Diwan: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra Arab

Translation as ideological practice: Negotiating cultural lexicon from Cantik Itu Luka into al-Jamāl Jarḥ

Retno Nindya Khoirunisa, Akmaliyah, Rohanda — Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 +0700

The translation of Indonesian literary works into Arabic constitutes a growing yet insufficiently theorized area within cross-cultural literary exchange. While previous studies have examined the Arabic translation of Indonesian novels predominantly through linguistic lenses, no study has systematically analyzed the ideological orientations operative in the translation of cultural lexicon from Indonesian into Arabic. This study investigates domestication and foreignisation strategies in the Arabic translation of Eka Kurniawan's Cantik Itu Luka, rendered as al-Jamāl Jarḥ by Ahmad Syafi'i. Drawing on Venuti's domestication-foreignisation framework and Newmark's cultural lexicon taxonomy, this research employs a qualitative descriptive-comparative method. Data were drawn from the seventh edition of Cantik Itu Luka as the source text and al-Jamāl Jarḥ as the target text, comprising 125 cultural lexical items purposively sampled across five Newmark categories: ecology, material culture, social culture, social organization, and gestures and habits. The findings reveal that domestication predominates, accounting for 65.6% of attested strategies (82 items), while foreignisation accounts for 34.4% (43 items). Domestication prevails in the ecological and gesture categories, whereas foreignisation dominates in social organization through transliteration. These findings demonstrate that the translator's ideological orientation is contextually determined by the degree of cultural specificity embedded in each lexical item, and that foreignisation operates not merely as an ideological choice but as a structural necessity arising from the restricted cultural equivalence between Indonesian and Arabic. This study advances an Arabic-language perspective within the comparative translation scholarship on Cantik Itu Luka translations and extends the applicability of Venuti's framework to a non-European translation context.

Qur’anic intertextuality as discursive strategy in Bayt Baws by Ibrahim Muhammad Talha: A critical discourse analysis

Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 +0700

Although Qur’anic intertextuality in contemporary Arabic literature has attracted increasing scholarly attention, studies examining its role in contemporary Yemeni fiction remain limited, particularly those employing critical discourse analysis as their primary analytical framework. To address this gap, this study aims to identify the forms of Qur’anic intertextuality in Bayt Baws and analyze their functions in constructing narrative meaning and articulating socio-political critique. Employing a qualitative research design grounded in Fairclough's three-dimensional critical discourse analysis, this study systematically analyses seven representative excerpts from the novel. It classifies them according to Miftāḥ's typology of Qur’anic intertextuality. The findings reveal that Qur’anic intertextuality in Bayt Baws operates through external intertextuality, in which direct Qur’anic quotations provide symbolic authority and ethical weight to the narrative, and internal intertextuality, in which indirect Qur’anic resonances engage the reader's moral consciousness through implicit thematic engagement. These mechanisms function as deliberate discursive strategies to expose political corruption, critique social hypocrisy, and foreground moral contradictions between Qur’anic ideals and contemporary Yemeni realities. This study contributes to Arabic literary studies by demonstrating how Qur’anic intertextuality serves as a tool for reshaping narrative discourse and enhancing critical awareness, while extending the scope of Qur’anic intertextuality research into the largely underexplored domain of contemporary Yemeni literature.

Acehnese interference in students' spoken Arabic: A multi-level cross-linguistic analysis in an Indonesian Islamic boarding school

Maulana Ihsan Ahmad, Hisyam Zaini, Windi Alhafiza Rambe — Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 +0700

Although numerous studies have examined Arabic language interference among Indonesian learners, detailed analyses integrating multiple linguistic levels within a single Acehnese-speaking institutional context remain a significant gap in the literature. This study addresses that gap by investigating cross-linguistic influence in students’ spoken Arabic at Dayah Babul Maghfirah, an Islamic boarding school in Aceh that formally enforces Arabic-only communication. Adopting a qualitative descriptive approach, the study analyzes naturally occurring oral interactions collected through non-participant observation over one week. Data were examined using Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña’s interactive model. The findings reveal systematic Acehnese interference across four linguistic levels: 1) phonological substitutions of marked Arabic consonants; 2) morphological projection of Acehnese particles and affixes; 3) syntactic transfer of Acehnese-dominant structural templates; and 4) lexical insertion of discourse markers and interjections. These patterns demonstrate that local linguistic repertoires remain structurally active even within immersion-oriented institutional settings, challenging assumptions that policy-driven environments suppress first-language influence. By providing a systematic multi-level mapping of interference within a single pesantren environment, this study contributes empirically to cross-linguistic influence research and extends Indonesian interference scholarship to an underrepresented regional context. The findings offer evidence-based insight for Arabic pedagogy in multilingual religious education settings where immersion policies coexist with deeply entrenched vernacular linguistic identities.

Beyond literal commands in prophetic messages: Reinterpreting imperative meanings in Mukhtār al-Aḥādīth al-Nabawīyah wa-al-Ḥikam al-Muḥammadīyah

Nadina Sanraida Kedaton, Dayudin, Ihin Solihin — Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 +0700

The hadith corpus is a rich linguistic resource, but remains underexplored for its use of imperatives, whose meanings go far beyond the literal command. Prior scholarship has been predominantly confined to the Qur'anic text or to cross-thematic samples, and no study has systematically examined the meaning of imperatives in a thematic chapter of a classical hadith book, especially from the perspective of ʿilm al-maʿānī. This study addresses the gap by examining the pattern and meaning of imperatives (amr) in Mukhtār al-Aḥādīth al-Nabawīyah wa-al-Ḥikam al-Muḥammadīyah, specifically in the chapter Khātimah fī Tahdhīb al-Nufūs. Data were collected using the observation note technique and analyzed using the distributional method via substitution. A total of 103 imperatives were identified in three patterns: fiʿl al-amr (90), al-fiʿl al-muḍāriʿ bi lām al-amr (11), and ism fiʿl al-amr (2). A notable finding concerns the absence of the maṣdar, one of the four patterns in the ‘ilm al-maʿānī. This absence serves as a stylistic marker that distinguishes this thematic hadith from the Qur'anic imperative patterns. In terms of meaning, reinterpretation reveals the dominance of duʿāʾ (40), followed by ḥaqīqī (30), irshād (28), tahdīd (3), and iltimās (2). The dominance of duʿāʾ and irshād, collectively accounting for 66% of the corpus, demonstrates that imperatives function as a spiritual-pedagogical strategy rather than a binding normative command. These findings contribute to thematic hadith stylistics by establishing an empirical relationship between genre orientation and preference for imperative patterns. From an analytical framework perspective, they also emphasize the importance of the ʿilm al-maʿānī framework for reinterpreting the imperative meaning of hadith.