Then there are his translations of inshallah and hamdullah. He renders them as if Allah wills it and thanks be to Allah. But those are both awkward, foreign sounding phrases in English, as opposed to God willing and thank God, which are something that, like inshallah and hamdullah, mildly or non religious English speakers actually say. (Yes, hamdullah has a much broader semantic range than thank God, but Rees isn't really making use of that range.).
It also glosses over the fact that many non-Muslim Arabic speakers use exactly the same phrases, since to most English speakers, Allah = Muslim word for God, not Arabic word for God, and besides, aren't all Arabs Muslims? So that kind of translation is perpetuating the stereotype that Muslim and Arab are completely equivalent.
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Date: 2010-03-17 06:17 pm (UTC)It also glosses over the fact that many non-Muslim Arabic speakers use exactly the same phrases, since to most English speakers, Allah = Muslim word for God, not Arabic word for God, and besides, aren't all Arabs Muslims? So that kind of translation is perpetuating the stereotype that Muslim and Arab are completely equivalent.