that to grasp the meaning,
translators must approach it culturally. In his opinion, this cultural approach is the
best way to fully comprehend the meaning of cultural words, and, accordingly, it
helps translators deduce meaning from context. In reference to translating Islamic
terms, Kashgary (2011) mentions that Arabic culture helps translators provide socio-
cultural information about the text. While in principle Arabic culture supplies
cultural information to translators, the author discovered that its association with
culture was not entirely necessary. He suggests that translating Islamic terms cannot
be undertaken in the same way as general text. He further stated:

The term cannot simply be translated into the target text's general
term. Every language has a distinct culture. The context of the word
should also be considered. This text, in my opinion, also necessitates
our understanding of Arabic culture because there are several words
that must be translated using a cultural approach, which is extremely
difficult (ST12).

Because Islamic terms were culturally informed, they should be approached

culturally, as stated by ST12 and TT6. In the translation process, the awareness that a
word exists in one culture is somewhat overlooked. These translators may believe
that translation is solely about language, however, they fail to recognise the
importance of the word in society. As a result, one person proposed that, to preserve

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the meaning of Islamic terms, reference should be made to information as to how the
term was used within the community where the word is spoken. This suggestion
implies that the existence of a word in one culture did not necessarily imply that it
was available in other cultures because it was for a reference only in that specific
culture, for example, “Yes, I believe so because a word exists in one culture but is
not found in others. As a result, information about a specific term within a society may
describe what the term is” (TT9).

The idea of specifying, which culture is being discussed, demonstrates a deep

concern for culture. The current study found that one translator was aware that they
were dealing with Islamic culture rather than Arabic culture (CT9). According to
Kalliny and Gentry (2007), the division between the two cultures is sometimes quite
subtle as Islamic culture has primarily influenced Arabic culture. Even though the
translation of Islamic terms is about Islam, the role of Islamic culture is not quite
visible in the case of translating Islamic terms, as it mostly deals with academic text
that does not require much cultural information (CT4, TT4). Both translators argue
that cultural information was critical in the case of translating a novel, as described
below.

When it comes to this abstract, it has nothing to do with noticeable

culture. There is no Arabic culture. I suppose it's because this is only
an abstract, a summary of a research process. It should have appeared
somewhere in this text, but I couldn't find it. However, if I am
translating a novel from Arabic, or even a translation of a hadith, I
must understand the context of the Arabic culture at the time the
hadith was narrated. This information aids us in our search for an
English translation. However, there isn't much about culture in this
abstract (TT4).

As the case of translation concerns Islamic terms, one translator argues that
the case of specialised words in Hadith subjects should be framed by the intersection
of culture and religion (CT2). TT5 demonstrated this by using dha'if in the
classification of Hadith as one type of Hadith whose source of information validity
was weak. ST4's belief that religion was part of culture provided another insight
into culture and religion. Abdulla (2018) agrees that religion and culture are not so

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distinct, with the former being a component of the latter. Although CT4 stated that
culture and religion were inextricably linked, TT10 reminded us that the focus of
translating Islamic terms was on religion. In line with this, TT2 stated that
when translating Islamic terms, translators must have a thorough understanding of
religion.

This study revealed that language played its role in culture. Because language
cannot be separated from the culture of its speakers, it was proposed that word
understanding must be contextualised within its use and context (CT8). For example,
one translator demonstrated how the contexts of Christianity and Islam had different
references to a particular Islamic term, as shown in the case of salat as ‘pray’ and
du'a as ‘pray’ – both Islamic terms held different concepts of pray.

In the West, the word du'a may refer to ‘pray,' but the word salat
cannot be translated literally as ‘pray,' because du'a and salat are two
distinct concepts. As a result, this cannot be translated into the same
word as 'pray.' In the Christian context, du'a is ‘pray' whereas salat
has no reference in this context. Other terms, such as zakat and
shodaqoh, have specific meanings that are not available in the
Western context. As a result, I believe we can use the adoption
technique to refer to these specific words (TT4).

The most common method for retrieving words is to examine their etymology
(ST13). According to this translator’s understanding, basic identification of Islamic
terms can be retrieved from the roots of the basic words, as ST4 also discovered. As
this facilitated the process, this method assisted translators, particularly student
translators, in becoming acquainted with the basic associations of word meaning in
the context. A background in Islamic Studies also expedited the search for meaning.
ST13 further explained:

My friends are familiar with the words because they have been
exposed to them extensively in the context of learning Islamic
Studies. As a result, they understand the etymology of the words.
Those with basic religious backgrounds will understand the words
more easily than those who do not. When they have previously used
the words in the context of learning, they may discover what the right

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 word to say for a specific context is. Because they are familiar with
the cultural context of use, they are likely to know what words to
change and which to keep (ST13).

Another example of language differences was the use of sentence structure

that read from right to left, which was typical of Arabic style (ST4). Another
translator in the CT group discovered Arabic writing style characteristics in the
source text, particularly in the case of long sentences:

In comparison to what I have translated thus far, this text appears to

be skirting the issue, as is typical of Arabic structure. As a result, it is
necessary to read it more than once to understand what it means, for
example, this subject goes with this predicate or this suffix nya goes
to which reference. When I read the text, I keep wondering, which
goes where (ST4).

Yes, what confuses me about the text is figuring out how to

understand the long complex sentence with all of the commas and
explanations. I believe this text was originally written in Arabic and
then translated into Indonesian. That is the difficulty I've
encountered with the text. Every language has its own language
style, as I am aware. English is short and direct to the point. I have
rarely encountered complex sentences in English, whereas Arabic
allows for long sentences. That is the Arabic writing culture. That is
the area in which I struggle (CT7).

8.3.3 Reflection of Culture Use in the Translation Process

As it was generally perceived that translators acknowledged that culture

helped them understand the meaning of the words during the translation process, this
section explores what they reflect upon in terms of the role of Arabic or Islamic
culture in the text they are translating. This reflection is based on what translators
perceived over the role of culture to help them understand their translation. The study
finds that different responses toward the issue occur where some participants agree to

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acknowledge that culture plays an important role in the translation process while
some others disagree with this proposition.
The study found that the first group showed its positive responses in the use
of cultural information during the translation process. Some translators mentioned
that culture supplied information to the basic meaning of the Islamic terms. This
would be possible, according to TT3, when socio-cultural context information was
determined. In this case, the cultural background underpinning the use of terms in
context is necessary to locate the specific meaning of terms as experienced by two
STs. More specifically, as some translators believed that Hadith terms were cultural
facts, understanding Hadith, therefore, required a cultural or religious approach to
uncovering specific concepts. ST12 acknowledged that:

The term cannot simply be translated into the target text's general
term. Every language has a distinct culture. The context of the word
should also be considered. This text, in my opinion, also necessitates
our understanding of Arabic culture because there are several words
that must be translated using a cultural approach, which is extremely
difficult.

In relation to the search for Islamic term meaning, the study discovered that
translators appear to locate terms’ meanings in two ways. Firstly, this refers to the
literal meaning in the dictionary as TT11 illustrated in using root words of Islamic
terms. Translators agree that this was the most used initial attempt in understanding
foreign words. However, TT10 realised that this task was not always successful, as
some Islamic terms required more information to arrive at a complete meaning. Along
with TT11, TT10 suggested locating meaning from the cultural context where the word
was used. At this latter stage, it helped TT1 understand sanad as an important concept
in Hadith Studies where its meaning cannot be solely judged without reference to
another concept, matan. Understanding such a circumstance, therefore, TT11 and
ST12 argue that the search for Islamic term meaning should not be literally but rather
culturally approached.
The use of culture did not only suggest specific reference of possible target
word choices; it also provided background knowledge of the text translators are
translating. According to Gutt (2017), providing background knowledge of the text is

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important for translators in supplying clues to the construction of meaning in the
target text. TT3 admited that background knowledge about Al-Ghazali helped her
ascertain the identity of the person. TT8 also confessed that information about
specific times and socio-cultural conditions when Hadith was revealed – known as
asbabun nuzul (Bustam & Astari, 2018) – also made it easier for him to understand
the terms referred to in the target text context.
Unlike most translators, few found that cultural information was not
necessarily required in the case of assigned Islamic term translation. TT4 and CT8
agreed to say that cultural information was not reflected during translation, as what
they were dealing with is only jargon in Islamic Studies in an abstract and thus
should be treated as general text. TT4 confirmed that he could not discover much
about cultural information from the abstract, as he usually found it in the translation
of a novel. He further stated:

When it comes to this abstract, it has nothing to do with noticeable

culture. There is no Arabic culture. I suppose it's because this is only
an abstract, a summary of a research process. It should have appeared
somewhere in this text, but I couldn't find it. However, if I am
translating a novel from Arabic, or even a translation of a Hadith, I
must understand the context of the Arabic culture at the time the
Hadith was narrated. This information aids us in our search for an
English translation. However, there isn't much about culture in this
abstract (TT4).

Not quite differently from TT4, four CTs also expressed their findings
concerning the terms in the abstract that did not require cultural information to
understand them. CT4 further compared the translation of Islamic terms in an abstract
and a novel where she found the former much easier to perform than the latter. If still
considered difficult to translate, CT9 claimed that it was not due to the unavailability
of cultural information, but rather the translators’ lack of familiarity with such topics.
Of those who ignore the role of culture in the translation of Islamic terms, the
majority acknowledged that possessing background knowledge of Arabic culture in
terms of translating Islamic terms was an advantage for translators. However, they all
agreed that there was little cultural information to be discovered from the translation
of Hadith terms.
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 8.4 The Role of Culture in the Translation of Islamic Terms

An online questionnaire was distributed to 90 translators (30 translators for

each group of Students, Teachers, and Certified Translators) to determine their
agreement or disagreement with the cultural statements. The survey provides five
options with two positive values, one neutral, and two negative values as in strongly
agree, agree, neutral, disagree, or strongly disagree to qualify the degree of
dis/agreement to the six statements about the inquiry of culture in the context of
translating Islamic terms (Dörnyei & Taguchi, 2009). Given the five values, the study
provides translators with a wide range of options for selecting one value over the
others.

Six statements were developed in response to the cultural inquiry in translating

Islamic terms. The statements address cultural understanding, aspects of Arabic
culture, embedded sacred messages, cultural context differences, Arabic and Anglo-
Saxon culture, and the need for cultural information for translators. These question
statements derived from emerging issues in culture in translation reading sources. The
questionnaire contains two pairs of statements that show similar messages but they
are formulated in different statements such as Q1 and Q6, and Q2 and Q5. These
various constructions are used to avoid respondents' value bias (Dörnyei & Taguchi,
2009).

Q1. Cultural understanding of a language is not always required for a translator

The first question is about the investigation of cultural understanding during

the translation process. Most translators, according to Table 8.3, appear to disagree
with this assertion. When those who disagreed and those who truly disagreed were
combined, the frequency of translators expressing their dissatisfaction with this issue
increased. Their disagreement represented a positive trend in which most Indonesian
translators emphasised the importance of understanding the culture of the language
they are translating.

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Table 8. 3 Cultural understanding of a language is not always required for a
translator

Translator Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Total

groups
Agree Disagree
STs 1 1 4 20 4 30
TTs 2 20 8 30
CTs 17 13 30
Total 3 1 4 57 25 90

Even though most of the groups appear to disagree with the statement, this
analysis discovered that frequencies varied from one group to another. As a result,
the frequencies of disagreement were shared equally by STs and TTs. In contrast, CTs
appeared to be the lowest of all, but when combined with those who strongly disagree
with the statement, it became the highest. CTs was also discovered to have solid
disaffirmation, whereas STs and TTs were observed to have different options. As a
result, it appears that CTs, as a professional translator, understood the importance of
culture in translation.

Q2. The cultural aspects of Arabic remain a problem in translating Islamic terms.

