Pragmatic wrote:
Yes, there is no question that escape is a valid contrast to hellfire, and that the Quran includes explicit reference to that as in the example you gave of النجاه.
I respectfully maintain that this does not make escape the prevailing meaning when the word فاز is used. If we translate فاز with something other than win, we are going against a significant consensus, not only popular consensus, but also scholarly consensus.
I thought I'd check the English dictionary to see what "win" means. It means "to gain", "to succeed", "to be victorious", etc. In other words, the emphasized semantic is the positive outcome. The Arabic word stems from the negative starting point. In this project, I want to stick to the meaning of Arabic words as they were understood in the 7th Century, not as they have evolved. Let me give you another example,
Wouldn't you agree that the semantic emphasized over and over in conjunction with the verb
فاز is the semantic of escape from a tough spot and coming out ahead?