THE WORD OF ‘Al’nar’ IN QURAN AND ITS SYNONYMS: A SEMANTIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

The Holy Quran is a divine book and is reckoned to be the most sacred text for all Muslims around the world. One of the distinctive features of the Holy Quran is its eloquence and unique style. The use of synonyms in the Quran is a common phenomenon that is widely discussed in Islamic literature. It refers to the use of different words to communicate the same or similar meanings. Synonymy is an essential aspect of the linguistic structure of the text and, therefore, it is a matter of great interest for semanticists. This article explores the use of the word Al’nar and its synonyms in the Quran. Moreover, the study makes use of three different translations for the comparative analysis of the selected word. For linguistic context, Ibn-e Kathir the exegesis of the Quran was consulted for all the selected verses to locate variations in the shades of meanings as rendered by the translators. It concludes with the understanding that the text of the Qura’n is linguistically rich, with lucidity of expressions conveying the nuances of meaning which the translators sometimes failed to transfer in the original.