Between Human and Machine: A Dual Translational Approach to Qur’anic Legal Terminologies and Semantics

The present article seeks to investigate the (un)translatability of a quintet of central legal terms in the Qur’an, including yuẓāhirūn, yuʾlūn, al-qiṣāṣ, nushūz, and al-muʿallaqah, using the dual prism of lexical equivalence strategies (Baker in Other words: a coursebook on translation, Routledge, London and New York, 2018) and translation quality assessment (House in Translation quality assessment: past and present, Routledge, London and New York, 2015), henceforward LES and TQA, respectively. The basic aim is to assess how human and AI-machine translators resolved the tensions between accuracy and naturalness, fidelity and adequacy, in respect of Qur’anic legal discourse, with functionally adequate clarity for the contemporary audiences that are unfamiliar with Qur’anic legal terms. The article argues that lexical equivalence strategies are more prone to overt translation, whereby loanwords plus explanation and paraphrase using (un)related words present the highest fidelity and clarity for culture-specific legal concepts considered by professional translators to be untranslatable. Results demonstrate that the human translations preserve the ideational legal content and authoritative interpersonal tone through rendering Qur’anic legal meanings with parenthetical glosses and thus maintain the cultural specificities of Qur’anic legal discourse. Findings also reveal that AI-generated translations generally fail to transfer the pragmasemantic nuances of Qur’anic legal terms and while they are able to aid in translating Qur’anic legal discourse, they are not able yet to replace human translators in culture-specific and context-sensitive legal discourse. Post-editing by expert human translators within AI-generated translation workflows is a must-be (Pym and Hao in How to augment language skills: generative AI and machine translation in language learning and translator training, Routledge, London and New York, 2025). The article concludes that overt culture-based translation strategies are crucial to preserving the legal register of the Qur’anic discourse and recommends a synergy of human expertise and AI tools for optimal translation quality and clarity.