The second issue that the study focuses on concerning translators involves
Arabic culture, which is investigated as representing a problem in translating Islamic
terms. Most groups expressed agreement with the statements. In general, Indonesian
translators found that in general, translation of Arabic culture, especially in the
context of Islamic terms, posed a challenge for them. STs and TTs both exhibited a
higher frequency than CTs. The frequency indicates that Arabic culture posed a
significant challenge for STs and TTs. Even though the agreed option was chosen
more frequently by STs and TTs, CTs chose ‘strongly agree’ more frequently than
the other two translator groups. This confirmed CTs' strong agreement that Arabic
culture was a barrier in the translation of Islamic terms.

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Table 8. 4 Cultural aspects of Arabic remain a problem in translating Islamic terms

Translator Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Total

groups Agree Disagree
STs 4 23 3 30
TTs 5 21 2 1 1 30
CTs 8 12 8 1 1 30
Total 17 56 13 2 2 90

Table 8.4 also reveals that STs were the only group in which the majority
agree with the statement, while others were undecided about whether to agree or
disagree. This indicates that student group translators were generally aware that
translating Islamic terminology presented a challenge due to Arabic culture.
However, a few TT and CT translators were discovered to have perspectives that
differed from the majority, indicating that not all TTs and CTs think Arabic culture
was an issue for them. When compared to other translator groups, CTs had a higher
proportion of indifferent or unsure responses to the statement. This shows that Arabic
culture was not fully recognised as a problem because some people remained
sceptical of the statement's veracity.

Q3. Translating Islamic terms requires careful judgement due to their

embedded- sacred messages.

The third issue concerns translators' evaluations of whether it is necessary to

be cautious with the plethora of religious meanings conveyed by Islamic words.
According to the survey, most of the groups strongly agreed with this statement,
which had the highest frequency, followed by the agree choice in second place.
Furthermore, the investigation revealed that none of the CT translators agreed with
the statement. This demonstrated that CTs were aware of the importance of using
caution when disseminating information about cultural and religious beliefs.
However, only a few ST and TT translators were found to be neutral or disagree with
the assertion. This revealed that STs and TTs still held different points of view from
the majority.

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Table 8. 5 Translating Islamic terms requires careful judgement due to their
embedded sacred messages

Translator Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Total

groups Agree Disagree
ST 18 9 2 1 30
TT 12 17 1 30
CT 18 12 30
Total 48 38 3 1 0 90

According to Table 8.5, CTs and STs had a high frequency of agreement.
However, except for ‘highly agree’, STs tended to distribute its alternatives,
whereas CTs were observed to focus on ‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’ options. This
could imply that CTs received formal confirmation of their agreement, but STs and
TTs might have differing views on the assertion. According to the findings of the
study, most of the translator groups strongly agreed with the statement. As a result,
they were more cautious with the underlying sacred message in Islamic vocabulary,
which was critical when translating Islamic words.

Q4. Untranslatability of Islamic terms occurs due to the differences of

cultural contexts.

The fourth topic addresses the issue of untranslatable Islamic terminology and
the variations that emerge because of various cultural settings. According to the
findings of the study, all translator groups agreed with the assertion. Table 8.5
indicates that most STs agreed that Islamic terms were difficult to translate. The
other two translator groups demonstrated a lower agreement frequency. This finding
revealed that distinct responses were displayed among translator groups in response
to the issue of untranslatability of Islamic terms, as demonstrated by the varying
frequency realisations. It also shows that the highest performed by STs and the lowest
performed by CTs may be claimed to have been answered differently due to the
disparities in competence and length of experience.

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Table 8. 6 Untranslatability of Islamic terms occurs due to the differences of cultural
contexts

Translator Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Total

groups Agree Disagree
STs 5 24 1 30
TTs 4 22 2 2 30
CTs 6 18 3 3 30
Total 15 64 6 5 0 90

The study also discovered that a few members of TTs and CTs disagreed with
the statement, which was an intriguing finding because it could imply that few
translators in TTs and CTs considered Islamic terms to be translatable. In other
words, a few TTs and CTs translators did not find Islamic terms difficult to translate,
so they simply substituted target words for them, as they did for general words. The
higher percentage of CTs and TTs in the neutral option indicates that they were still
unsure whether the untranslatability of Islamic terms occurred due to the different
contexts. CTs added that, while this group had the lowest level of agreement with the
statement, it had the highest level of ‘strongly agree’ when compared to the other two
groups. This higher level of agreement may indicate that a small number of CT
members believe that Islamic terms were untranslatable due to the diverse context.

Q5. There was a wide cultural gap between Arabic and English.

In terms of language and culture, Arabic and English are diametrically

opposed. This question is about whether there is a significant cultural difference
between the two. Most of the groups confirmed that their agreement that there was a
significant cultural difference between Arabic and English. It was discovered that
CTs and TTs had the same frequency. This information suggests that these two
groups of translators were more aware of the differences between Arabic and Anglo-
Saxon culture than STs. As a result, while STs produced a lower frequency of
agreement, this group confirmed their strong agreement more frequently than the
other two groups.

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Table 8. 7 There is a wide cultural gap between Arabic and English

Translator Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Total

groups Agree Disagree

STs 11 13 5 1 30
TTs 4 20 6 30
CTs 8 20 1 1 30
Total 23 53 12 1 1 90

Table 8.7 also revealed that STs and TTs had a higher frequency of being
neutral than CTs. This finding suggests that several translators questioned the
statement's veracity. While the statement's validity was questioned, a few translators
expressed their dissatisfaction with the situation. Given this fact, some translators
were hesitant or disagreed that Arabic culture differed greatly from English culture,
while the majority expressed agreement on the issue.

Q6. A translator can translate Islamic terms although he does not know anything
about Arabic culture or Islamic values embedded in the texts.

The final question is whether a translator can still translate even if they are
unfamiliar with Arabic culture or Islamic values. According to the findings of this
study, many translators confirmed their dissatisfaction with this issue (see Table 8.8).
This means they agreed that, when translating Islamic terms, a knowledge of Arabic
culture or Islamic values was required. The analysis also discovered that CTs
appeared to be the most likely group to believe that even if they did not know the
embedded cultural or religious values, they could still translate Islamic terms. This
suggests that this group was far more concerned with Arabic culture or Islamic
values than other translator groups. However, given these disparities in perception, it
should be noted that this would have an impact on the translation of Islamic terms.

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Table 8. 8 Translators can translate Islamic terms without knowledge of Arabic
culture or Islamic values embedded in texts

Translator Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Total

groups Agree Disagree

STs 2 9 15 4 30
TTs 1 3 4 17 5 30
CTs 3 4 20 3 30
Total 1 8 17 52 12 90

Even though many translators confirmed their opposition to the issue, some
translators were discovered to be neutral. This indicates they were unsure whether
they would agree or disagree on this issue. STs appeared to have the highest
frequency for being neutral, while TTs and CTs shared the same frequency.
According to the findings of this study, one of the translators' concerns in translating
Islamic terms was the uncertainty of Arabic culture and Islamic values, as the
realisations of Islamic terms would appear as a substituting word with no association
with Arabic culture or Islamic values. The frequency of those who agree and
disagree was revealed to be similar. This could indicate that Indonesian translators
held different perspectives on this issue.

8.5 Summary

This chapter demonstrates how Islamic terms are culturally interpreted. It first
identifies Indonesian translators' cultural ideology as more foreignisation than
domestication. The most common manifestation of this cultural ideology is the use
of Indonesian transliteration in the target text. These cultural realisations are
supported by their justification for the role of culture and translators’ use of culture
in the translation of Islamic terms. Ultimately, these interpretations of Islamic terms
demonstrate that the investigated Islamic terms are culturally specific. That is,
Islamic terms are unique to the culture of Islam or Arabic, and as a result, their
translations are rarely discovered.

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 Chapter 9. Discussion

9.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses the research findings that cover four preliminary
findings from chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8. The study discusses these research findings by
citing relevant literature and publications examined in Chapter 2. In relation to the
framework of systemic functional linguistics and intercultural communication theory
described in Chapter 3, this study addresses the following research questions:

1) Is there any significant difference in translation quality among groups of learners,

teachers, and accredited translators? To what extent do they differ?
2) What are the translation strategies for translating Islamic terms into English
commonly used in Indonesian academic texts among the three different groups of
translators, namely, university learners and teachers, and accredited translators?
3) What are linguistic realisations in translating the Indonesian Islamic terms to
English?
4) What are cultural realisations in translating the Indonesian Islamic terms to
English?

9.2 Quality of Islamic Term Translation

Among various translator groups, the translation of Islamic terms raises

concerns about the target text's translation quality. Translation qualities that the
present study investigates is derived from the experiential meaning quality that
consists of lexical choices and experiential constructions of the target text's
representations of Islamic terms. Two findings are presented in relation to these
translation quality elements, based on quantitative and qualitative data. The
quantitative translation quality data are the conversion of quality into numbers, so that
significant differences in translation quality among translator groups are taken. On
the other hand, the quality of qualitative translation data attempts to describe the
differences in translation quality among translators.

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 9.2.1 Quantitative Data of Translation Quality

The purpose of this study is to see whether translator groups have an effect on
translation quality. The one-way ANOVA result shows differences were not
statistically significant (F=1.378, p=.265). This confirms that there was no significant
difference in translation quality between the three groups of translators. Since the
translator groups have no effect on translation quality, the quality of Islamic term
translation appears to be the same regardless of which translator groups are assigned
to translate the text. However, this study discovered CTs with 2.65, TTs with 2.54,
and STs with 2.40 in terms of the means of the translation quality scores. The
average frequency of translation quality is classified as moderate (Nababan & Nuraeni,
2012), indicating that the text is readable and easy to understand, but there are still a
few issues with improper experiential structures and lexical choices of Islamic terms.
When the one-way ANOVA was applied to the partial translation quality
analysis, it revealed no significant differences in lexical choices (F=.997, p=.38) and
experiential structures (F=1.761, p=.188). This study shows, however, that the means
of translation quality frequency for each element above shows different translation
quality scores; CTs and STs' average translation quality scores in experiential
structure were higher than those in lexical choices. TTs, on the other hand, remained
almost identical in terms of lexical choices and experiential structures. This
individual element of translation quality, like the average score level of translation
quality, confirmed that they were also all classified as moderate level.

This study revealed that CTs did not differ significantly from TTs and STs in
lexical choices of Islamic terms. They mostly appear to be similar representing
Islamic terms in their transliteration styles. For example, sanad ‘chains’ and matan
‘texts’ were used as sanad or isnad and matn in the target text. Following Çakan
(2010) and Jones (2007), the study found they were most commonly not replaced by
their target text such as chain for sanad or content for matan. According to Çakan
(2010) and Brown (2017), both matan and sanad are specific jargons that indicate two
important components of Hadith. This study argues that keeping them in their
transliterations might be the best alternative knowing that another Islamic term nash
and an Indonesian word kandungan in kandungan Hadits were also substituted by
the same translations ‘text’ and ‘content’ of Hadith. This study contends that when

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this occurs at the same time, target readers will be perplexed as to which Islamic
concepts they will refer to. Thus, House (2014) suggests that its translation would be
redundant, resulting in poor translation quality.
The same thing happens with Islamic term experiential structures, which
differ insignificantly from one group to another. This finding contradicts previous
studies where a significant difference between professional and novice translators is
found. In interpreting practice in Chinese context, for example, professional
interpreters were found to produce more modifiers and circumstantial adjuncts than
novice interpreters (Tang, 2014). This means that professionals tended to add more
information to the Thing being discussed. Another significant difference between
professional and student translators was found in the frequency of meta-functional
shifts (Rosa et al., 2017). Their studies identify how meta-functional shift differences
between them illustrate how professionals are concerned with maintaining meaning
(inter-strata shifts) while student translators are concerned with shifts form (inter-
strata shifts). Unfortunately, these differences in experiential construction are not
reflected in the current study. This study argues that the tentative cause might refer to
the different materials of translation that create such a contrary result.
Some earlier studies also confirm that their results are insignificant in
comparing trained and novice translators. Kiraly (1995) investigates translation
quality between professional and non-professional translators and finds no clear
differences between them either in the final translation quality or its translation
process. This means professional translators do not necessarily provide better or
faster translations than novice translators as Darriba (2019) also finds in his study.
He identifies that there is no significant difference between professional translators
and student translators in their translating performance. His study concludes that the
factors that create these similar performances remain unknown although relevant
previous studies confirm that translators with higher cognitive abilities are supposed
to demonstrate superior performance than those with lower ones.

