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Glossary entry

Arabic term or phrase:

gharar

English translation:

ambiguity/uncertainty

Added to glossary by Conor McAuley
May 25, 2005 10:54
18 yrs ago
1 viewer *
Arabic term

gharar

Arabic to English Law/Patents Religion
In a text regarding Algeria in French:

"en raison du lucre illicite et l’incertitude qu’elle génèrent se heurtent précisément au « principe de l’équivalence des prestations », et à son corollaire la prohibition du « ***gharar*** » (aléa)."

Random events?
Proposed translations (English)
4 +4 ambiguity/uncertainty
4 +2 imperilment
4 aleatory

Discussion

Non-ProZ.com May 25, 2005:
Exactly, culture-specific - needs to be explained. Thanks again, have a good day.
Aisha Maniar May 25, 2005:
It's best to transliterate and then provide a definition in parenthesis or a footnote to show that it is a culture-specific term - hence it was not translated from Arabic in the original French either :-)
Non-ProZ.com May 25, 2005:
Yes it does make sense Aisha, thanks a lot - I think I will provide a footnote too, using what you've pasted here.

Proposed translations

+4
11 mins
Selected

ambiguity/uncertainty

This term is used a lot in Islamic law and finance concerning contracts and how to draft them.

http://www.amanahfinance.hsbc.com/amanah/hsbcaf.nsf/Pages/Gl...
Gharar: Uncertainty. One of three fundamental prohibitions in Islamic finance (the other two being riba and maysir). Gharar is a sophisticated concept that covers certain types of uncertainty or contingency in a contract. The prohibition on gharar is often used as the grounds for criticism of conventional financial practices such as short selling, speculation and derivatives.

http://www.berwinleighton.com/news/pdf_files/Islamicfinancec...
It involves the element of uncertainty (gharar)

I'm not sure how to tie it in exactly to your sentence though. Does this make sense to you?
Peer comment(s):
agree Fuad Yahya : It is closer to the concept of "irresponsible risk." Every business transaction involves some risk, but some risks are unreasonable and irresponsible.
4 hrs
yes, depending on the context, but an explanatory translation is required for such a term in any case
agree Muna Abdi
8 hrs
thank you
agree Mohamed Gaafar
20 hrs
thank you
agree Nancy Eweiss
21 hrs
thank you
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks again Aisha! I used the website extract as you posted as a footnore, slightly edited. Apologies to Hazem - I needed a broad definition of the concept in the context I had, not necessarily the defintion of "gharar" in a finance context. Thanks to all."
+2
39 mins

imperilment

This is one of my upstream translations. Having done exhaustive research on this term while translating some Islamic financial material, I reached a conclusion that "uncertainty" represents only one aspect of "gharar", the broad indication of which is:
الخطر والتعريض للهلكة، وبيع الغرر ما يجهله المتبايعان أو ما لا يوثق بتسليمه كبيع السمك في الماء أو الطير في الهواء. (المعجم الوسيط)
Imperilment seemed to represent a closer match in contexts that are broader than selling transactions, e.g. in Islamic discourse about commercial insurance contracts, والله تعالى أعلم.
Reference:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=39358&dict=CALD

Peer comment(s):
agree Fuad Yahya : You are right in seeking a more precise term than "uncertainty." In my opinion, the concept is closer to "irresponsible risk." Every business transaction involves some risk, but some risks are unreasonable and irresponsible.
4 hrs
agree Nancy Eweiss
20 hrs
Something went wrong...
1 day 2 hrs

aleatory

such as in "aleatory contract"

available in al-Mawrid
Something went wrong...
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