The Arabic Hyperbolic Pattern ' Fa ? ? al ' in Two Recent Translations of the Qur '

The present study addresses the problem of rendering the لا عف'fa??al' hyperbolic pattern into English in two recent translations of the Qur'an. Due to the variety of Qur'an translations and the large amount of hyperbolic forms of Arabic verbs recorded in the Qur'an, only two translations of the Qur'an are consulted and analyzed: these two translations, namely Saheeh International Translation (1997) and Prof. Abdel-Haleem's (2004), are distinguished by the fact that they are recent and well-received. Moreover, the investigation of hyperbolic forms is confined to the Arabic form ف لا ع 'fa??al'. The study reveals that the Saheeh translator has applied morphological shifting in many examples while AbdelHaleem's translation exhibits a considerable amount of syntactic transposition, coupled with paraphrasing. The test of accuracy as administered here is to give a clear picture of the need to pay particular attention to hyperboles of the form examined and other ones not analyzed here for limitations of space.


Introduction
Hyperbole, otherwise known as exaggeration or overstatement, is regarded as one of the rhetorical devices employed by language users to add extra meaning or to amplify a certain action or quality.It is also a type of "creative intensifications for evaluative or affective purposes" (Mora, 2009).Hyperbolic expressions thus act as a trope that leaves a certain impression or goes beyond the truth of a particular quality (Dung, 2010).
Despite its central role as a rhetorical device that adds purported semantic content, hyperbole has received little attention (as will be elaborated below).It is also used differently across languages, especially English and Arabic.While English regards it as a figure of speech or trope that might not covey the truth, Arabic considers it a morphological process that adds significant semantic content by emphasizing repetition of action, superhuman qualities or even professional occupation.This marked difference is better seen through the lens of translation, especially the study of the differences in the rendition of hyperbolic forms in the Qur'an into English.
Due to the variety of Qur'an translations and the large amount of hyperbolic forms of Arabic verbs recorded in the Qur'an, only two translations of the Qur'an will be consulted and analyzed: these two translations, namely Saheeh International Translation (1997) and Prof. Abdel-Haleem's (2004), are distinguished by the fact that they are recent and well-received.Moreover, the investigation of hyperbolic forms will be confined to the Arabic form ‫ﺎل‬ ‫ﻓﻌ‬ 'fa??al', which is the most frequent in the holy book (cf. Saleh, 2005).
The present study will thus focus on the occurrences of this form in the Qur'an as a means to examine how the two translations address the problem of the strategies involved in rendering it from Arabic into English.

Studies on Hyperbole in English
The topic of hyperbole in English has received some attention due to its recurrence in daily newspapers and conversations.One of the earliest studies is van Dijk's (1995).As a critical discourse analyst, he set out to investigate the use of hyperboles in a collection of expressions used by right-wing British newspapers and speeches delivered in the Spanish Parliament.Van Dijk discovered that hyperboles play a prominent role in the formulation of opinions, especially the effect of semantic polarization, which is highly dependent on hyperbolized forms.
Another important study is Drew and Holt's (1998).They analyzed a huge corpus of telephone conversations for a British family over a period of three years.They found out that hyperboles figured out as a recurrent rhetorical device for purposes of persuasion.
Similarly, Gibbs (2000) examined sixty-two 10-minute conversations between college students and their friends.His findings pointed to the fact that 74% of the hyperboles were viewed as humorous by a t least one of the conversational participants.
An oft-quoted study is McCarthy and Carter's (2004).They used corpus extracts from concordances generated for key lexical items for prominent semantic fields (e.g.time and number) to illustrate how hyperbolic expressions are used in context.McCarthy and Carter attempted to pinpoint the degree of an item's hyperbole-proneness, using five basic categories according to the CANCODE method: 1-Expressions of number (millions of, hundreds of, etc.), 2-Words referring to large amounts/quantities (masses of, loads of, etc.), 3-Adjective modification of amount(s) and number(s) (adjective + amounts of, etc.), 4-Time expressions (years, weeks, hours, etc.), and 5-Size, degree and intensity (enormous, endless, gigantic, etc.).
They found that shifts in footing indicated by discourse markers or narrative shift markers (e.g.time adverbs) were common within the linguistic environment of hyperboles.McCarthy and Carter's study concludes that an interactive approach to hyperbole is sine qua non for its proper understanding.Mora (2004) explored the role of conversational interactivity in hyperbole construction and comprehension.To do so, she developed a collaborative framework, involving both speaker and listener, in order to reveal that listener response is crucial in understanding the nature of hyperboles.She compiled a corpus of naturally occurring spoken conversations, chosen at random from the British National Corpus.The responses included back channels, relevant next contributions, shifts in topic, refusals to acknowledge the speaker's overstatement.She found that relevant next contribution and back channel responses (e.g.yeah, mm, oh, etc.) were the most recurrent pattern of listeners' responses to hyperbole, which indicates understanding of the speakers' overstatement.Sert (2008) built on the framework provided by McCarthy and Carter (2004) and Mora (2004) in order to analyze hyperboles in a British TV series called Coupling (approximately a 90,000 word corpus), and investigate their potential application in EFL classes.He attempted to answer the following questions: 1-Items within the five categories of hyperboles exist frequently in the Coupling corpus.
2-What are the similarities between CANCODE and the Coupling corpus in terms of the hyperbole-proneness of key lexical items?3-How do speakers and listeners communicate hyperboles considering shifts in footing?
4-In what ways can a corpus analysis of hyperboles in a TV series be conducive to foreign language learning?He found out that the discourse of TV series, unlike naturally occurring language, requires a three-channel model in analyzing the humorous effect of hyperbole.Listener responses should also be analyzed.Despite these limitations, it is believed that in countries where English is taught and spoken as a foreign language, TV series like Coupling may be used to provide comprehensible language input for L2 learners.
In a more recent study, Dung (2011) compared the use of hyperboles in 1000 samples of English and Vietnamese sources.He analyzes the data syntactically, semantically and pragmatically.

