The Qur’an’s exegetical tradition (tafsīr) has historically maintained a clear distinction between the sacred text and its interpretation. This study examines how this boundary is affected when translators embed interpretive choices directly into the translated verse and argues that the classical commitment to interpretive plurality entails an obligation for translators to preserve the semantic openness of the Qur’anic text. To address this issue, the study develops an analytical typology of five modes of translator intervention, drawing on explicitation theory, Genette’s paratext theory, and Chesterman’s ethics of translation. The framework is applied to two Qur’anic verses whose semantic openness is well documented in classical exegesis, with the commentaries of al-Tabari, al-Razi, and Ibn Kathir serving as the exegetical baseline. Analysis of six widely cited English translations reveals a consistent pattern in which interpretive choices from the exegetical commentary are embedded into the translated verse, foreclosing readings carefully preserved by these exegetes. The study concludes that preserving the verse’s semantic openness, either through no explicitation or through paratextual explicitation, represents the most principled translational response to this obligation.
Erebih et al. (Mon,) studied this question.