AN ONOMASTIC APPROACH TO THE HOLY QURAN: A CORPUS BASED STUDY OF PROPHETS’ NAMES

Abstract

The current study explored the frequency, structural distribution, and discourse roles of prophets’ names in the English translation of the Holy Qur’an, The Treasure of Faith, using a corpus-based quantitative approach. This English translation, by Mufti Abdul Nabi Hamidi (South Africa), was based on Kanz-ul-Iman, the renowned Urdu translation by Ahmad Raza Khan. The results showed that some prophets, like Moosa and Ibrahim (peace be upon them), were mentioned repeatedly and consistently, whereas other prophets, such as Hazrat Yusuf, Hazrat Shuʿayb (peace be upon them), and localized figures like Hazrat Idrees, Hazrat Yasa, and Hazrat ʿUzair (peace be upon them), appeared less frequently. The analysis also revealed distinct positional distribution patterns, including continuous, episodic, and localized occurrences, suggesting that prophetic names were strategically positioned to support particular themes within Qur’anic discourse. The case of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was especially noteworthy: although he was mentioned numerous times with alternative names, titles, attributes, and descriptive references, this highlighted the distinction between lexical frequency and thematic centrality. Overall, the findings demonstrated that frequency and distributional analysis revealed important aspects of narrative organization, thematic focus, and rhetorical structure in Qur’anic translation. This study also provided directions for future research, including incorporating prophetic titles and honorifics, examining surah-based or thematic patterns, integrating qualitative methods, applying the approach to other Islamic texts, and exploring pedagogical applications to enhance understanding of narrative prominence and thematic organization.