Studies on Hyperbole in Arabic
Although little has been written on hyperbole in Arabic, relevant studies date back to the early works of Abu Hilal al-'Askari, author of al-Furooq al-Lughawiyyah, in the fourth Hegira century and .Al-'Askari maintained that it is impossible for two different words in Arabic to have exactly the same meaning, especially the different hyperbolic forms.He prefers to define hyperbole as the exaggeration in meaning by going to its utmost.Al-Rommani, on the other hand, defines hyperbole as the denotative exaggerated meaning for the purposes of clarifying it.
Ibn Genie, in his treatise Al-Khasa'is, and Al-Zamakhshari also touch upon the same topic.Ibn Genie views hyperbole as a sub-type of ontomasia, though he distinguishes it as conveying the sense of completeness.Al-Zamakhshari likewise considers hyperbole and digression inseparable, but preserves the meaning of 'reaching the pinnacle' for hyperbole.
A more recent approach is Saleh's (2005).His MA thesis focuses on the use of hyperbolized forms in the Qur'an.He provides semantic and syntactic discussions of all these forms, showing that they are mainly derived from the active participle.What is significant about his research is that he gives a precise definition of each of the hyperbolized forms cited, based on exegetical accounts.

Studies on Hyperbole in the Qur'an
Studies on hyperbole in the Qur'an seem to be fragmented and shallow.To the best of the researcher's knowledge, the only comprehensive study in Arabic is Saleh's (2005) mentioned in the previous section.Other studies on the translation of hyperbole into English are just rudimentary and no more than personal thoughts.
The website Arabic Gems (January, 2007) provides a brief discussion under siyagh al mubaalaghah ('forms of intensification/hyperbolic forms').It says that such forms denote different levels of intensity.Thus, a liar 'kaadhib' ‫ﻛﺎذب‬ may also be known as a kadhoob ‫ﻛﺬوب‬ or a kadhdhaab ‫اب‬ ّ ‫.ﻛﺬ‬ Another study is Amjad's (2013), which focuses on divine names only.He examines Qur'an translations done by three professional translators namely, Shakir (1985), Qarai (2003), andNikayin (2006) who provided their translations in prose, phrase-by-phrase, and poetry forms respectively.He finds out that Shakir and Qarai used nearsynonymy' and 'expansion' respectively.Nikayin, however, used these two strategies almost to an equal extent as his most frequent strategies.

Why these Two Translations
The two translations selected are Saheeh International Translation (1997) and Prof. Abdel-Haleem's (2004).The reasons behind their selection are threefold.First, they are both recent, Saheeh International Publishing House Translation being published in 1997, while Prof. Abdel-Haleem's being published in 2004. Second, Saheeh International Translation (1997) was done by a native speaker, namely Umm Muhammad who is an American who converted to Islam while following an intensive study of Arabic in Syria.The editors of the Publishing House are also native speakers of English: Amatullah J. Bantley (director) and Mary M. Kennedy i .Third, Prof. Abdel-Haleem's translation is done by a specialist in both Arabic and English: he is an academic at SOAS, London University.Since its publication, his translation has been met with satisfaction, especially by Mohammed (2005, p.3), who comments that '[t]he preciseness of English is certainly commendable'.Shah (nd) also praises the translation, which is the fruit of working for seven years.