However, when professional translators do not perform as expected,

Jääskeläinen (2010) states that professional translators do not work on a routine basis
when translating the assigned text, which could be an easy explanation for the
underlying problem. Such an excuse could be interpreted as implying that the
assigned text is not the usual text that professional translators work on. As a result,

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they did not have the opportunity to perform to the best of their ability. In response to
this excuse, Daems et al. (2017) also find similar results in which trained translators
do not do any better than novice ones for both translation processes and products.
Therefore, they propose future research should include more translator participants
with previous backgrounds in the text being translated.

9.2.2 Qualitative Data of Translation Quality

Qualitative data are included to provide additional information about the

translation quality of lexical choices and the experiential structure of Islamic terms.
The lexical choices of Islamic terms were mostly discovered in pure transliterations
using more Indonesian transliteration system than English, with only a few
exceptions in transliterations with correspondences and transliterations with
descriptions. A few erroneous translations were also discovered to have changed the
meanings of the originals. While target text experiential constructions mirror their
originals, a few changes to nominal group functional elements of Islamic terms
revealed a shifted meaning, potentially resulting in low translation quality.
This study revealed that Indonesian translators were most commonly faithful
in using pure transliterations without any additional descriptions. This common
practice of using transliterations for representing Islamic terms in the target text
corroborates previous studies’ findings in an Indonesian context (Aminuddin et al.,
2020; Farkhan, 2017; Suriadi, 2017). Proper transliterations most commonly received
higher scores of translation quality from the raters while for Islamic terms with
correspondence and description, raters commonly gave moderate scores to identify
these as readable and easily understood, yet too wordy to use in an abstract of an
academic paper, as Amiri et al. (2021) suggest. Claiming to offer meaning access for
target readers, the study finds that it becomes unnecessary because as Buendía (2013)
states, these realisations, from the standpoint of translation quality, may jeopardise
the layout of the text and, as a result, make the abstract text incoherent and
superfluous, as seen in the terms Hadits dha’if ‘weak Hadith’ that use original
Islamic terms and their translation at the same time.

In addition to the lexical choices of Islamic terms, the survey found that most
Indonesian translators believed that Islamic terms were only slightly translatable. As

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a result, rewriting these in their transliterations was strongly recommended such as in
a novel from Indonesian to English (Mahmud et al., 2018) and legal text from Arabic
to English (Elgawhary, 2019). However, consequently, the transliterations of Islamic
terms in an English context pose a problem with their text comprehensibility because
those words are foreign to the target readers. This study argues that this would
certainly create a low potential for its translation quality as House (2014) suggests.
Besides its transliterations of Islamic terms, the analysis also found Islamic
term translations. Although providing target words for Islamic terms could hardly be
established in the target context, translators managed to appropriately propose a few
term correspondences, for example ‘text’ for nash or ‘book’ for kitab. Some
translators frequently added the word ‘holy’ as a holy book to indicate that the
sources of information are divine texts such as the Qur’an and Hadith (Effendy &
Zein, 2003; Jones, 2007). This case shows that the degrees of its meaning
translatability, as Baker (2018) suggests, is always available; however, their
translations are not entirely the same because one culture is specific to another
culture (Katan & Taibi, 2021). When realised without its concept representation, the
study argues that its translation would reveal its lesser quality.
This study discovered that this slight untranslatability of Islamic terms could
create an improper translation such as the misinterpretation of ahli fiqih as ‘lawyer’.
The Indonesian word ahli, which literally means ‘an expert’, being combined with
Islamic term fiqih –which means ‘an Islamic law’ – cannot be interpreted as a lawyer
since no specific reference to what is referred as a lawyer can be found in relation to
the context of the text. In fact, interpersonally, the interaction is held between
scholars in different fields of Islamic Studies and the fiqh scholar is one of them.
Interestingly, CT10, one of the certified translators, offered a specific Islamic term for
fiqh scholars as faqih. This new term is culture-specific to the source culture that
what the present study argues remains difficult to understand for target readers to
comprehend its meaning.

Several factors may contribute to this disparity in meaning interpretation.

Previous research suggests that cultural background (Mandala, 2018), a multi-
meaning word (Qorchi, 2017), and not being a specialist in that field (Lagoudaki,
2008) are all potential factors that contribute to meaning misinterpretation. These
potential factors might be relevant to the current study where, although translators

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have Muslim backgrounds, they have different engagements with Islam in the
Indonesian context. CT10, for example, proposes using faqih for fiqh scholars and
muhaddits for Hadith scholars, as she learned them while studying Hadith as an
undergraduate while most translators commonly use literal meanings they refer to in
the dictionary.
According to Qorchi (2017), some Islamic terms have multiple
interpretations. In this study, the word ulama, for example, was translated into four
target words: expert, teacher, scholar, and leader. Among these four
correspondences, it was discovered that 'scholar' was the most used translation for
ulama. This study argues that this lexical choice was quite relevant in describing
ulama in the context of the study. In line with this, Esposito (2004) and Jones (2007)
suggest scholars for ulama since it derives from its basic word, aalim, which literally
means 'the learned ones.' Saleh (2004) suggests the translation of ulama be referred
to its basic word meaning and cross-checked with the context of the text to achieve
the best translation quality.
The second investigation analyses the order of Islamic term nominal groups
constituents also known as Islamic term NG experiential structure. The study found
that although diverse orders of Islamic term constituents were present, their
realisations were not statistically different among translator groups. However, in
general, the Islamic term NG orders in English are the opposite of Indonesian
(Mulya et al., 2020). For example, the two words in phrase Hadits ahad were
in reversible positions from Indonesian to English that became ‘true Hadith’. Ahad
was the classifier of the Hadith, and when translated into English, the position of
ahad moved before Hadith.
In general, the study discovered that the orders of Islamic term NG followed
the order of NG constituents in English - only a few realisations used an Indonesian
NG order in the target text. The use of similar NG orders as the source text, for
example, Hadits ahad in the target text, indicates the imposition of Indonesian into
the English structural system (Iman, 2020). For such a NG experiential structure,
the raters gave two scores, indicating the presence of a small number of structural
errors, but the readers may still find them readable.
Translator groups were generally observed to similarly generate Islamic term
NG experiential structures. Given the comparison among the groups, CTs appeared
to reproduce Islamic terms in target text transliterations. The orders of NG

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constituents that CTs created have generally suited the syntax system of English
structure. On the other hand, STs and TTs mixed Islamic term NG constituents with
a few additions of correspondences and descriptions. Although the added NG
constituent did not change the meaning, the study argues that this addition might
make the text too wordy. For such a case, raters gave two scores to indicate the NG
experiential structure as easily understood, but a few unnecessary terms’ additions
also occurred, as seen in the following example.

Source text …sebagai hujjat dalam ….

Thing
Target text … as hujjat (arguments) in …..
Thing1 Thing2

The shifting NG constituents commonly occur in the translation from

Indonesian to English (Mulya et al., 2020). This study discovered two opposing
shifting NG constituent positions that did not change the meaning. The example above
shows the natural shifting from Qualifier to Classifier position. This example
indicates a shift without making a meaning distortion while the next example shows
an error of meaning shift as the position shift was created. This example exemplifies
how Hadith as the Thing in the source text moved to the Deictic position. The new
Thing position was replaced by the word ‘status’, a newly added word to the existing
experiential structure. This shifting change from Thing to Deictic distorted the
intended meaning. Although shifting NG constituents commonly occur from
Indonesian to English from qualifier to classifier, for example, this shifting error
position from Thing to Deictic should be avoided because it changes the original
meaning.

Table 9. 1 A shifting error position from Thing to Deictic should be avoided because
it changes the original meaning

Source text 1 …sebagai juru dakwah [[yang intelek]] dan …

… ‘as’ Preacher [[who intellectual]] ‘and’
Experiential Thing Classifier Qualifier
structure:

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 Target text 1 …as an intellectual scholar and …
Experiential Deictic Classifier Thing
structure:

Source text 2 Hadits sahih

‘Hadith valid’
Experiential Thing Classifier
structure:

Target text 2 Hadith’s status [[which is valid]]

Experiential Deictic Thing Qualifier
structure:

Having discovered no statistical difference across translator groups, this study

observes that some differences may still be found to distinguish one group from
another. First, STs and TTs provided transliteration of Islamic terms with
explanatory notes throughout the text, while a few STs were found using it. The
study argues that the addition of terms’ short information, from the lexical choices
point of view, would be ineffective since these Islamic terms are specialised terms
that target readers have access to in understanding these specific terms without their
newly correspondence or description. According to Pudjiati and Ernawati (2016) and
Murodi (2020), the excessive use of additional information, accordingly, would
reduce the effectiveness of the message conveyance. In terms of writing point of
view, these are regarded as destructive to the layout of the text (Amiri et al., 2021;
Schaeffer et al., 2017).

Although no statistical difference between Islamic term NG experiential

structures among the translator groups was shown, this study observed that CTs most
commonly used source text sentence patterns rather than other translator groups. STs
and TTs used source text structural patterns, and they made changes to a few long
sentences, breaking these into several simple sentences. Meanwhile, CTs seem to
follow the mechanical aspects of the source text with a few adjustments to lexical
choices and NG experiential structures. As a result, target text structures seem
unwieldy because they used long sentences with several embedded fragments and

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clauses in one sentence. This interference of source text experiential structure into
the target texts reduced translation quality of the translated texts as Iman (2020)
suggests. Translators also seemed to ignore the use of coherence and unity concepts
in English academic writing – as Bai and Qin (2018) claim this is the result of a
negative transfer due to a strong language-related cultural influence on the writing.
Having discussed the study’s translation quality, it is concluded that
experiential meaning quality shows no significant difference among lexical choices
and their NG experiential structures derived from the three translator groups. The
raters categorised experiential meaning quality in this study as moderate i.e., they
considered the text readable and easy to understand with a few errors found in lexical
choices and experiential structures. A few differences in the variants of Islamic term
representations were also discovered where most Islamic terms were commonly
found in pure transliterations and the rest were managed with additional
correspondences and descriptions. For this latter Islamic term representations, it
would seem that translators did not consider Islamic terms as specialised terms in
Islamic Studies but treated these rather as common cultural translations requiring
brief information about the terms. As most Islamic term NG experiential structures
were commonly arranged in the English system, a few follow the source text
structural system that made the text unwieldy in the target text. Thus, shifts of
Islamic term NG constituents from Indonesian to English should also be taken into
consideration, as these probably created errors with shifting meanings.

9.3 Strategies and Techniques of Islamic Term Translation

The analysis of strategy and technique is concerned with the identification of

types of strategies and techniques in translating Islamic terms. This study used the
types of strategies and technique as suggested by Venuti (2018) that were most
commonly reflected from translators’ products. This section outlines four findings of
Islamic term translation strategies and techniques. First, it was revealed that
foreignisation strategy and pure borrowing technique were most preferred in
translating Islamic terms in an Indonesian context. Second, the survey indicates that
Indonesian translators usually use all the strategies and techniques Baker (2018)
suggested in translating cultural words, including Islamic terms. Third, Indonesian

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translators determined the pros and cons about beliefs and practices of employing
certain Islamic term strategies. Fourth, the interviews discovered four reasons for
justifying their judgements in the use of strategy and technique.

