Nahj Al-Balagha

Purpose: Psychological capital refers to the state of positive psychological development of a person and it is important and investigated considering thestrive to achieve goals and to undertake and make the necessary effort to succeed in challenging tasks. From the Islamic perspective, psychological capital (PC) is a person's belief in his abilities to achieve success, to have perseverance in pursuing goals, endure problems and having patience in this regard. The purpose of the current research was to design the model of psychological capital from the Islamic perspective in Iran's governmental organizations. Methodology: The current research is considered a mixed research (qualitative-quantitative). The qualitative section included Quran and Nahj al-balagha, and the quantitative section included PC experts, as well as faculty members who have conducted research in the field of PC. In the qualitative section, the study sample selected using complete enumeration and included Quran and Nahj al-Balagha, and to collect the data in the quantitative section, a total of 15 people were selected using purposive sampling method who then answered the questions of the Delphi questionnaire. According to the analysis of the Quran and Nahj al-Balagha, a total of 126 semantic expressions and primary open code as well as 17 PC-related indices were extracted. These indices were merged and then selective coding was carried out. In the second stage, Delphi quantitative research method was used. Finally, PC-related indices and items were extracted and categorized after data collection. Cohen's kappa index was used to validate the coding process and ensure quality control of the factors. Findings: The results of the research showed that the Islamic-based PC included 18 axial codes and 4 selective codes (the self-purification dimension with six axial codes; the patience dimension with two axial codes. Conclusion: the positive thinking dimension with four axial codes and the truth-seeking dimension with six axial codes).

The present study investigated the translation shifts and most frequent types of translation shifts according to Catford’s model in the translation of Sayings 1-30 in the Nahj al-balagha from Arabic into English. The researcher selected the first thirty sayings of the Nahj al-balagha for the analysis. Throughout the analysis, each shift strategy was traced and manually counted to determine the most frequent type of translation shift. The findings revealed that unit shifts were the most frequent type of shift (59.70%), followed by structure shifts (23.30%), then level shifts (10.70%), intra-system shift (4.50%), and finally class shifts (1.50%). Both translators used unit shift and structure shift with the highest frequencies in their translations. The results also indicated that, unlike Sayyid Ali Reza, Sayyid Muhammad Askari Ja’fari went beyond the surface structure and translated words into phrases and explained them in some cases, thus providing an understandable translation. Sayyid Muhammad Askari Ja’fari used unit shifts more frequently than Sayyid Ali Reza. Sayyid Muhammad Askari Ja’fari most of the time used unit shift to convey the message to the target language reader in a comprehensible way. The translator who used unit shift was successful in conveying the message of the source language text to the reader of the target language. Using unit shift made the target language's readers understand the material better.

War and peace are key issues in international politics, drawing a variety of perspectives from scholars. It seems that in all schools of thought, peace is favored over war, and pacifism is widely accepted as a reasonable principle. Islam, being the final and complete divine religion, places particular emphasis on peace, considering it a core principle, a viewpoint that is also strongly reflected in the actions and teachings of the Imams (peace be upon them). Nahj al-Balagha, a collection of sermons, letters, and maxims attributed to Imam Ali (as), emphasizes the importance of peace. This study seeks to reconstruct the principles of pacifism through a descriptive and analytical examination of Imam Ali’s (as) discourses. The findings indicate that peace and reconciliation, which are often considered synonymous, are, in fact, distinct concepts. A close examination of Imam Ali’s (as) teachings reveals principles such as guidance, restraint, and prevention of war escalation, vigilance before and after peace agreements, delay of war to convince public to embrace peace and abandon conflict and finally, adherence to peace agreements constitute the framework of pacifism in his teachings.

Discourse analysis, a linguistic approach within the social sciences, investigates the relationship between writers' works and their social environments, as well as the impact of these environments on their methods and styles. This research reviews the translation of Imam Ali’s discourse, specifically examining the sermons addressed to the Kufis, through the lens of Fairclough’s (1980) critical discourse analysis model. The study assesses the effectiveness of a selected English translation in conveying the original discourse. The importance of accurately translating the discourse in these sermons cannot be overstated; when translating significant texts, particularly holy texts, a translator’s inability to convey the discourse effectively can result in a loss of the original message, meaning, and spirit. The translation analyzed in this research is Seyyed Ali Reza’s (1980) version of Nahj al-Balagha, recognized as the most accessible and comprehensive translation. By applying Fairclough’s (1980) discourse analysis, the study found that Imam Ali’s discourse features the highest frequency in the description stage at 65%, while the explanation stage has the lowest frequency at 9%. Using Berman’s (2010) translation model, the researchers found that clarification was the most frequently employed strategy in the analyzed translations, occurring 33% of the time. In contrast, the rationalization and qualitative impoverishment strategies were the least used, each at 8%.

The translation of religious texts plays a crucial role within the translators’ community, prompting many translators to strive for the most appropriate equivalents in order to convey the themes and ideas as comprehensively as possible. The primary objective of the present study was to investigate the differences in equivalence among translators while translating twenty conveniently selected letters from Nahj al-Balagha from the original to the target text. Specifically, it aimed to determine whether the three English translations of Nahj al-Balagha by Mohammad Askari Jafari, Morteza Motahhari, and Sayed Ali Reza convey the same message. In this context, the research sought to identify any significant differences in equivalence among the three Persian-to-English translations by these translators. Nida’s (1964) model of equivalence served as the framework for the study, allowing a comparison of the three English translations of letters 40 to 60. This analysis focused on identifying the types of equivalence used based on Nida’s distinctions between dynamic and formal equivalence. The results indicated significant differences among the three translations: Sayed Ali Reza’s and Motahhari’s translations were notably more formal in tone, while Askari Jafari's translation was characterized as dynamic. These findings can be informative for readers interested in further research on the translation of religious texts, including Nahj al-Balagha.