Corpus
Due to the numerous instances of Arabic hyperbolic forms in the Qur'an, only the occurrences of the form ‫ﺎل‬ ‫ﻓﻌ‬ (i.e.fa??al) is the focus of investigation here.It occurs in 88 instances throughout the Qur'an.

Methods
The method adopted in the analysis of the instances quoted in the present study is to classify the occurrences according to the strategies employed in translating them by the two translators.These strategies have been largely classified into flattening, partial flattening, and conveying complete sense.Flattening refers to the loss of the meaning of the fa??al form due to adopting, for example, an active participle one.Partial flattening, however, is the attempt at conveying some parts of the semantic content of the hyperbolic form by means of syntax or otherwise.Conveying complete sense refers to the success on the part of the translator to render the hyperbolic form accurately, using any transposition or compensation.Flattening is, for short, referred to as 'flat', partial flattening as 'partial' and complete sense as 'comp'.Moreover, the Saheeh Translation is referred to for short as Sah., while the Abdel-Haleem's translation is referred to as Ah.The nine possibilities resulting from this classification are as follows: 1. Flat (Sah.),Flat (Ah) Each instance of the hyperbolic form is provided in Arabic and English, and its Arabic Qur'anic context, followed by the two translations in question.The Arabic forms discussed are ordered alphabetically.

Flat (Sah.), Flat (Ah)
Awwah ‫أواه‬ : This hyperbolic form occurs in verse 114 of Surah Al-Tawbah as follows: The two translations are as follows: Ah Sah Abraham asked forgiveness for his father because he had made a promise to him, but once he realized that his father was an enemy of God, he washed his hands of him.Abraham was tender-hearted and forbearing.
And the request of forgiveness of Abraham for his father was only because of a promise he had made to him.But when it became apparent to him [i.e., Abraham] that he [i.e., the father] was an enemy to Allah, he disassociated himself from him.Indeed was Abraham compassionate and patient.
It is clear that two translators flatten the hyperbolic form 'awwah' by opting for 'compassionate' and 'tender-hearted', respectively.The adjective chosen by the Saheeh translator is more akin to 'raheem' than 'awwah'.Taj Al-Aroos Arabic Dictionary equates 'awwah' with the meaning of someone who is expectant of an answer to his or her request from God.Moreover, as the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary states, 'compassionate' is preserved for someone who shows 'compassion', the quality of showing sympathy towards another person.Similarly, 'tenderhearted' denotes sympathy.The basic distinction implied by the hyperbolic form, that is repetition and abundance, is furthermore forfeited.A better translation would have been the paraphrase 'always expectant of answer'.

Al-Sayyarah ‫:اﻟﺴﯿﺎرة‬
This hyperbolic form occurs in verse 96 of Surah Al-Ma'idah as follows: The two translations are as follows: Ah Sah It is permitted for you to catch and eat seafood-an enjoyment for you and the traveller-but hunting game is forbidden while you are in the state of consecration [for pilgrimage].Be mindful of God to whom you will be gathered.
Lawful to you is game from the sea and its food as provision for you and the travelers, but forbidden to you is game from the land as long as you are in the state of Ihram.And fear Allah to whom you will be gathered.
Both translators ignore the implied meaning of repetition due to toil in 'al-sayyarh ' (cf. Saleh, 2005).The two translators opt for a morphological solution by adding the morph '-er'.Although this morph denotes 'doing an action', it has the meaning of occupation.However, this is actually not the meaning intended.A better solution would have been 'wearied traveling caravans'.

Banna' ‫:ﺑﻨﺎء‬
This hyperbolic form occurs in verse 37 of Surah Sad as follows: The two translations are as follows: The same problem recurs, but this time, the Arabic semantic atom of hyperbolizing a verb to denote occupation due to the implied meaning of repetition is lost.The two translators almost concur.The use of '-er' denotes occupation or profession in English, but the reason for hyperbolization (i.e.repetition) is forfeited.A better translation would have been 'habitual builder'.

Jabbar ‫:ﺟﺒﺎر‬
This hyperbolic form occurs in verse 23 of Surah Al-Hashr as follows: The two translations are: Ah Sah and the jinn --every kind of builder and diver And [also] the devils [of jinn] -every builder and diver

Ah Sah
He is God: there is no god other than Him, the Controller, the Holy One, Source of Peace, Granter of Security, Guardian over all, the Almighty, the Compeller, the Truly Great; God is far above anything they consider to be His partner He is Allah, other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior.Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him.
The morphological strategy is again preferred.The two translators rely on the standard translation of the divine attribute 'jabbar' without researching into its meaning.The use of '-er' here only denotes 'the agent', i.e. the doer of the action, while the repetition and abundance are lost.Moreover, the Arabic root 'j-b-r' includes the meaning of 'mending something', (see Saleh, 2005) which has not been accommodated by the two translations.A better solution would have been 'the Mender and Compeller'.
Yet they opt for 'tyrant' in other contexts where the divine attribute is not intended.Consider the following examples in verses 15,59,130,19,and 35 in Surahs Ibrahim,Hud,and Ghafir, respectively: They asked God to decide, and every obstinate tyrant failed-And they requested decision [i.e., victory from Allah], and disappointed, [therefore], was every obstinate tyrant.
These were the Ad: they rejected their Lord's signs, disobeyed His messengers, and followed the command of every obstinate tyrant.
And that was Aad, who rejected the signs of their Lord and disobeyed His messengers and followed the order of every obstinate tyrant.
Why do you act like tyrants whenever you attack someone?
And when you strike, you strike as tyrants.
As he was about to attack the man who was an enemy to both of them, the man said, 'Moses, are you going to kill me as you killed that person yesterday?You clearly want to be a tyrant in the land; you do not intend to put things right.'And when he wanted to strike the one who was an enemy to both of them, he said, "O Moses, do you intend to kill me as you killed someone yesterday?You only want to be a tyrant in the land and do not want to be of the amenders." those who dispute God's messages, with no authority given to them, are doing something that is loathed by God and by those who believe.In this way God seals up the heart of every arrogant tyrant.
Those who dispute concerning the signs of Allah without an authority having come to them -great is hatred [of them] in the sight of Allah and in the sight of those who have believed.Thus does Allah seal over every heart [belonging to] an arrogant tyrant.
Although the choice of 'tyrant' is somewhat acceptable, it still misses out the repetition implied by Arabic hyperboles.As the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary states, '-ant' denotes 'characterized by or serving in the capacity of', which makes 'tyrant' only like any other adjective.The Arabic hyperbolic form, being used to describe human, indicates 'dislike or abhorrence.This shade of meaning should have been highlighted.A better solution would thus have been 'an abhorred tyrant'.
Hammalah ‫ﺣﻤﺎﻟﺔ‬ : This hyperbolic form occurs in verse 4 of Surah Al-Masad as follows: The two translations are Ah Sah and so will his wife, the firewood-carrier And his wife [as well] -the carrier of firewood.
The same problem of repetition recurs.The two translators opt for the morphological strategy.A better translation would have been 'repetitive carrier of firewood'.
Khawwan ‫ﺧﻮان‬ : This hyperbolic form occurs in verse 38 of Surah Al-Hajj as follows: The two translations are: Ah Sah God will defend the believers; God does not love the unfaithful or the ungrateful.Indeed, Allah defends those who have believed.Indeed, Allah does not like everyone treacherous and ungrateful.
The meaning of 'khawwan' in Arabic is 'someone who is obstinately treacherous' or 'repetitively betraying' (see Saleh, 2005).The two translators differ in their approach.While the Saheeh translator opts for the morphological solution of the suffix '-ous', which means 'full of', Abdel-Haleem applied litotes by using the prefix 'un-' combined by the suffix '-ful'.Thus, he opts for a semantico-morphological solution.Yet he fails to capture the meaning of obstinacy and repetition.Moreover, the use of litotes invests the context of the translation product with a euphemistic attitude, which harms the meaning.A better solution would have been ' obstinately (repetitively) treacherous'.

Khattar ‫:ﺧﺘﺎر‬
This hyperbolic form occurs in verse 32 of Surah Luqman as follows: The two translations are Ah Sah When the waves loom over those on board like giant shadows they call out to God, devoting their religion entirely to Him.But, when He has delivered them safely to land, some of them waver-only a treacherous, thankless person refuses to acknowledge Our signs.
And when waves come over them like canopies, they supplicate Allah, sincere to Him in religion [i.e., faith].But when He delivers them to the land, there are [some] of them who are moderate [in faith].And none rejects Our signs except everyone treacherous and ungrateful.
Here the two translators stop short of noticing the hyperbolized form 'khattar': they translate it as if it is 'khatir', i.e. treacherous.A better translation would have been 'habitually treacherous'.

Khallaq ‫:ﺧﻼق‬
This hyperbolic form occurs in verse 86 of Surah Al-Hijr as follows: The two translations are: Ah Sah Your Lord is the All Knowing Creator.Indeed, your Lord -He is the Knowing Creator.
The same problem of translating divine attributes recurs.The suffix '-or' only denotes agency, while super-ability, repetition and abundance are lost.A better solution would have been 'All Creating'.