9.3.1 Foreignisation Strategy and Pure Borrowing Technique

The present study found that Indonesian translators most commonly preferred
to use foreignisation strategy in translating Islamic terms into English in an
Indonesian context. Its frequency appeared to be twice that of domestication, and its
realisations seemed to be more dominated by ST than other translator groups. The
use of foreignisation over domestication strategy might be a result of difficulties
encountered in translating into the target language (Almubark, 2017; Guessabi,
2021). Also, since references are specific to Arabic culture, representations in other
cultures can be compensated with their transliterations (Aladwan, 2012). This
outcome also seems to confirm similar findings of previous studies in the translation
of Islamic terms in an Indonesian context (Aminuddin et al., 2020; Farkhan, 2017;
Purwanto, 2015; Suriadi, 2017). Translators involved in translating from an Arabic
context into English also advise that Islamic terms are better represented in a
foreignisation strategy rather than a domestication one (Abdo & Manzallawi, 2020;
Albarakati, 2019; Ebrahimi & Mahadi, 2020).
Since Islamic terms also appear in Islamic phrases, this study asserts that
integrated strategy was most frequently used to translate Islamic phrases, for
example, fiqh scholars instead of fiqh ulema for ulama fiqih. This illustrates that from
the two words in the phrases, Indonesian translators seemed to translate one word
while another word was kept in its transliteration. This study observes that Islamic
phrases, as specialised jargon, were rarely discussed in translation studies while those
classified as Islamic formulaic phrases, such as Insha Allah (God willing) or
Alhamdulillah (All praises to Allah), already have their counterparts in English
(Hasan et al., 2020).

This study also revealed that this integrated strategy production was similarly
realised among translator groups and occurred twice as much as foreignisation.
When Islamic phrases appear in their transliterations, the study found they were
generally preserved in Indonesian NG constituent order, for example, Hadith ahad

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for Hadits ahad. This demonstrates that the position remains the same, but only one
sound of the transliteration changes. This interesting fact may suggest that
Indonesian translators do not follow the English NG arrangement, but instead use
original Islamic phrase grouping. In this case, Indonesian translators seem to regard
Islamic phrases as religious concepts that cannot be broken down into individual
words, as Husin et al. (2017) suggest.
Within the foreignisation strategy, this study revealed that pure borrowing
technique was mostly preferred over other translation techniques. It appears that
Indonesian translators avoided adding correspondences or descriptions after the
terms, but modified or preserved the transliterations instead since “the wordy text
might cause the distortion of texts’ layout and readability” (Aminuddin et al., 2020,
p. 432). This study further found that this pure borrowing technique used almost
similar frequencies of English and Indonesian transliterations. This interesting fact
demonstrates that the use of Indonesian transliteration in English context might be
problematic for target readers since every language has its own transliteration styles
(Hoseinmardy & Momtazi, 2020). For example, the transliteration for ‘God willing’
is realised differently –Insha Allah in English and Insya Allah in Indonesian (Al-
Rawafi & Gunawan, 2019; Pratama, 2017).

9.3.2 Baker’s (2018) Suggested Strategies and Techniques

After revealing translation strategies from translation products, this study

surveyed 90 Indonesian translators for their regularity in using Baker’s (2018) six
strategies in translating Islamic terms. Most confirm they usually followed all of
Baker’s (2018) suggested translations strategies. This indicates that Indonesian
translators did not adhere to strategies in translating Islamic terms but used different
strategies and techniques. This present study’s findings also confirmed the same
results from several previous studies either in Arabic (Hassan, 2016, 2017) and
Indonesian contexts (Aminuddin et al., 2020; Ayyad & Mahadi, 2019; Farkhan,
2017).

From six strategies surveyed, this study further discovered that translation by
a loanword and translation by cultural substitutions became the first two translation
strategies favourably used by Indonesian translators. These results seemed to suggest
that since Islamic terms were foreign in the Western context, borrowing Islamic
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terms into the target text was, therefore, preferable. This finding appears to
corroborate several recent studies that also show similar phenomenon (Alwazna &
Sidiya, 2018; Nila & Octavitri, 2020; Noviyenty & Lian, 2020). Thus, because
Islamic words incorporate cultural notions, their target cultural equivalents are used
to offer a more familiar sense to target readers as Baker (2018) advised.
Interesting findings were discovered concerning generalisation and omission
strategies. Although considered to be inappropriate for use in providing specific
concept with general meanings, generalisation strategy was surveyed as being
frequently used by Indonesian translators. According to Amori (2017, p. 52),
generalisation strategy should be avoided because it ‘ignores the specificity of the
original terms’. He illustrates kharaj being translated as ‘crops’ or ‘agriculture
products’ as only one meaning of kharaj. This strategy seems to confirm that Islamic
terms are untranslatable words, as Baker (2018) suggests.
Given the rare availability of Islamic term correspondences in the target text,
general words were used instead by Indonesian translators. In contrast, omission
strategy was surveyed as being the only translation strategy that was avoided by
Indonesian translators. However, in contrast to this survey, this present study cannot
find the transliteration or translation of sanad ‘chain’ and matan ‘text’ in Baker’s
(2018) translation product. This study contends that removing these terms would
cause problems with the overall meaning of the discourse because these two Islamic
terms constitute two important elements in measuring Hadith validity (Brown, 2017;
Çakan, 2010).

9.3.3 Beliefs and Practices in Using Translation Strategies and

Techniques
The study also shows that Indonesian translators agreed and disagreed with
statements on the practical level of their translation strategies and techniques. This
study found that they most commonly agreed to use terms’ brief information and
different strategies in translating Islamic terms. Both findings reaffirm previous
studies concerning this issue (Aminuddin et al., 2020; Ayyad & Mahadi, 2019;
Farkhan, 2017; Hassan, 2016, 2017), as well as the current study’s findings of
translation strategies in translation products. Meanwhile, the survey revealed that

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Indonesian translators disagreed with statements that suggested keeping Islamic terms
as original or changing them completely in the target text. These findings are in line
with what Salem (2020) suggests i.e., that because Islamic words are culturally
distinctive, their translations are determined by the degree of their translatability.

In terms of belief, this study discovered a linear relationship between

agreement about the potential of translating Islamic words and rejection due to fear
of losing the original meaning. It was revealed that most Indonesian translators agreed
that Islamic terms could be translated, although they confirmed that the degree of
translatability was slightly low. This finding supports Baker's (2018) claim that there
is always the possibility of acquiring comparable cultural equivalents, even if
translatability is hardly available. This finding is in line with the translators’
disagreement with a fear of losing the original meaning if translated. Gutt (2017), in
this case, supports Baker's (2018) claim above, that this could be managed by
showing a comparable function between the source and target text.
However, on a practical level, it was discovered that Indonesian translators
placed a greater doubt on strategy choices of specific Islamic term representation in
the target text. This shows that they frequently became confused whether Islamic
terms were subject-general or subject-specific terms. The present study argues that
these word type choices could determine the choices of strategies whether translation
or transliteration. These differing lexical choices were also captured in previous
studies on Islamic term translation or transliteration in Indonesian (Aminuddin et al.,
2020) and Arabic contexts (Elshiekh & Saleh, 2011; Hassan, 2016). While these
diverse realisations may indicate an inconsistent use of translation strategy, on other
occasions, they also demonstrated a response to a dynamic translation of Islamic terms
that was culturally specific yet communicative at the same time.

9.3.4 Reasons for Employing Certain Strategies and Techniques

Given the discovery of different sorts of strategies and procedures for

translating Islamic terms, this study also revealed translators' judgements on their
strategy and technique uses. Following Aminuddin et al. (2020), Indonesian
translators disclosed four motives in translating Islamic terms, namely, common
practice, reader orientation, text types, and personal reasons. This study found that the

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most common way of representing Islamic terms in the target text was by identifying
other people’s common practice in the field. This is similar to what Robinson (2019,
p. 148) states: “By imitating, mostly, we get a feel for how others do things, and try
to do them in a similar way ourselves.” This might be the easiest way of determining
what to do with certain Islamic terms from previous established works.
Other rationales, such as readers' orientation and text types, were then utilised
to help translators pick specific registers appropriate for intended readers and certain
types of writing (Hatim & Munday, 2019; Robinson, 2019). The study found that the
Indonesian translators advanced their considerations to address readers’ orientation
while some translators were still engaged with the dispute orientation between the
source text and target text (see Newmark, 1988). By understanding the target
audience of the text – for example, academic communities in Hadith Studies – the
study argues it is unnecessary to translate Islamic terms since the intended audience is
already familiar with these terms. However, when translating for general readers,
Ghezal (2018) suggests adjusting text readability by providing target words, with
which the audience is more familiar.
The last rationale – personal motives – may indicate two things: first, it is not
based on empirical evidence, and second, translators may be either incompetent or
competent (Del Mar Haro-Soler, 2017). When translators arrive at this subjective
judgment, the study argues that this cannot be accepted as valid reasoning because its
realisation from one translator to the next does not follow any convention accepted as
the proper translation. Based on this judgement, translation realisations cannot
account for their similar realisations from standard practices. As a result of this hazy
judgment, the validity of proper translation is called into question. Lacking extensive
translation experience, novice translators are more likely to express their personal
judgment without any sound reasoning. Like novice translators, more experienced
translators may express the same reason if they are overconfident in their translation
abilities. For competent translators, using personal reason as a rationale would seem
to indicate confidence in what they are doing with their translation strategies.

9.4 Linguistic Realisations of Islamic Term Translation

One of the objectives of this research is to examine linguistic issues involved

in translating Islamic terms. This study presents three linguistic realisation findings.

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First, translation shifts occur because of suggested experiential structures in the
source text. This functional shift occurs naturally because of a functional role swap
from source to target text. Second, this study produces new variants of experiential
structures in the target text. The translation from source to target text results in
changes in the existing experiential structures of Islamic terms. Third, shifts of
functional NG constituents are not necessarily managed. This is due to the
misplacement of the experiential structure elements from source to target text.

9.4.1 Suggested Islamic Term Experiential Structures

This study focuses on experiential meaning structure at the nominal group

level. Using the Systemic Functional Linguistics framework (Fontaine, 2017;
Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014; House, 2020), this study, therefore, identifies the shifts
of NG constituent functions – Thing, Deictic, Numerative, Epithet, Classifier, and
Qualifier from the source to target texts. The analysis revealed that each of the above
functional roles was realised in the target text as performing the same function as the
originals, and their total frequency was found to dominate the target text experiential
constructions. This means, to a large extent, translators successfully managed to
construct experiential structures as intended in the source text. Hu (2010) states that
the translation is considered as equivalent when the target text displays similarities to
the source text metafunctions. In line with this, Pym (2007) suggests that not all
translation can be achieved because of lexical and cultural non-equivalence.
This analysis found 80 target text experiential structures, 60 of which were
novel variations, while the remaining 20 structures were indicated as suggested
translations of the source text. Furthermore, it was observed that TTs dominated the
novel variants whereas STs dominated the suggested structures. These data show that
STs seemed to be more faithful to translations of the original experiential structures
while TTs were likely to construct expansions of suggested experiential structures.
These results clearly indicate formal correspondence, as demonstrated by STs, and
textual correspondence, as shown by TTs, when compared to Catford’s (1965) two
poles of translation.

