Islamic laws

In this study, challenges in the translation of Islamic Shi’a texts of practical laws were investigated. The English translations of the books of Islamic laws written according to three Iranian Twelver Shi’a mujtahids namely, Grand Ayatollah Wahid Khorasani, Grand Ayatollah Sistani, and Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi were examined. Next, the culture-bound terms concerning practical laws of religion in the three English translations were looked at to see what kinds of procedures have been used by different translators and which procedure(s) is/are the most frequent one(s). The results of this study indicated that the challenges found in the translation of Islamic law texts could be classified into two groups: lexical challenges and structural challenges. Moreover, it was found out that the main challenges include Islamic words, culture-specific items, units of measurement, common words with uncommon meanings, fixed expressions, and modal verbs. In addition, it was found that the translators of these texts have used six procedures more than others and those are transliteration, literal translation, cultural equivalent, functional equivalent, descriptive equivalent and recognized translation. The analysis of examples in this research suggests that among all procedures, the translator, in most cases, has used transliteration and literal translation to cope with the lexical gap.

Imam Khomeini was one of the clerics who authored the book "Kashf al-Asrar" (Unveiling of Secrets) in response to Hokmizadeh’s work. In the course of answering the thirteen questions raised in Hokmizadeh's book, he presented a formulation of his political thought regarding government and the role of the clergy within that political structure. The objective of this article is to provide a theoretical and coherent formulation of Imam Khomeini’s political thought in Kashf al-Asrar. In this research, in addition to the documentary method for outlining the geometry of his political thought, we seek to answer, based on Skinner’s intentionalist hermeneutics method, the following: What social context and background did Imam Khomeini's political thought form and cohere in, and, more importantly, with what intention was it written? The findings of this research indicate that Imam Khomeini, in this book, emphasizes the "Sovereignty of God's Law" (Hakimiyyat-e Qanun-e Khoda) as the central axis of the political structure. This is substantiated and justified from four perspectives: necessity, legitimacy, expediency, and efficacy. The outcome is the formation of a Constituent Assembly to elect the Shah (provided the Shah adheres to God's law) and a Consultative Assembly (Majlis-e Shora), centered on the clergy, to supervise the implementation of God's law. Based on Skinner’s method, Imam Khomeini’s discourse in this book is formulated into three types of acts: defensive, offensive, and dual-purpose (two-faceted).