Sabbar ‫:ﺻﺒﺎر‬
This hyperbolic form occurs in verse 19 of Surah Saba' as follows: The two translations are as follows: Ah Sah but [still] they complained, 'Our Lord has made the distance between our staging posts so long!'They wronged themselves and, in the end, We made their fate a byword, and scattered them in countless fragments.There truly are signs in this for every patient, thankful person.
But [insolently] they said, "Our Lord, lengthen the distance between our journeys," and wronged themselves, so We made them narrations and dispersed them in total dispersion.Indeed in that are signs for everyone patient and grateful.
The two translators flattened the hyperbolic form 'sabbar', i.e. given to patience or extraordinarily patient.This may be due to the etymological account under the entry of 'patient' in the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary: [1275-1325; ME pacient (adj.and n.) < MF < L patient-(s. of patiens), prp. of pati to undergo, suffer, bear; see -ENT] Combined with the meaning of 'characterized by or serving in the capacity of' included under '-ent', the two translators may have thought that it is enough as an adequate translation.However, an important question is: what about the translation of 'saber', i.e. the non-hyperbolized form of 'sabbar'?A better translation would have been, as stated above, ' given to patience' or 'extraordinarily patient'.The same problem is detected in the following example of verse 33 in Surah Al-Shura: Ah Sah if He willed, He could bring the wind to a standstill and they would lie motionless on the surface of the sea-there truly are signs in this for anyone who is steadfast and thankful-If He willed, He could still the wind, and they would remain motionless on its surface.Indeed in that are signs for everyone patient and grateful.
The two translators commit the same error.

Kadhab ‫:ﻛﺬاب‬
This hyperbolic form occurs in the following verses 24, and 25 and 26 of Surahs Ghafir and Al-Qamar, respectively as follows.The translations are provided after each verse: to Pharaoh, Haman, and Korah and they said, 'Sorcerer!Liar!' To Pharaoh, Hamanand Qarun, but they said, "[He is] a magician and a liar." Would a message be given to him alone out of all of us?No, he is an insolent liar!' Has the message been sent down upon him from among us?Rather, he is an insolent liar." 'Tomorrow they will know who is the insolent liar They will know tomorrow who is the insolent liar.
The two translators preserve 'liar' as an adequate translation for 'kazzab'.They disregard the semantic dimension of repetition and habit.A better translation would have been 'mendacious', since the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary includes under it, the following entry: telling lies, esp.habitually; dishonest; lying; untruthful: a mendacious person.

Manna? ‫:ﻣﻨﺎع‬
This hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 25 of Surah Qaf : The translations are as follows: Ah Sah everyone who hindered good, was aggressive, caused others to doubt Preventer of good, aggressor, and doubter, The two renditions merit some discussion.The Saheeh translator resorts to the morpheme of agency, namely '-er', while Abdel-Haleem utilizes the syntactic property of tense.Abdel-Haleem's translation does more harm to the overall meaning than does the Saheeh one.He uses the simple past, which indicates the termination of the action, and hence the loss of the core meaning of the hyperbolic form.He would have used the present perfect, which would have indicated some continuity of action.A better translation can be 'habitually banning good'.

Hammaz ii ‫:ھﻤﺎز‬
The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 11 of Surah Al-Qalam: The translations are as follows: Ah Sah to any backbiter, slander-monger [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip - [And] scorner, going about with malicious gossip -The Saheen translator mistranslates 'hammaz' into 'scorner': 'to scorn' is to ridicule', while 'hammaz' means 'spreading false news about someone'.Abdel-Haleem, on the other hand, fuses the meaning of 'hammaz' into the following adjective, namely 'mashaa'.This is clear if the entry under 'backbiter' is taken into consideration: 1. to attack the character or reputation of (a person who is not present).v.i.
2. to speak unfavorably or slanderously of a person who is not present.
In the second sense, 'slanderously' is taken to be part of the definition for 'backbiter': Abdel-Haleem includes 'slander' in the translation of 'mashaa' later, coming up with 'slander-monger'.This confusion is unjustified for the morph '-er' of 'backbiter' misses out the implied repetition and habituality of the hyperbolized form 'hammaz'.A better translation can be 'habitual defamator'.

2 Flat (Sah), Comp (Ah)
Awwab ‫أواب‬ : The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 23 of Surah Qaf: This form occurs in 5.4 above.Here, the Saheeh translator resorts as usual to morphology, using the suffix of agency '-er'.Yet Abdel-Haleem managed to provide an acceptable translation by inserting the adverb 'often' and using the verb form.However, he misses some part of the meaning by using the simple past form.
Thajjaj ‫ﺛﺠﺎج‬ : The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 14 of Surah Al-Naba': The translations are as follows: Ah Sah Did We not send water pouring down from the clouds And sent down, from the rain clouds, pouring water And sent down, from the rain clouds, pouring water The Saheen translator seems to be content with 'pouring' as sufficient for 'thajjaj', while Abdel-Haleem adds the preposition 'down'.In fact, the Saheeh translator fails to capture the quantity and quality implied in 'thajjaj', which means 'copious'.The morph '-ing' is just a marker of the adjective, and does not imply even continuity.This is why Abdel-Haleem opts for adding the preposition and transforms the Arabic adjective into a reduced English clause.His solution is better and conveys the full sense of 'thajjaj' only syntactically.Another successful rendition would have been a combination of adjective and a reduced clause, namely 'water copiously pouring down'.