This Deictic constructions appear to be higher than other experiential

structure types such as Focus, Numerative, Classifier, Epithet, and Thing, while

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Qualifier recurred in some of these constructions above. This study discovered that
among 34 types of Deictic experiential constructions, Deictic-Thing construction was
the highest frequency of all as seen in ‘its matn’, ‘the Hadith’, and ‘a tafsir’ (see
Table 7.3). Although new variants were found in 25 Deictic constructions, higher
than nine suggested ones, this study found that the former realisations were lower
than the latter. Looking at both Deictic realisations, STs seem to dominate the
constructions. Meanwhile, TTs and CTs showed different realisations of both
constructions where TTs appeared higher in the new variants, but lower than CTs in
nine suggested Deictic constructions.
Constructions of Focus function were identified as the second most frequent
construction of all. Focus identification refers to part of a whole reference (Painter et
al., 2010). In this case, ‘one of’ in ‘one of the ulema’ functioned as the Focus while
‘the’ functioned as Deictic, and ulema as the Thing. This study discovered 19 types
of Focus experiential constructions with Focus-Thing as the highest experiential
construction such as in ‘one of the mungkir al Hadith’. After Focus, this study found
that Numerative constructions began with ‘some’, ‘several’, and ‘much’ as Halliday
and Matthiessen (2014) categorise these signals as inexact quantifiers for either
countable or uncountable nouns. For example, this study demonstrated that ‘much’
was used before an uncountable noun in ‘much controversy’ for the translation of
banyak kontroversi or a countable noun such as ‘some Hadith’ or ‘several Hadiths’
for the translation of beberapa Hadits. This analysis revealed nine Numerative
experiential construction with Numerative-Thing experiential constructions as in the
above example shown as the highest constructions in Numerative experiential
structures. Both Focus and Numerative were found to be translations of these of the
source text.

Classifier constructions came the fourth most commonly occurring type of all
experiential structures. The analysis revealed seven types of Classifier constructions
with Classifier-Thing as the highest experiential construction as shown in ‘aqida
matters’. According to Wang (2021), Classifier functions to point out the grouping or
classification of the Head noun. Halliday and Matthiessen (2014, p. 377) refer to
Classifiers as “a particular subclass of the Thing in question”. For example, ulama
Hadits (ulama=Thing, Hadits=Classifier) was translated into ‘Hadith scholars’
(scholars=Thing, Hadith=Classifier). This indicates the Classifier ‘Hadith’ exhibited a

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particular subclass of the Thing ulama or ‘scholars’. From this example, the position
of Classifier in Indonesian appears as the opposite of English. In both experiential
structural contexts, Classifier appears the closest to the Thing (Halliday &
Matthiessen, 2014; Mulya et al., 2020).

This analysis demonstrated that suggested Epithet constructions appeared in

the target text, as well as new variants. Its suggested Epithet construction frequencies
were found to show less than that of new variants; this means new variants occurred
more frequently than the original. According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2014, p.
267) and Gerrot and Wignell (1994, p. 143), Epithet is the quality attribute and the
objective property of the Thing such as old, big, small. To distinguish it from
Classifier, they further state that the intensive attribution expression can be used, for
example, very to Epithet ‘old’ into ‘very old’ in ‘old house’. The analysis found
Epithet-Thing as the highest experiential construction such as in ‘holy Quran’ out of
five types of Epithet experiential constructions discovered in this study.
The Thing, on the other hand, was found to be the translation of the original
constructions. This study found four types of Thing experiential construction with
Thing as the highest type of experiential constructions as seen in ‘Hadith’. Observed
to be the least employed construction of all, this shows that translators seemed to
reproduce the translation of the original Thing and did not create a new one. This
implies that translators preserved the suggested Thing constructions – as intended in
the source text – as obligatory functions of the Thing and the matter being discussed,
as Gerrot and Wignell (1994) suggest.
Qualifiers appear in other functional elements as additional information to the
Thing (Fontaine, 2017). This study indicated that Qualifiers in the target text were
translations of original and newly created Qualifiers. This study found that most
Qualifiers remained at their positions after the Thing in the target text; however, a
few were found to be new Qualifiers, for example, from hujjat into ‘the hujjat as the
reasonable argument’. The Qualifier was established in the prepositional phrase ‘as
the reasonable argument’. These types of new Qualifiers were observed to occur in
24 experiential constructions. The analysis discovered 35 types of Qualifiers
experiential constructions with Thing-Qualifier as the highest experiential
construction. As Qualifiers function as expansions of the head noun, this implies that
Indonesian translators added increased additional information to the Thing as Painter

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et al. (2010) suggest.

9.4.2 Variants of Islamic Term Experiential Structures

This study reveals that Indonesian translators created 60 variants from the
given 20 suggested experiential constructions. These variants occurred because of the
experiential structural modification that took place to accommodate the target text
experiential structures. According to Nababan and Nuraeni (2012), modifying
experiential structural patterns aims to make the text more acceptable to target
readers. Without experiential structure modification, this study argues that target
readers would find the text difficult to read because it was constructed with
lexicogrammar different from that with which they were normally familiar. This
study discovered that variants were also the result of adding one of the functional
constituents of the Islamic term nominal group, most importantly, the addition of
Deictic and Qualifier to the existing Islamic term experiential structures.
One addition to the existing experiential structure was Deictic Thing
construction. The study discovered the most common experiential construction took
place from Thing to Deictic-Thing, for example, Qur’an into ‘the Qur’an’. This
indicates that Indonesian translators inquired about specifying Islamic terms used in
the target text. This may also imply that Indonesian translators attempted to identify
the references as either specific or non-specific Deictic or articles from the general
references in the source text. Apriyanti et al. (2016, p. 45) also recognise these
differences between English and Indonesian in using the articles, remarking:
“English article is more specific than Indonesian. English requires articles (the, a, an)
to make the noun more specific or to initiate that the noun refers to something that
has been mentioned before while Indonesian does not require articles”. They finally
conclude that “English is usually more detailed and specific in dealing with things
while Indonesian is not as detailed and specific as the English” (Apriyanti et al., 2016,
p. 46).

The following case illustrates various Deictic realisations from the same
Islamic terms. The translations of ulama tafsir ‘Exegeses scholars’, for example,
appeared to use different deictic constructions such as a tafsir (indefinite, ST6), the
scholars of tafseer (definite, TT5), those of tafseer (demonstrative Deictic, TT3),

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tafsir’s scholar (possessive Deictic, ST1), and tafsir scholar (no Deictic, ST10).
These varieties of Deictic may reflect different experiential meanings that Indonesian
translators realise from particular Islamic terms at the NG level. According to
Halliday and Matthiessen (2014) and Painter et al. (2010), these translators’
realisations would bring about different meaning realisations as they believe that
every constituent choice generates a unique meaning. For this reason, they remind
language users that linguistic modifications at any levels might result in distinct
meaning realisations.

Another new experiential construction was discovered in the Thing Qualifier

construction with 70 frequencies as the highest variant frequency. When the
construction was embedded in other experiential constructions, the number almost
doubled with 130 frequencies such as Hadith matan ‘contents of Hadith’ with
Classifier Thing Qualifier construction. The new qualifier ‘contents of Hadith’ was
added by translators to provide more information on the Head noun matan most
commonly at its first event in the text. In the studies of Noverino et al. (2021), new
Qualifiers are frequently discovered to extend the reference, which eventually adds
to the text's complexity. According to Bowen (2019), there are numerous Qualifiers
in academic texts that serve as reiterating, qualifying, additive, and projective
relations. In this study, new Qualifiers in brackets are most frequently used to
elaborate or reiterate the Thing.

9.4.3 Errors with Shifted Functions in Islamic Term Experiential

Structures

When translation shifts are improperly realised, the target text does not
project the intended meaning of the source text. Three factors in this study contribute
to translation shift errors, namely, the addition, omission, and incorrect position of
the nominal group functional elements. Even if not many translation shift errors were
found in this study, these should still be taken into consideration because, as Izwaini
and Al-Omar (2019) state, incomplete functional nominal group elements would
contribute to less cohesive function of the text, and as a result, a clear meaning cannot
be established. Such an error also occurs in students’ English essay writing in which
the wrong positioning errors of modifiers is caused by an interference of Indonesian
as their first language (Hajar, 2019).

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 The study discovered that not all target text Islamic term experiential
structures were shifted properly as the consequence of different lexicogrammar
systems, as Hajar (2019) suggests. For example, Indonesian Thing-Classifier
construction (Hadits dha’if) was suggested to transform it into English Classifier-
Thing construction (Weak Hadith); however, the study found that an improper
construction occurred when translating it into Deictic-Thing-Qualifier ‘Hadith’s
position as weak (Hadith’s=Possessive Deictic; position=Thing; as weak=Qualifier).

The new construction created new Thing in the target text (position) which
the study found it did not reflect the same function as the source text (Thing=Hadits).
In the new construction, Hadits was found to fill the deictic function that was not
available in the original. In addition, dha’if in the source text functioned as classifier,
and now it shifted as new function, the qualifier. This illustration revealed that certain
NG elements shift their functional roles from the original, implying that their
intended experiential meaning also changed. In a broader impact, such a shifting
function may result in failure to communicate the intended experiential meaning
(Fontaine, 2017; Manfredi, 2014).

In this study, a notable phenomenon occurred in which Islamic phrases

consisting of two words, such as Hadits dhaif or Hadits ahad, were preserved in their
original order in the target text. Indonesian classifiers dhaif and ahad should take
precedence when translated into English as dhaif Hadith ‘weak Hadith' or ahad
Hadith ‘authentic Hadith'. Most Indonesian translators, however, kept the Indonesian
Thing Classifier construction, which was supposed to be the Classifier Thing
construction in English nominal group lexicogrammar. Hajar (2019) suggests that for
Islamic phrases, Indonesian translators appear to use the Indonesian culture of
Islamic phrase construction in the target context.

9.5 Cultural Realisations of Islamic Term Translation

This study investigated the cultural realisations represented in the translation

of Islamic terms. The current study used the analysis of cultural realisations from
House (2006, 2020) to analyse translation issues in translating Islamic terms. The
discussion of cultural realisations is concerned with translation ideology in Islamic
term translation and cultural issues in the translation of Islamic terms. In addition, by

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examining important ideas in the field, a variety of cultural issues in translating
Islamic terms are also explored.

9.5.1 Translation Ideology in Islamic Term Translation

Translation ideology defines the tendency of Indonesian translators to

translate Islamic terms as the culture references. Venuti (2018) and Munday (2007)
compares cultural ideology to foreignisation and domestication ideology in the
translation of Islamic terms. Specifically, realisations of Islamic terms in both
cultural ideologies are revealed through the choices of Islamic term translations,
transliterations, and integrations. These Islamic term realisations are further
substantiated by intended meanings and other related earlier studies.
The investigation of translation ideology shows that most Indonesian
translators preferred to use foreignisation rather than domestication in translating
Islamic terms. This finding confirms this is the most common ideology in translating
cultural terms. According to House (2014), this is concerned with the absence of
similar concepts in other cultures that eventually results in translators using original
terms in the target text. As a result, foreignisation ideology is used in the translation
of Islamic terms in an Indonesian context because of the inevitability of target
cultural correspondences. Previous studies in the translation of Islamic terms in an
Indonesian context also show similar results such as in Hadith texts (Woodward,
1993), abstracts (Aminuddin et al., 2020), and novels (Mahmud et al., 2018; Pudjiati
& Ernawati, 2016).
Other translation ideologies, with fewer frequencies than foreignisation, were
also found where TTs generated more translation ideology frequencies than CTs.
This study found a recursive pattern from STs, TTs, and CTs ranging from the most
to the least frequent. It is argued that this recursive occurrence was not caused by the
translator group, but by individual differences. The study did not observe any
domination of one translator group over another. In fact, a number of factors, which
directly or indirectly were involved during translation, might influence individual
differences – for example, the characteristics of Islamic terms, the subject core
information expertise, the readiness of Islamic term correspondences, or the
unavailability of target text Islamic term transliterations. Larson (1984) asserts that
these potential differences are cultural and this finally justifies lexical items to be

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commonly considered as difficult to translate.

In terms of foreignisation ideology, this study examined transliteration styles

most used to represent Islamic terms in the target text. This analysis discovered that it
was not English transliteration styles that were most frequently used but Indonesian.
This finding shows that employing more Indonesian transliteration styles than
English in the target text raised the issue of the availability of Islamic term
representations in English. This finding also appears to demonstrate that target text
Islamic term transliterations did not use target text sounds as Hoseinmardy and
Momtazi (2020) suggest. The present study argues that this might indicate two things
about the use of source text transliteration in the target text. First, Indonesian
translators were not familiar with English transliterations of Islamic terms. Second,
Islamic term transliterations were scarcely available in English, so that Indonesian
translators used source text transliteration into the target text. However, if this was
not available, this study argues that this might not be the case since online
dictionaries on this issue are readily available. Therefore, these realisations confirm
that Islamic terms were culture-specific, and in this study, with Indonesian
transliteration styles.
Analysis of transliteration style shows that STs most commonly appear to
preserve Islamic terms in their transliterations. This means STs are shown to
maintain cultural aspects of the language, which are considered foreign within the
context of the target text as Larson (1984) also notices in the translation of cultural
words. Baker (2018) considers that the inclusion of source text Islamic terms in the
target context would demand certain cultural values of target readers. Following
Baker (2018), the case of translation as intercultural communication is also similarly
revealed as clarifying cultural-specific concepts of Jihad in the Western context
(Colas, 2019; Matusitz, 2020) and Indonesian context (Rahman, 2017).

The analysis discovered that out of 24 Islamic terms, Indonesian translators

produced seven Islamic term translations, fourteen transliterations, and four
integrations. Following Catford (1965), this category confirms that the investigated
Islamic terms were culture-specific, which was indicated by transliterations as most
frequently occurring in the translation of Islamic terms in an Indonesian context.
Islamic term transliteration representations, as the most common category, affirm
their cultural specific realisations in the target context, as most regularly found due to

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cultural differences (Larson, 1984). Differences of Islamic term representations may
demonstrate that when translating cultural words, translators were not solely driven
by one translation ideology, but rather by a mixture of ideologies in translation studies.
According to Snyder (2018), cultural words cannot be considered similar since some
have their correspondences already while some others have not.

9.5.2 Culture Issues in Islamic Term Translation

After exploring cultural realisations in translation products, this study further

explored the role of culture in the translation of Islamic terms from translators’
previous experiences during interviews and surveys. Interview results show that
Indonesian translators affirmed their positive views toward the role of culture in their
past experiences of translating Islamic terms. The study also conducted a survey
concerning several cultural issues of translating Islamic terms. Generally, cultural
information is required when formulating proper translation of cultural words by
revisiting their use in their socio-cultural context (Kashgary, 2011).
Even though consulting socio-cultural information is required when
translating Islamic terms, a few translators stated that there were some Islamic terms
that did not require cultural information to understand as similar functions are
available in the target text. In the case of kitab, for example, the study found that most
Indonesian translators simply translated this into ‘book' in English. In this specific
case, no cultural knowledge was required; however, to distinguish it from general
books, a few translators added the word ‘holy' to become ‘holy book.' This case thus
asserts that, although the Islamic terms under investigation are jargon in Hadith
Studies and do not require a great deal of cultural knowledge, Indonesian translators
still regard them as heavily culturally loaded items by employing foreignisation
ideology that promotes the source text culture.

This study found that Islamic terms were culturally mirrored in their English
translations. As discovered, most Islamic terms were represented in their
transliterations – Islamic term translations cannot completely be established because
no equivalent terms correspondences were identified in English. The survey showed
that 45.6% respondents believed Islamic terms were slightly translatable. This
implies that minor changes were available for translation. Preachers or missionaries
for juru dakwah, and faith or theology for aqidah, are two instances of cultural
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replacements that are proven to be culturally relevant. Others, however, are generally
incompatible, such as the ‘Bible’ for Hadith or ‘blasphemy’ for hujjat, which are two
references distinct from one to another. Incompatibility of cultural meaning, as Katan
and Taibi (2004) argue, is due to the lack of similar cultural references in the target
text and also translators’ misinterpretation of the terms’ meaning.
This study, therefore, generally confirms that foreignisation translation
ideology with an Indonesian transliteration style most commonly appears as cultural
realisations in the translation of Islamic terms in tan Indonesian context. Pure
transliteration was also regarded as the cultural characteristic of Islamic term
representations in the target text made by Indonesian translators. These findings were
supported by the translators’ positive views of cultural roles in their Islamic term
translation experiences. As a background for retrieving Islamic term lexical choices,
as used in their cultural context, a knowledge of Arabic culture, therefore, assisted
translators.

9.6 Summary

This chapter discusses preliminary findings that the study discovers in

Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8. The study reveals that Islamic term translation appears to be
statistically similar among translator groups whether in terms of lexical choices or
experiential structures. Meanwhile, translation of Islamic terms most commonly uses
foreignisation strategy with pure transliterations among other strategies and
techniques. Islamic term nominal groups, as the focus of the analysis, are projected
in their suggested target text experiential structures and even variants of these
constructions are also discovered. The last finding shows that Islamic terms are
culture-specific as indicated by foreignisation cultural ideology with Indonesian
transliterations.

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 Chapter 10. Conclusion

10.1 Introduction

This chapter concludes the current thesis on how three groups of Indonesian
translators manage Indonesian-English translation of Islamic terms in an academic
abstract. The following four sections respectively present a summary of major
findings, the implications of the study, limitations and suggestions for future
research, and the significances of the study.

10.2 Summary of Major Findings

This study concludes that four findings are in alignment with as many
research questions raised in 4.2. Research Question 1 probes the significant
differences between translation quality among the three translator groups while
Research Question 2 examines the analysis of translation strategies and techniques.
Research Questions 3 and 4 are concerned with linguistic realisations of Islamic term
nominal group experiential structures, and cultural realisations in translating Islamic
terms.
The first research question concerns the quality of translation produced by the
three Indonesian translator groups. One-way ANOVA statistical analysis shows that
the quality of the translation of Islamic terms differs insignificantly across translator
groups. Trained translators (CTs and TTs) exhibit similar translation qualities to
novice translators (STs) in two aspects (i.e., lexical choices and experiential
structures) of the translation quality investigated. This group’s average translation
quality frequency might show a gradable frequency of CTs (2.65), TTs (2.54), and
STs (2.40) (see 9.2.1). Nababan and Nuraeni’s (2012) translation quality rubric
classifies their translation as moderate, indicating that the text is readable and
understandable, however, contains a few errors in word choice and structure.

The most common representations of Islamic terms appear in their

transliterations. This finding asserts the previous-related research to use
transliteration as the strategy to represent Islamic terms in the English context
(Albarakati, 2019; Grami, 2019; Hassan, 2016; Elshiekh & Saleh, 2011). This lexical

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choice suggested that Indonesian translators were aware that Islamic terms were
culturally specific and used as specialised terms in Hadith Studies. However, if
compared to the prior research, the investigation of Islamic term translation in Indonesian
context mostly found the translators to use the source text transliteration style
(Indonesian) rather than the target one (English). As a result, the quality of their
translations may be affected by the interference of Indonesian as the target
transliteration style. Meanwhile, while most Indonesian translators maintained an
equivalent experiential structure from Indonesian to English, there were a few
experiential structural changes discovered in Islamic terms. Indonesian translators,
for example, used more Deictic to specify references and added more Qualifiers to
elaborate or reiterate the Thing. Furthermore, incorrect translation shifts also
occurred, which may reduce their translation quality.
The second research question investigates translation strategy and technique
used in translation products and is supported with findings from the questionnaires
and interviews. Analysis of these data indicates that the most preferred strategy and
technique used in Indonesian-English translation Islamic terms is foreignisation
through pure borrowing. A number of prior research have also shared similar findings
where the foreignisation strategy in translating Islamic terms has also been favoured and
revealed (Ebrahimi and Mahadi, 2020; Albarakati, 2019; Faharani and Mokhtari, 2016).
This finding is consistent with the loanword being the most preferred strategy, as
expressed by survey respondents. Both findings confirm that, as Islamic terms are
culture-specific, translators believe that these religious words are, therefore, best
represented in their transliterations.
A survey of translation strategies and techniques also provided strong
suggestions about the use of various strategies and techniques to translate Islamic
terms rather than opposing the idea of restoring or replacing original words with the
target language. The latter issue raises serious concerns about whether the target text
should transliterate or translate Islamic terms. Meanwhile, Indonesian translators
expressed four reasons for choosing a specific strategy and technique in interviews –
common practice, reader orientation, text types, and personal motives (Aminuddin et
al., 2020). Clearly, translators frequently identify Islamic term realisations from
previous works and use them in their own. They also identified target readers, such
as specific readers more appropriately for Islamic term transliterations and general
readers for Islamic term translations. Another factor in considering the choice of

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strategy and technique is the text type, such as academic versus general. Finally, a
few translators justified their strategy and technique choices in translating Islamic
terms based on personal reasons, which this study finds too subjective.

The third research question investigated the experiential structures of the

nominal group constituents. Apparently, Indonesian translators properly shifted the
NG constituents as the originals, such as Hadits dhaif (Thing Classifier) translated
into ‘weak Hadith' (Classifier Thing), indicating they had successfully constructed
experiential structures, as intended in the source text. However, a few NG
constituents were also reported to be improperly shifted such as in the case of Hadith
as the Thing function in Hadits dhaif (Thing Classifier) realised into Deictic in
‘Hadith’s status which is weak’ (Deictic Thing Qualifier). Furthermore, the target
text's experiential construction revealed that Deictic and Qualifier were the two most
NG functional constituents found in existing Islamic term experiential structures.
The research collected 80 total experiential constructions, including 60
variants and 20 suggested structures. It was found that the frequency of experiential
construction appeared to be higher in suggested structures than in variants where STs
dominated the former and TTs the latter. The most frequent shifting functional
constituent occurred from Thing to Deictic Thing construction such as Qur’an into
the Qur’an, indicating that Indonesian translators made specific reference to original
terms. Meanwhile, the construction of Thing Qualifier became the most frequent
construction in variants, for example ‘hujjat as the reasonable argument’ for hujjat.
The Qualifier ‘as the reasonable argument’ was added to reiterate the Thing (hujjat).
Other experiential constructions most often used Deictic, Numerative, Epithet,
Classifier, Thing, Qualifier, and Focus to play their intended functions in the target
text.
The fourth research question investigated the presence of culture in Islamic
term translation. The study discovered that cultural realisations in the target text were
reflected in the preservation of Islamic terms with Indonesian transliteration. This
finding appears to confirm that this lexical choice was culturally specific to Arabic or
Islam, and their transliteration representation may indicate a lack of similar cultural
concepts in the target text. Meanwhile, given that English transliteration of Islamic
terms is less common than Indonesian, this raises concerns about the relevance and
familiarity of Indonesian transliteration representation of Islamic terms in the

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Western context. This cultural realisation is primarily the result of Indonesian
translators' foreignisation ideology, which finds Islamic terms barely translatable into
non-Arabic cultures.

Most Indonesian translators believed that culture played a significant role in

the translation of Islamic terms. There is almost unanimous agreement that culture
aids translators in determining the meaning of Islamic terms by providing socio-
cultural context information. Due to the lack of similar cultural concepts, most
Indonesian translators believed that translating Islamic terms was difficult; therefore,
Islamic terms were best represented in their transliterations. Other previous research
have confirmed the similar finding to this study (Grami, 2019; Almahamed et al.,
2017; Hassan, 2016; Elshiekh and Saleh, 2011). While acknowledging the
significance of culture in translation studies, some translators argued that the
investigated Islamic terms were simply jargon or specialised registers in Hadith
Studies, and thus were inclined to transliterate Islamic terms without any
correspondence or description. As a result, these translators did not consider it
necessary to include cultural information in their translation.
The translation of Islamic terms revealed both correct and incorrect cultural
translations of Islamic terms. The appropriate translation can be identified by the
similarities of cultural concepts that words play in both cultural contexts. For
example, the study found that juru dakwah was like ‘preacher’ or ‘missionaries’ in
Christianity, which both referred to a person who spread religious messages.
Meanwhile, incorrect translations were discovered, with meanings that were
unrelated to the original. This study found three examples of misleading
correspondences. First, hujjat was mistaken for ‘blasphemy’. Hujjat was a multi-
meaning word. It was found that the translator was led astray by another meaning that
did not correspond to the context. Second, ahli fiqih was mistaken for ‘lawyer’. In
fact, ahli fiqih refers to scholars in Islamic law, and is not a specific reference to a
lawyer. Finally, Hadith was mistaken for the Bible, resulting in culturally irrelevant
entity meaning.

