İnsan Kelimesinin Kur'an'daki Genel ve Özel Kullanımları Bağlamında Meallere Eleştirel Bir Yaklaşım
A Critical Approach To Qur’an Translations İn The Context Of The General And Special Uses Of The Word “İnsan” İn The Qur’an
Yazar: Narol, Süleyman
Dergi: Bilimname, Vol. 2018 No. 35, 2018
Anahtar kelimeler: Commentary,Human,Context,Qur’an Translation,Meaning ; Tefsir,İnsan,Bağlam,Meal,Anlam

Allahimtihan etmek ve teslimiyetini görmek için sorumluluk yüklediği ve buna mukabilyeryüzünün en değerli varlığı kıldığı insana Kur’an’da çeşitli vesilelerlefarklı üsluplarda hitap etmiştir. Dilbilimciler insan kelimesininetimolojik kökenini tespit ederken farklı görüşler ileri sürmüşlerdir. Kelimeninaslına dair ortaya koydukları görüşlerin hepsi dikkat çekici bir şekilde insanıtanımlayan niteliklere işaret etmektedir. Bu çerçevede insankelimesinin; “unutan varlık anlamında” ins kökünden, kendisine öğretilenvarlık anlamında înâs mastarından veya “çok hareket etmek” manasındaki nvskökünden türediği söylenmektedir. Ayrıca “cana yakın olmak, uyum sağlamak”anlamındaki üns mastarından türediği “yaratılış itibariyle sosyalvarlık” olarak tanımlamasının da buradan kaynaklandığını ifade eden değerlendirmelerde bulunmaktadır.        Buçalışmada yirmi üç yıllık nüzul sürecinde farklı bağlamlarda inen ayetlerde yeralan insan kelimesinin sınıflandırılmasında, ayetlerin indiği ortamıntarihi bağlamı başta olmak üzere siyak-sibak ilişkisi, dil kuralları ve nüzulsebepleri dikkate alınmıştır. Diğer yandan insan kelimelerinden ilkkastedilenin kim olduğunu tespit etmenin ayetin mesajını anlamada ne denliönemli olduğu örneklerle ortaya konulmuş ve söz konusu kelimeninanlamlandırılmasına dönük meallerin yaklaşımları analiz edilmiştir.

Allah has addressedthe people to whom he has given responsibility in order to test and see theirobedience and, in return for this, made them the most honorable being on earth,on various occasions and in different styles throughout the Quran. It is seen thatthe word insân, is used in a significant part of these kinds ofaddresses. Linguists have put forward different opinions when determining theetymological origin of the word insân. All of the ideas put forward by them remarkably point to the qualitiesthat characterize human being. In this context, it is said that the word insânis derived from ins meaning “forgetful entity” or from inâsmeaning “taught entity” or from nvs meaning “to move a lot”. Inaddition, there are evaluations indicating that it is derived from theinfinitive üns meaning, “becoming friendly oradapting” and stating that the definition of human beings as innate socialbeing is based on this derivation.         Theword insân is used by the Qur'an in sixty-five verses, all but one ofwhich are used in definite (marife) form. While four usages of the word inquestion, refer to Adam, considered as the very first ancestor ofhumankind, fourty-there passages refer to infidel/polytheist man; and alsowhile fifteen other passages refer to humankind, the remaining there passagesrefer to believer man.   It is statedthat some of the verses that mention the phases of man's existence express thathuman being is created from mud and is derivates, which seem to point to Adam.It seems that other verses, which express that man is created from water, spermand a drop of water, mean all humanity, namely Adam’s generation. On theother hand, the exegetes particularly emphasize the above two differentcategories of meaning in their evaluations of the relevant verses. However,none of the meals analysed in this study, with a few exceptions,reflected this distinction in their translations.  For this reason, we consider that it would bemore correct to point out “first man” or “Adam” while translating the verses inquestion within the parentheses or at least to state that real intention is thefirst man in the footnote.        Oneof the meanings meant by the word insân in the Qur'an is the human beingas species. The word in question has been used in fifteen verses in the meaningof human species. The first one of these usages in the Qur'an accordingto the Mushaf order is, as far as we can determine, the twenty-eighthverse of the fourth chapter (al-Nisâ) and this verse refers to males. Inour view, the approach of the meals for the verses other than this verse (al-Nisâ4:28), in which the word insân is used in themeaning of whole human species, is appropriate. It is true but not complete totranslate the word mentioned in verse (al-Nisâ 4:28) saying: "manis weakly created". We think that this shortcoming should be eliminated byadding a statement like “inclination of males to females” in brackets or bymaking a brief explanation in footnote that they are males who are meant bythis sentence.        Lookingat verses by which a polytheist/infidel man is meant, it is seen that,generally, negative personality traits such as ungratefulness, arrogance,stinginess and constant dissatisfaction, are foregrounded. And, also, it ispointed out that they have serious belief problems about areas such as Tawheed,Nubuvvah and Meâd. The most remarkable of these is the verse al-Ahzâb 33:71. Itis seen that meals translate the word insân in this verse as"all people" without any distinction. However, the context of theverse and linguists’ explanations that one of the meanings of hamele is“to betray”, indicate that this translation is not appropriate. On the otherhand, the preferred meaning in these meals requires that all believers,especially the prophets, are described as cruel and ignorant. For thesereasons, we hold that the relevant part of the verse should to be translatedsaying "the disbelievers and the hypocrites did not fulfil the trust(their responsibilities) and betrayed. Indeed, they are very cruel and veryignorant”. It is seen that nearly none of the meals are successful intranslating of this verse except Mustafa Öztürk’s meal; just as in mostof the verses about this subject.           Oneof the passages where the word insân is used in a different way is theverses containing messages to the believers. Three verses, consisting ofal-`Ankabut 29:8, Luqman 31:14 and al-Ahqaf 46:15,  contain messages on how the believer willbehave to their idolatry parents in particular and arrangements for allbelievers to treat their parents well, in general. These above-cited versesdraw the boundaries of obedience to the parents by saying that no one can beobeyed when it is a matter of association for Allah. Considering the context ofthe verses and the reasons of the revelations (Asbâb al-Nuzûl) as well as theevaluations of the commenters, it becomes clear that they are believers who aremeant by these verses and the address is directed towards believers. For if oneis a polytheist, his parents will not be expected to ask him to attribute apartner to or deny Allah. For the reasons put forward here, we think that thetranslation of the relevant verses would be more accurate saying “We haveenjoined on (a believer) man kindness to parents (even if they are idolaters)”,or at least it would be more accurate to state this explanation in thefootnote. However, when we applied to the meals, we have found that theword insân in these three verses are given a meaning goes "allhuman species”, and that the context of the verses as well as the reasons forrevelation are not taken into consideration.         Inthis study, which is given a broad summary above, while insân words,mentioned in verses sent down in the twenty-three-year period, are classified,particularly the historical conditions of the environment to which the verseswere descended, and the context, the language rules  and the reasons of revalation were taken intoconsideration. On the other hand, it has been demonstrated with examples howimportant it is to determine who is firstly meant by insân words inorder to grasp the messages of a verse and the approach of the meals tothe meaning of words in question was analysed.