Zallam ‫:ظﻼم‬
The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 29 of Surah Fussilat: The translations are as follows: Ah Sah and My word cannot be changed: I am not unjust to any creature.' The word [i.e., decree] will not be changed with Me, and never will I be unjust to the servants." The Saheeh translator applies the syntactic solution of ' never will I be unjust', which is not accurate.The use of the future tense with the particle 'never' confines the quality of justness to the time ahead, not the continuity and quantity implied by the hyperbolized form.Moreover, the use of the interrogative mood renders the entire context questionable, which significantly detracts from the overall meaning.What Abdel-Haleem does is clearly more acceptable.He uses the double negative construction, coupled with the use of 'any' later in the same context, to emphasize the quality of justness.This clearly compensate for the loss of the hyperbolic form 'zallam'.

?allam : ‫ﻋﻼم‬
The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 109 of Surah Al-Ma'idah: The translations are as follows: Ah Sah On the Day when God assembles all the messengers and asks, 'What response did you receive?' they will say, 'We do not have that knowledge: You alone know things that cannot be seen.' [Be warned of] the Day when Allah will assemble the messengers and say, "What was the response you received?"They will say, "We have no knowledge.Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen" -The Saheeh translator insists on resorting to morphology by just adding the agency morph '-er'.Abdel-Haleem, as usual, attempts to compensate for loss by means of syntactic shifts.He turns the Arabic adjective into a simple present tense verb, namely 'know', and adds the clarifying string 'things that cannot be seen'.This may compensate for the mandatory loss of the hyperbolic form.Another adequate rendition would have been 'the All-Knowing of the unseen matters'.Abdel-Haleem applies the same strategy of syntactic shifting and addition in all the other occurrences of the same hyperbolic form in the other verses and Surahs as follows: Do they not realize that God knows their secrets and their private discussions?That God knows all that is hidden?Did they not know that Allah knows their secrets and their private conversations and that Allah is the Knower of the unseen?
Say, 'My Lord hurls the Truth down [before you].He has full knowledge of all that is unseen.Say, "Indeed, my Lord projects the truth, Knower of the unseen." On the Day when God assembles all the messengers and asks, 'What response did you receive?' they will say, 'We do not have that knowledge: You alone know things that cannot be seen.' [Be warned of] the Day when Allah will assemble the messengers and say, "What was the response you received?"They will say, "We have no knowledge.Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen" -It is clear that Abdel-Haleem further adds the adjectives 'full' and 'all', respectively, which well convey the intended meaning.

Fa??al ‫:ﻓﻌﺎل‬
The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 16 of Surah Al-Burooj: The translations are as follows: Ah Sah He does whatever He will.
Effecter of what He intends.
The Saheeh translator flattens the hyperbolic form by means of semantics and morphology.She selects the morphological form 'effecter' to imply the ability of transforming something.Abdel-Haleem, however, opts for the simple present verb form 'does' followed by 'whatever', unlike the Saheeh translator who uses 'what' after 'effecter'.What Abdel-Haleem does is slightly more accurate, since he implies habit by means of the simple aspect of the verb, and adds 'whatever' to complement the loss of meaning.

Fattah ‫:ﻓﺘﺎح‬
The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 26 of Surah Saba': The translations are as follows: Ah Sah Say, 'Our Lord will gather us together, then He will judge justly between us; He alone is the All Knowing Judge.' Say, "Our Lord will bring us together; then He will judge between us in truth.And He is the Knowing Judge." The Saheeh translator again forms the adjective using the suffix '-ing', while Abdel-Haleem relies on syntactic shifts or transposition coupled with clarification.This difference between the two translators may be attributed to the laziness of the Saheeh translator, who does not see the difference between the Arabic hyperbolic form 'fattah' and the active participle 'fateh'.
Sahhar ‫ﺳﺤﺎر‬ : The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 37 of Surah Al-Shu?ra' : The translations are as follows: Ah Sah to bring every accomplished sorcerer to you.' Who will bring you every learned, skilled magician."Abdel-Haleem aptly selects 'sorcerer' rather than 'magician', which refers to someone who takes magic for entertainment.His choice depends on the meaning of 'sorcery' as a profession.
Qahhar ‫ﻗﮭﺎر‬ : The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 39 of Surah Yusuf: The translations are as follows: Ah Sah Fellow prisoners, would many diverse gods be better than God the One, the All Powerful?[No indeed!] O [my] two companions of prison, are separate lords better or Allah, the One, the Prevailing?
The Saheeh translator flattens the hyperbolic form by using the adjective-cum-noun 'prevailing', while Abdel-Haleem resorts to the more English-sounding 'All-Powerful'.His rendition is more accurate, since the use of the prefix 'all-' implies omnipotence and unlimited power.Abdel-Haleem also uses the prefix 'over-' for the same purpose in the following verse 48 in Surah Ibrahim: One Day-when the earth is turned into another earth, the heavens into another heaven, and people all appear before God, the One, the Overpowering-[It will be] on the Day the earth will be replaced by another earth, and the heavens [as well], and they [i.e., all creatures] will come out before Allah, the One, the Prevailing, Wahhab ‫:وھﺎب‬ The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 8 of Surah Al-?Imran : The translations are as follows: Ah Sah 'Our Lord, do not let our hearts deviate after You have guided us.Grant us Your mercy: You are the Ever Giving.
[Who say], "Our Lord, let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us and grant us from Yourself mercy.Indeed, You are the Bestower.
The Saheeh translator, as is the case in the present instance and the ones to follow, sticks to the morphological solution.However, Abdel-Haleem is better equipped for the nuances of the hyperbolic forms.He adds the suffix 'all-' and the superlative 'most', coupled with the morph '-ous' to denote fullness.The following examples well illustrate this strategy.
Do they possess the treasures of your Lord's bounty, the Mighty, the All Giving?
Or do they have the depositories of the mercy of your Lord, the Exalted in Might, the Bestower?

Ah Sah
He turned to Us and prayed: 'Lord forgive me!Grant me such power as no one after me will have-You are the Most Generous Provider.'He said, "My Lord, forgive me and grant me a kingdom such as will not belong to anyone after me.Indeed, You are the Bestower."

Wahhaj ‫:وھﺎج‬
The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 13 of Surah Al-Naba' : The translations are as follows: Ah Sah and make a blazing lamp?And made [therein] a burning lamp The hyperbolic form here indicates intensity and brightness or resplendence (cf. Saleh, 2005).This is fully encoded in 'blazing', which the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary defines as: 1. burning brightly and with great heat, force, etc.

of tremendous intensity or fervor.
Thus, Abdel-Haleem succeeds in conveying the meaning in one word, while the Saheeh translator opts for the deverbal 'burning', a hypernym lacking any specificity.

Flat (Sah), Partial (Ah)
Affak ‫:أﻓﺎك‬ The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 7 of Surah Al-Jathiyah as follows: The translations are as follows: The translations are, respectively, as follows: 1.
Ah Sah kind to his parents, not domineering or rebellious.
And dutiful to his parents, and he was not a disobedient tyrant.

2.
Ah Sah to cherish my mother.He did not make me domineering or graceless.
And [made me] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant.

Ah Sah
We know best what the disbelievers say.You [Prophet] are not there to force them, so remind, with this Qur'an, those who fear My warning.
We are most knowing of what they say, and you are not over them a tyrant.But remind by the Qur'an whoever fears My threat.
The hyperbolic form 'jabbar' in these instances is not a divine attribute: it lacks the limitless power and ubiquity implied by the divine name.This is why the two translators prefer to confine their choices to less evocative words.However, Abdel-Haleem tries to utilize syntax and semantics to serve the purposes of implying some continuity.Thus he translates it as 'domineering' and 'to force', respectively.The two choices are informed by his wish to use the adjective 'domineering', which is semantically related to kinship relationships according to the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.He also uses the verb 'to force' when the context refers to the Prophet Muhammad, so that the kinship connotations are ruled out.Moreover, the use of the simple present retains some of the meaning of the hyperbolic forms.A better solution would have been the addition of the adverb 'habitually' or 'repetitively' before 'domineering' and before 'force'.

Kadhab ‫:ﻛﺬاب‬
The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 4 of Surah Sad: The translations are as follows:

Ah Sah
The disbelievers think it strange that a prophet of their own people has come to warn them: they say, 'He is just a lying sorcerer.
And they wonder that there has come to them a warner [i.e., Prophet Muhammad ( ‫ﷲ‬ ‫ﻠﻰ‬ ‫ﺻ‬ ‫ﻠﻢ‬ ‫وﺳ‬ ‫ﮫ‬ ‫])ﻋﻠﯿ‬ from among themselves.And the disbelievers say, "This is a magician and a liar.
The Saheeh translator sticks to the morphological equivalent, while Abdel-Haleem again resorts to the syntactic shift of the deverbal.However, in another instance, he opts for topographical and pragmatic solutions as follows: to Pharaoh, Haman, and Korah and they said, 'Sorcerer!Liar!' To Pharaoh, Haman and Qarunn, but they said, "[He is] a magician and a liar." It is clear that Abdel-Haleem uses the exclamation mark for pragmatic purposes.He attempts to compensate for the loss of meaning on the pragmatic level of invectives.

