A Critical Approach To Qur’an Translations ？n The Context Of The General And Special Uses Of The Word “？nsan” ？n The Qur’an

Allah has addressed the people to whom he has given responsibility in order to test and see their obedience 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 that the word insan, is used in a significant part of these kinds of addresses. Linguists have put forward different opinions when determining the etymological origin of the word insan. All of the ideas put forward by them remarkably point to the qualities that characterize human being. In this context, it is said that the word insan is derived from ins meaning “forgetful entity” or from inas meaning “taught entity” or from nvs meaning “to move a lot”. In addition, there are evaluations indicating that it is derived from the infinitive üns meaning, “becoming friendly or adapting” and stating that the definition of human beings as innate social being is based on this derivation. The word insan is used by the Qur'an in sixty-five verses, all but one of which are used in definite (marife) form. While four usages of the word in question, refer to Adam, considered as the very first ancestor of humankind, fourty-there passages refer to infidel/polytheist man; and also while fifteen other passages refer to humankind, the remaining there passages refer to believer man. It is stated that some of the verses that mention the phases of man's existence express that human 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, sperm and a drop of water, mean all humanity, namely Adam’s generation. On the other hand, the exegetes particularly emphasize the above two different categories 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 be more correct to point out “first man” or “Adam” while translating the verses in question within the parentheses or at least to state that real intention is the first man in the footnote. One of the meanings meant by the word insan in the Qur'an is the human being as species. The word in question has been used in fifteen verses in the meaning of human species. The first one of these usages in the Qur'an according to the Mushaf order is, as far as we can determine, the twenty-eighth verse of the fourth chapter (al-Nisa) and this verse refers to males. In our view, the approach of the meals for the verses other than this verse