Criticism of Mustafa Rahmandoost's translation of the Holy Quran for children and adolescents with a translation-cognitive approach

Translating the Holy Quran for children and adolescents, given their linguistic and cognitive characteristics, is one of the characteristics of this group. The translator in this field must pay attention to loyalty to the foundations and principles of Quran translation, as well as to accuracy, coherence, and linguistic clarity. Mustafa Rahmandoost, a prominent writer and poet of children's and adolescent literature, has published a translation of the first and thirtieth chapters of the Holy Quran in recent decades, with the aim of providing a fluent and understandable text for the new generation. The present study, using a qualitative content analysis approach and comparing samples of this translation with standard Persian translations, evaluates its success in meeting the audience's expectations and conforming to the principles of Quran translation. The framework of criticism includes various linguistic, stylistic, and semantic aspects, such as distinguishing interpretive additions from the text, lexical coherence, observing standard prose, choosing the appropriate equivalent, conveying emotional charge, textual coherence, and morphological and syntactic precision. The findings show that although Rahmandoost's translation is valuable in terms of language fluency, simplification, and attention to the needs of the audience, in some cases it was accompanied by semantic and stylistic inconsistencies. The result of the research is that this translation is an innovative step in introducing children to the Quran, but in order to become a sustainable and educational model, it requires revision and completion based on more precise principles of Quran translation.