Kaffar ‫:ﻛﻔﺎر‬
The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 276 of Surah Al-Baqarah: The translations are as follows: Ah Sah God blights usury, but blesses charitable deeds with multiple increase: He does not love the ungrateful sinner.
Allah destroys interest and gives increase for charities.And Allah does not like every sinning disbeliever.
Abdel-Haleem, unlike the Saheeh translator, preserves the order of the two hyperbolized forms 'kaffar' and 'atheem' iii to allow for the use of the adjective 'ungrateful'.Yet he misses on the repetitive aspect of 'kaffar'.A better solution would have been 'the repetitively unappreciative sinner'.

Nazza? ‫:ﻧﺰاع‬
The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 16 of Surah Al-Ma?arij : The translations are as follows: Ah Sah that strips away the skin A remover of exteriors.
As usual, the Saheeh translator applies morphological shifting, while Abdel-Haleem opts for syntactic transposition.He compensates for the loss of meaning by means of adding the preposition 'away'.A better solution can be 'that will be stripping away the skin'.

Comp (Sah), Comp (Ah)
Ammarah ‫:أﻣﺎرة‬ The hyperbolic form occurs in the following verse 53 of Surah Yusuf: The translations are as follows: Ah Sah I do not pretend to be blameless, for man's very soul incites him to evil unless my Lord shows mercy: He is most forgiving, most merciful.'And I do not acquit myself.Indeed, the soul is a persistent enjoiner of evil, except those upon which my Lord has mercy.Indeed, my Lord is Forgiving and Merciful." Both translators succeed in conveying the meaning intended.The Saheeh translator prefers to render the hyperbolic form in question into an adjective + noun, i.e. 'persistent enjoiner'.The choice of 'persistent' is well grounded, since it entails repetition and habit.Abdel-Haleem also applies syntactic transposition to capture the meaning of continuity by means of the simple present form of the verb 'incite'.He, moreover, applies explicitation by adding 'man's very'.The translations are as follows: Ah Sah Do not argue for those who betray their own souls: God does not love anyone given to treachery and sin.
And do not argue on behalf of those who deceive themselves.Indeed, Allah loves not one who is a habitually sinful deceiver.
Both translators succeed in conveying the meaning of the hyperbolic form despite the fact that the Saheeh translator intricately does so.She inserts the adverb 'habitually', which in turn qualifies 'sinful', which typically qualifies 'deceiver'.The problem is that of proximity, yet the context clarifies it.On the other hand, Abdel-Haleem selects the transparent idiom 'given to' to imply repetition and persistence, followed by the noun 'treachery'.The translations are as follows: Ah Sah If two men commit a lewd act, punish them both; if they repent and mend their ways, leave them alone-God is always ready to accept repentance, He is full of mercy.
And the two who commit it [i.e., unlawful sexual intercourse] among you -punish [i.e., dishonor] them both.But if they repent and correct themselves, leave them alone.Indeed, Allah is ever Accepting of repentance and Merciful.
The two translators fully utilize syntactic transposition.The Saheeh translator adds the prefix 'ever' and uses the present participle form of 'accept.Thus, she manages to convey the meaning of omnipotence as implied by the divine name.Abdel-Haleem in turn syntactically applies explicitation through the lengthy string 'always ready to accept', which entails continuity and limitless power.The same strategies are observed in the following verse of Surah Al-Nasr: Then exalt [Him] with praise of your Lord and ask forgiveness of Him.Indeed, He is ever Accepting of repentance.
As for the use of translation strategies, the Saheeh translator has applied morphological shifting in many examples: this may be attributed to copying the Arabic pattern without giving due thought to the other strategies that can be used.The use of syntactic transposition is rather sporadic, being confined to partial and complete renditions.This may be one reason why the flattened outputs are widely noticed in her translation.Abdel-Haleem's translation, in contrast, exhibits a considerable amount of syntactic transposition, coupled with paraphrasing.This may be one reason why his accurately translated outputs occupy quite a good amount.
It can be concluded that the 'fa??al' hyperbolic form has shown how Qur'an translators approach such a demanding pattern.The test of accuracy as administered here is to give a clear picture of the need to pay particular attention to hyperboles of the form examined and other ones not analyzed here for limitations of space.It seems that Qur'an translators are in need of heeding such nuances of meaning when conveying the eternal word of God.