Abstract :
The trilingual Sufi dictionary is a pioneer work, still in progress, which is being prepared under the framework of the Applied Linguistics team at the Institute of Research and Studies for Arabization in Rabat-Morocco. The researchers have produced the entries of Arabic Sufi terms with their Arabic definition. These specialized Sufi terms are drawn from Islamic Sufism and can be mostly found in the Qur’an or in the Hadith (Prophet Muhammad’s sayings). Hence, the translation practice referred to in this paper is not only a linguistic process involving the transfer from one language to another (Arabic to English), but also the communication of the Islamic Sufi culture to a foreign culture. As a team member in the Sufi dictionary project contributing to the English translation, I seek in this study to point out the difficulties and challenges encountered and to discuss the extent to which the English language can be accurate for the translation of certain complex Sufi terms and concepts. The data of this paper consists of my English translation of the Sufi dictionary terms, as collected and defined by the group of researchers in Sufism, as well as of my insights offered during terminology meetings. The main challenge of this translation lies in the figurative and referential nature of the Sufi terms during their transfer to English, which is linguistically and culturally different from Arabic.