10.3 Implications of the Study

This project holds important implications of theoretical perspectives for

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applications of translation as communication across languages and cultures and for
pedagogical perspectives of teaching and learning of Islamic term translation in an
Indonesian context. This investigation frames translating cultures of Islamic terms
within the theoretical framework of translation as intercultural communication. This
means that translating Islamic terms from Indonesian to English is communicating a
mixture of Arabic and Indonesian languages and Islamic culture (religion as part of
culture) to other language speakers through English as a target language.

Islamic terms are examined in the current study for their translation from
Indonesian to the Western context. On the one hand, the findings in this project
confirm that the previous research relies heavily on transliterations to represent
Islamic terms in English when no equivalents can be found either in the target
language or in the target culture. On the other hand, the translators have made efforts
to preserve Islamic terms and achieve linguistic and cultural realisations and
translation quality through a variety of translation strategies and techniques.
The representation of the Islamic terms in the new context results in some
theoretical and practical implications. According to the statistical analysis (see 9.2.1),
there is no significant difference in translation quality among translator groups. The
case of Islamic term translation quality shows that trained or experienced translators
(CT and TT) and Novice translators (ST) produce similar qualities. This finding is
important in that translation studies should reconsider potential factors that could
contribute to better translation quality where Islamic terms are concerned, because
more experienced translators do not necessarily perform better when translating
Islamic terms. Further use of lexical choices and experiential structures of Islamic
term nominal groups in determining Islamic term translation quality might be
indicated when examining readability, accuracy and acceptability of the translation
quality of the Islamic texts (Larson, 1984; Nababan & Nuraeni, 2012).
Thus, Islamic terms are culturally specific, as evidenced by their translation
quality, linguistic and cultural realisations, and the translation strategy and technique
of foreignisation and pure transliteration. While the general trend in translating
Islamic terms is as shown above, there are implications for the teaching and study of
translation units for Indonesian students as non-native English learners in considering
proper Islamic term translation in Hadith Studies by recognising Islamic registers and
their relevant translation strategy and technique. Also implied is that translation

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university lecturers should provide a variety of lexical choices of Islamic terms,
identify their meaning translatability, and recognise their proper experiential
structures in the target text.

10.4 Significant contributions of the study

This thesis provides a number of significant contributions. First, the current

study contributes to the translation quality of Islamic terms in an Indonesian context.
The current finding shows that the translation quality is not different from one
translator group to the others and their translation quality is qualified as moderate
quality. Given this fact, it signifies the necessity for Indonesian translators to always
improve and equip themselves with the current theoretical and practical basis of
translating Islamic terms, especially to the two sources of translation quality - Islamic
term lexical choices and their experiential structures. Both translation quality sources
used in this study may become an alternative source of translation quality for
linguistic and translation researchers to determine the quality of Islamic term
translation.

Second, in relation to the translation quality, this study also develops an

understanding of the experiential structures of Islamic term nominal groups. This
study specifically contributes to meaning-making in the level of group where it
analyses the role of functional Islamic term nominal group constituents. It also keeps
the translators aware of the need to understand the functional behaviours at the group
level and to have shown that each constituent develops and functions as intended in
the source text. If the translators fail to decode the intended meaning in the source
text, it is less likely that they would be able to encode it in the target text
appropriately.
This second contribution signifies a successful application of systemic
functional grammar in analysing the linguistic aspect (nominal structure) of
translating Islamic terms. The investigation has examined how the Islamic term
nominal group structures serve as a source of information for translators regarding
the significance of a similar role in the Islamic term nominal group structures.

Third, the development of Islamic term experiential constructions leads to the

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generated translation strategies and techniques that determine the representations of
Islamic terms in the target text. It is found that transliteration with the pure
borrowing technique is the most preferred strategy and technique in the translation of
Islamic terms in Indonesian context. This finding makes a significant contribution to
the practices in the translation of Islamic terms so that these translation strategies and
techniques are recommended for the Indonesian translators in the field and even in
other disciplines to consider. The evidence that the foreignization strategy is more
preferred than the domestication strategy signifies the Islamic terms as the culture-
specific items. Between the two strategies, this study proposes the integrated strategy
that applies to the Islamic phrases. The current study contributes to the translation of
Islamic terms by employing the integrated strategy for the case of Islamic phrases.

Fourth, relevant to the third significance of the study, cultural realisations

reveal the foreignisation ideology that signifies the representation of Islamic terms in
the target text as the cultural specificity to Arabic and Islam. This source text
ideology has confirmed the inequivalence of the Islamic terms as cultural words. This
finding signifies the importance of cultural awareness in the translation of Islamic
terms that is agreed to play an important role at the practical and belief exploration
about culture. This foreignisation ideology also adds the transliteration system to be
employed with Indonesian transliterations in the target context considering the
unavailability of similar cultures in the target text.
In a broader scope, this project has shown a deep analysis of culture-specific
features of Islamic terms in light of translation as intercultural communication
theory. This theoretical framework is successfully used to investigate the current
project, which essentially communicates the features of cultural specificity among
the intercultural aspects of three interrelated contexts—Arabic, Indonesian, and
English—through the translation of Islamic words.
Fifth, as most common issues in the translation of Islamic terms use
qualitative approach (Aminuddin et al., 2020; Hassan, 2016; Althawbih & Rabadi,
2016; AlGhamdi, 2016), and none has been conducted in quantitative, this project
combines them in a mixed-methods approach. This analysis has presented the
qualitative findings on translation strategy, linguistic and cultural realisations, and a
quantitative finding on translation quality among Indonesian translator groups. The
project investigation has clearly demonstrated a mixed methods approach in studying

193
the translation of Islamic terms in the context of an Indonesian abstract.

Finally, the current study has integrated the concepts of translation studies
and systemic functional linguistics to the case of Islamic term translation. It is crucial
to consider that meaning making has taken place as a result of translation shift that
plays a significant contribution to the translation of Islamic terms from Indonesian to
English by taking into account the linguistic and cultural aspects of both languages.
In addition, the findings of the study have potential pedagogic implications for
teaching translation by considering issues of translation quality and strategy as well
as the linguistic and cultural realisations of Islamic term translation in an Indonesian
context.

10.5 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research

This project is not free from limitations. The goal of the research is to reflect
on what limitations exist so that constructive suggestions can be made to guide future
research. Reflections on the project along the way has led to the realisation of four
limitations.

First, the current study focuses on Islamic terms at the lexical level only. It
does not venture further to sentence or text level. Instead, the analysis of strategy and
technique and translation quality, and the analysis of linguistic and cultural
realisations focuses on the group level. Second, this study views Islamic terms from
one metafunction, experiential meaning (a division of ideational meaning), which is
considered insufficient to describe the creation of meaning. In his early manuscript
on register analysis, Halliday (1985) mentions that the creation of meaning is
determined not only by its ideational meaning, but also by other metafunctions –
interpersonal meaning and textual meaning.
Third, this research is also limited by a lack of parameters for recruiting
translators. Previously, this study established requirements for professionals to have
experience in translating Islamic terms in their professional works. However, due to
a lack of participants who met this requirement, this study eventually allowed for the
recruitment of translators who provide services in translating abstracts for theses in
educational settings. The finding concerning similar translation quality between
experienced translators (CTs and TTs) and novice translators (STs) may be due to the
194
translator groups’ unfamiliarity with translating practices for this type of text with
several Islamic terms. Fourth, this study's source text is an Indonesian abstract of a
Master's level in Islamic Studies in a tertiary setting. This assigned text, however,
does not adhere to the general structure of an abstract because it does not include
research questions and methodology.
Given the limitations of the study above, suggestions for each are offered.
First, since the present investigation is on the lexical level, it is suggested for future
research to expand analysis to the sentence level or beyond. This may result in a
broader range of findings although more parameters need to be defined concerning
the complexity of the lexicogrammar of the text.

Second, given suggested changes of linguistic analysis, the study, therefore,

suggests investigating the role of Islamic term nominal group as clause participants.
This transitivity analysis assists translators in recognising the function of clause
constituents such as participants, processes, and circumstances (Halliday &
Matthiessen, 2014; Painter et al., 2010). Understanding each clause’s role in the text
guides translators in shifting their original meaning choices. However, since Islamic
terms are in nominal groups, the study suggests that only participants or
circumstances should be the locus of the analysis in identifying the roles of the clause
functional elements. This current study suggests that realising Islamic meaning can
be approached through the three metafunctions to arrive at a complete meaning
realisation.
Third, since the present study recruits Indonesian translators from general
educational backgrounds, future research might benefit from the suggestions to
recruit translators who are well-versed in Islamic Studies and possess strong research
skills in this field. Although recruiting translators with sound knowledge in Islamic
term translation is a difficult task, it is believed that such types of translators are
available. Lastly, understanding that the abstract does not follow a standard structure,
the current study recommends using an abstract of Islamic Studies with a complete
structure – introduction, research questions, methodology, results, and conclusion. In
addition, the abstract contains a text structure that consists of excessively long
sentences with several embedded clauses or phrases, which are unusual in abstract
writing. It is expected that a future study would select source texts written in proper
Indonesian complex and with simple sentence structures. Therefore, choosing an

195
abstract of an article published in a Q1 journal of Islamic Studies is recommended.

196
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Appendices

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 Appendix 1. Participants’ Profiles

1.1 Teacher Translators (TTs)

Participant Translating Pair Texts
codes experiences languages
(years)
TT1 7 Indonesian- Education
English
TT2 7 English - Culture
Indonesian
TT3 12 Both Education, Islamic education,
History
TT4 20 Both Law, Education, Public
services
TT5 10 Both Economy
TT6 8 English - Law, Islamic education
Indonesian
TT7 6 Both Islamic Education
TT8 15 English - Science, Religion
Indonesian
TT9 10 Both Arts
TT10 4 Both Islamic education
TT11 14 Both Sports, Islamic education

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1.2 Student Translators (STs)

Participant codes TOEFL-like scores

ST1 547

ST2 507

ST3 497

ST4 533

ST5 527

ST6 500

ST7 533

ST8 520

ST9 500

ST10 547

ST11 503

ST12 557

ST13 563

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1.3 Certified Translators (CTs)

Participant Translating Pair Texts Types of CTs Educational

codes experiences languages background
(years)

CT1 23 Both Law Full translator English

CT2 10 Both Education Associate English

translator

CT3 16 Both Social Associate English

sciences translator

CT4 9 Both Law Full translator English

CT5 17 Both Law Full translator English

CT6 23 Both Novel Full translator Non-English

CT7 12 Both Governance Full translator Non-English

CT8 20 Both Business, Full translator English

law

CT9 18 English - Finance Full translator English

Indonesian

CT10 12 Both General Associate English

translator

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 Appendix 2. Source Text

Abstrak

Masa perkembangan Hadits terus menerus melaju dari abad ke abad. Salah satu
ulama pada saat sekarang ini yang menjadi pemerhati Hadits adalah Muhammad al-Ghazali,
dengan salah satu kitab pembahasan ilmu Haditsnya yang berjudul al Sunnat, al
Nabawiyyat Bayna Ahl al Fiqh wa Ahl al Hadits. Dalam karyanya ini beliau menyoroti
kedudukan Hadits dan cara mentakwilkan dan menjadikan matan Hadits sebagai hujjat
dalam kehidupan sehari-hari dengan metodologinya sendiri yang menimbulkan banyak
kontroversi dikalangan ulama. Bahkan sampai ada yang mengatakan bahwa beliau salah
seorang mungkir al Hadits. Hal ini disebabkan karena beliau tidak menerima begitu saja
Hadits ahad walaupun berstatus shahih, bahkan menolaknya jika berkaitan dengan masalah
aqidah jika tidak ada dalil lain yang dapat menguatkannya. Disamping itu, al-Ghazali
tampak terlalu berani dalam meragukan bahkan menolak beberapa Hadits yang dikeluarkan
oleh beberapa muhaddits yang dipandang oleh mayoritas ulama sebagai muhaddits yang
capable dalam bidangnya dan kitabnya merupakan kitab kedua pegangan umat Islam
setelah al Qur’an, dan ia menjadikan Hadits dha’if dari segi sanad sebagai hujjat jika
matannya semakna dengan kandungan al-Qur’an dan atau ada Hadits lain yang
menguatkannya.
Sebagai juru dakwah yang intelek sekaligus ulama pemerhati Hadits, ia
menginginkan adanya kerjasama antara ahli Hadits yang bergelut dengan ilmu Hadits dalam
segi sanad, dan ahli fiqih yang memiliki kemampuan untuk memahami kandungan Hadits
secara benar dan proporsional, sehingga ajaran Islam terasa makin relevan, rasional dan
aplikatif. Dengan demikian, ia berpendapat bahwa penelitian terhadap Hadits bukan hanya
tugas ulama Hadits, tetapi juga ulama tafsir, fiqih dan yang lainnya yang mempunyai
kemampuan dalam menelitinya. Dan bukan hanya sebatas sanad yang diteliti, melainkan
matan secara bersamaan.

Perbedaan penilaian ke-shahih-an Hadits dan cara pandang dalam mengartikan nash
Hadits antara al-Ghazali dengan ulama lainnya bisa jadi dikarenakan latar belakang al-
Ghazali yang tidak sama dengan ulama lainnya, baik pendidikannya, lingkungan yang
membesarkannya, atau pola pikirnya. Atau, al- Ghazali tidak hanya melihat dan menerima
nash-nash dengan begitu saja, melainkan ia meneliti baik matan maupun sanad dan

214
membandingkan dengan nash-nash lainnya, baik dari al Qur’an dan al Sunnat, dan yang
penting lagi adalah beliau menilai Hadits tersebut apakah masuk akal atau tidak dan
apakah bertentangan dengan ke-mashlahat-an umat atau tidak, hingga pada akhirnya
banyak penilaian beliau yang bertentangan dengan ulama lainnya dalam men-tashih-kan
sebuah Hadits dan meng-istinbath-kan sebuah hukum.

215
 Appendix 3. Experiential Construction Variants

Experiential Construction Variants STs TTs CTs Total

Thing1 Thing2 14 38 18 70
Deictic Epithet Thing Qualifier 7 5 10 22
Classifier Thing1 Thing2 5 8 3 16
Classifier Classifier Thing 11 0 5 16
Focus Deictic Thing 3 8 0 11
Deictic1 Deictic2 Thing Qualifier 4 4 3 11
Epithet Classifier Thing 2 2 6 10
Classifier1 Classifier2 Thing Qualifier 3 3 3 9
Classifier1 Classifier2 Thing 0 9 0 9
Thing1 Thing2 Qualifier 3 5 0 8
Numerative Thing1 Thing2 2 4 1 7
Epithet Epithet Thing 0 4 3 7
Focus Thing1 Thing2 1 5 0 6
Deictic Epithet Classifier Thing 3 3 0 6
Deictic Classifier1 Classifier2 Thing 1 3 2 6
Focus Deictic Thing1 Thing2 4 1 0 5
Epithet Classifier Thing Qualifier 0 0 5 5
Classifier thing1 thing2 Qualifier 2 2 1 5
Focus Epithet Thing Qualifier 2 2 0 4
Focus Epithet Thing 1 3 0 4
Focus Deictic Classifier Thing Qualifier 0 4 0 4
Numerative Epithet Classifier Thing 1 2 0 3
Deictic1 Decitic2 Epithet Thing 2 1 0 3
Deictic Thing1 Thing2 Thing3 0 3 0 3
Deictic Epithet1 Epithet2 Thing 0 3 0 3
Deictic Classifier1 Classifier2 Thing Qualifier 1 2 0 3
Numerative Classifier Thing 0 2 0 2
Focus Deictic Classifier1 Classifier2 Thing 1 1 0 2
Deictic1 Deictic2 Epithet Thing Qualifier 1 1 0 2
Deictic1 Deictic2 Thing1 Thing2 1 0 1 2
Deictic Numerative Epithet Thing Qualifier 0 2 0 2

216
Deictic Numerative Epithet Thing 0 2 0 2
Deictic Numerative Classifier Thing Qualifier 1 1 0 2
Deictic Numerative Classifier Thing 1 1 0 2
Deictic Epithet Classifier Thing Qualifier 1 1 0 2
Deictic Classifier1 Classifier2 Thing1 Thing2 1 1 0 2
Numerative Thing1 Thing2 Qualifier 0 1 0 1
Numerative Epithet Thing 0 1 0 1
Numerative Epithet Classifier Thing Qualifier 1 0 0 1
Numerative Classifier1 Classifier2 Thing Qualifier 0 1 0 1
Focus Thing1 Thing2 Thing3 0 1 0 1
Focus Thing 0 0 1 1
Focus Epithet1 Epithet2 Thing Qualifier 0 1 0 1
Focus Deictic1 Deictic2 Thing 1 0 0 1
Focus Deictic Numerative Epithet Thing Qualifier 1 0 0 1
Focus Deictic Epithet Thing Qualifier 0 1 0 1
Focus Deictic Epithet Thing 0 1 0 1
Focus Deictic Epithet Classifier Thing Qualifier 0 1 0 1
Focus Deictic Classifier1 Classifier2 Classifier3 Thing 1 0 0 1
Epithet Thing 0 0 1 1
Deictic1 Deictic2 Epithet Classifier Thing 0 1 0 1
Deictic Thing 1 Thing2 Qualifier 1 0 0 1
Deictic1 Deictic2 Thing 0 0 1 1
Deictic Numerative1 Numerative2 Epithet1 Epithet2 Thing 1 0 0 1
Deictic Numerative Thing1 Thing2 1 0 0 1
Deictic Numerative Classifier1 Classifier2 Thing Qualifier 1 0 0 1
Deictic Numerative Classifier1 Classifier2 Thing 1 0 0 1
Deictic Epithet Thing1 Thing2 1 0 0 1
Deictic Classifier1 Classifier2 Classifier3 Thing 1 0 0 1
Deictic Classifier Thing1 Thing2 Qualifier 0 1 0 1
90 146 64 300

217
 Appendix 4. Questionnaire

Section 1 Objectives
The questionnaire aims to collect data concerning the issues of the thesis “The translation
of Islamic terms into English in an Indonesian context”. The thesis consists of seven
sections. The instructions to each section will be provided. The questionnaire takes ten to
fifteen minutes. You cannot leave the questionnaire blank and may proceed to the next
question if the previous questions have been answered. If experiencing difficulties with
this questionnaire, you can directly message me Muhammad Aminuddin in 0451220176.

Section 2 Agreement statements

Instruction: Indicate the following statements based on the agreement level (Strongly agree,
Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree)
1. Semantic equivalence and stylistic between the source text and target text are not a
problem in the translation of Islamic terms
2. Contexts bounding the Islamic terms influences the translatability degree of the word
into English
3. I try my best ability to substitute the Islamic terms into a more readable and
understandable English
4. Differences in language system in forming morphology and syntax influence the
translation of Islamic term from Indonesian into English
5. Translators’ knowledge about the two languages play an important role in handling
the difficulties of Islamic term translation
6. The understanding of culture of a language is not always necessarily needed by the
translator
7. Translators attempt to interpret meaning to search for equal meaning in target
language
8. Translation quality of religious texts into English will be more accurate if assisted by
translation application
9. The use of inappropriate Islamic terms in academic texts does not influence the
quality of Islamic term translation
10. The inconsistency of Islamic term translation use in English texts influences the
Islamic term translation quality
11. Cultural factors in Arabic is still a problem in Islamic term translation
12. Islamic terms tend to have their correspondences in English
13. The language proficiency of a translator does not always produce a good translation
product
14. Islamic terms have specific function so that they cannot be replaced by other words
in English

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15. Lack of knowledge about translation theory will influence the translation process and
products
16. Translating Islamic terms require cautiousness because it contains the sacred or
religious loads
17. The inequivalences of meanings are hardly found in the translation of Islamic terms
18. Islamic terms hardly have their correspondences in English
19. I try to preserve the original Islamic terms when translating them
20. The untranslatability of Islamic terms is caused by the differences of cultural contexts.
21. Arabic culture has a huge differences from English culture
22. When translated, Islamic words will lose the real meaning
23. There is no corresponding word with being a 100% accurate
24. The error in translating Islamic terms can cause a huge impact
25. The Islamic terms in Indonesian and English often detach from both contexts
26. I always use different translation strategies for every Islamic term
27. In English context, Islamic terms should be translated because most of target readers
do not understand Arabic
28. English is more familiar with Islamic terms than Indonesian
29. I think the translators of Islamic terms are still a few in numbers
30. A translator of Islamic terms can translate without knowing the Arabic culture or
Islamic religion
31. Islamic terms translators tend to use uniformity of translation strategy
32. I think the translation of Islamic terms from Indonesian to English is still far from
being considered as acceptable translation
33. The translation of Islamic terms in Academic texts has shown its good translation
quality
34. As the text is translated in Indonesian context, I, therefore, still preserve the
Indonesian transliteration of the Islamic terms
35. An Islamic term can be changed or preserved due to its context
36. Translating Islamic terms can be done by everyone with various educational and
cultural backgrounds
37. Translators’ interpretation can be different. Therefore, there should be a guidance of
Islamic term translation from Indonesian to English
38. The religious background of a translator influences the translation quality
39. The translation of Islamic terms from Indonesian to English disposes their real
meanings
40. I write the original word in the bracket so that I will not lose the meaning of those
Islamic terms

Section 3 Islamic term translation difficulties and their problem solving

Instruction: please write your answers toward the following questions
1. What are the common difficulties that you have encountered when
translating Islamic terms?
2. What are the common ways that you usually overcome those difficulties?

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Section 4 Translation strategies
Instructions: please indicate the following translation strategy based on the
regularity level (always, usually, sometimes, rarely, and never)
1. Translation by a more general word
2. Translation by cultural substitution
3. Translation using a loanword
4. Translation using a loanword plus explanation
5. Translation by paraphrasing using related word
6. Translation by omission

Section 5 Islamic term translatability

Instruction: select one out of four options
1. In your opinion, Islamic terms ….
a. Can be translated
b. Cannot be translated
c. Can slightly be translated
d. Can generally be translated

Section 6 Biodata
Instruction: complete the following biodata
1. Name :
2. Translating experiences :
3. Pair language expertise :
4. Text expertise :

Note: Section 6 may vary according to the types of translator groups

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 Appendix 5. Interview Protocol

Q1. Prior-knowledge about Islamic term translation

Can you mention your name please?
Have you translated religious texts before?
What do you know about religious text translation and non-religious
translation?
Q2. Islamic term equivalences
Do religious words have their equivalents in English?
Q3. Difficulties in Islamic term translation
What are the hurdles of translating the religious texts?
Q4. Islamic term translation process
Did you do any preparation prior to
translation work? How long did it take you to
translate the text?
Did you need any help?
After your translation was finished, did you check and recheck your work?
Q5. Reasons for Islamic term changes
What are the underlying principles of the
changes? Do you have any reasons for the
changes?
Q6. Arabic culture
Do you think knowing Arabic culture is important to translate the text?
Q7. Suggestions for future translators
Do you have any suggestions for future translators in the translation of
Islamic terms?
Q8. Additional notes about Islamic term translation
Do you have something else to say?

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