A Critical Study of Translating Sarcasm in Some Qurãnic Verses into English
Abstract
Sarcasm is characterized as one of the significant rhetorical devices used in literary and religious texts for criticism and to show the contrary of every thing belonging to society by mocking.
Since sarcasm is an element of social interaction among people, it has gained much ground in Arabic culture. Many of the most prominent Arab scholars dealt with sarcasm within their studies about different sciences of the Qurn and rhetoric. Al-Jurjni (n.d) in Asrar Al-balgha referred to sarcasm through his display of various types of rhetorical devices with relevance to the sciences of the Qurn. Al-Jurjni (n.d.: 62) defines sarcasm as two contrary attributes where one of them is used to reduce the value of the opposite one. Al-Zamakhshari (1948: 398) touches on it indirectly through interpreting some verses of the Qurn with reference to its signifying of opposite meaning to its literal meaning. For instance, in the following verse: