The Impact of Theological Presuppositions on Explanatory Addenda of the Contemporary Translators of the Qur an (Fayḍ al-Islām and Khurramdel)

One of the hermeneutic discourses in its general sense is exploration into psychological issues and the impact of the interpreter on understanding the texts. Apart from the differences that the traditional and modern hermeneutists as well as the philosophical hermeneutists—as experts of a branch of modern hermeneutics—have in the properness or improperness of the impact of the interpreter’s presuppositions on understanding the text, whether this difference is real or formal, it is understood in general that the interpreter’s presuppositions do interfere in understanding the text. In the translations that the translators mentioned in this writing have presented, the difference of theological viewpoints and, in contrast, the difference of the explanatory addenda conforming to their theological presuppositions is clearly evident. It is in the philosophical hermeneutics that the interpreter’s mentality and judgment is the precondition for understanding; and in any perception, the interpreter’s presuppositions may inevitably interfere, hence, the possibility of different impressions from the text. Similarly, translation is a succinct interpretation that should be conforming to the source text as far as possible. The point worth deliberation here is that the Qur’an is “a warner to all humans” and “an admonition for all the nations”, neither Shī‘ī, nor Sunnī, nor Wahhabī. In case all the Islamic ideological schools and sects wish to translate the Qur’an on the basis of their own theological presuppositions, serious differences would arise in translations, the intention for translation would be violated, and the goals of translation would not be achieved. It is because explanation and elaboration of the text is upon interpretation rather than on translation, in which the reproduction of the closest meaning and at the same time retaining the source style is what matters.