在此基础上形成了一种完整的生活方式,人们在其中一切活动和一切牺牲都绝对且唯独为了真主,并始终希望更接近真理。这种生活方式加强了所有存在物与人心之间的爱、兄弟情谊、相互同情和关怀的纽带。因为当我们谈到从完全屈从于这些情感中获得解放时,我们绝非主张人们应当轻视或憎恨这些情感,或逃避实践它们。相反,这些情感出自神的创造之手,它们的存在都归功于祂。它们是神赐予我们的恩典,祂爱我们,而我们也爱祂。因此,它们值得我们的爱。
On this basis a complete way of life is formulated, in which people perform all their activities and make sacrifices absolutely and only for God, hoping always to be nearer the truth. This way of life strengthens bonds of love, brotherhood, mutual sympathy and care between all beings and human hearts. For when we speak of liberation from complete submission to these feelings we are by no means suggesting that people should despise or hate them or escape from practising them. Instead they arise from the creative hand of God and they all owe their existence to Him. They are a gift to us from God who loves us and whom we love. Therefore, they deserve our love.
这是一种崇高而超脱的生活方式，它把这个地球看作渺小，把生命看作短暂，把其中的享受与奢华看得微不足道；并把摆脱种种羁绊视为人类的伟大目标。然而在伊斯兰教中，这种超脱并不意味着隐遁、孤立与忽视，也不意味着轻视或逃避生活。相反，它仅仅意味着持续而真诚的努力，以及为引导人类而进行的永恒奋斗，使人生的一切都归顺于唯独真主。
It is a sublime and lofty way of life that looks at this earth as small, life as short, its enjoyments and luxuries as worth little; and the breaking away from hindrances as humanity’s great aim. In Islam, however, this release does not mean seclusion, isolation and neglect, nor does it mean contempt for, or escape from life. Instead it simply means a continuous and sincere endeavour and an everlasting struggle to lead humanity towards submission of everything in human life to God alone.
因此，这正是人作为真主在地上的代治者所应尽的职分，连同其一切义务，正如我们前面已经阐明的那样。
Consequently, it is the fulfilment of man’s role as God’s vicegerent on earth with all its obligations, as we have already explained.
通过离群索居和极端的灵修主义来实现灵魂的解脱是容易的,但伊斯兰教并不认可这种方式,因为它希望其信徒履行真主所赋予人类的职责——真主使人类治理大地,并提供人类所需要的领导。这是一条更艰难的道路,却能保证人的提升,并在人的内心实现神圣意志的胜利。这才是真正的解脱,因为它促使人的灵魂飞向其神圣的源头,并在睿智的造物主真主为其所界定的范围之内,达到其崇高的地位。
Liberation of the soul through a life of isolation and extreme spiritualism is easy to achieve but Islam does not approve of it, because it wants its followers to fulfil man’s role assigned to him by God who placed him in charge of the earth and to provide the leadership humanity needs. This is the harder way that guarantees man’s elevation and achieves the victory of divine will within him. This is real liberation, for it urges the human soul to fly to its divine source and achieve its sublime status within the scope God, the wise Creator, has defined for it.
正是基于此,伊斯兰讯息最初的呼吁,便致力于在人们的心灵与思想中确立真主独一的实在。在这一形态下,伊斯兰讯息被灵魂、心灵与理智所领悟,它是对人类存在的完整阐释,是一种生活方式,而不仅仅是一句口头言语或一种僵化的信条。它是整个的生命,是完整的宗教。此后所确立的种种细节,不过是这一信仰在人们心灵与思想中扎根之后,自然结出的果实。
For the sake of all this, the first address the Islamic message made was devoted to the establishment of the reality of God’s oneness in people’s hearts and minds. In this form, the Islamic message is seen by the soul, heart and mind, as a full explanation of human existence, a way of life and not merely a spoken word or an inert belief. It is life in its entirety and religion in its totality. Whatever details are later put in place are no more than the natural fruits of its establishment in people’s hearts and minds.
所有使早先天启宗教的信徒偏离正道、并败坏其信仰、思想与生活的偏差，最初都源于他们心中对真主绝对独一性这一观念的衰退。而伊斯兰信仰中这一观念的独特之处在于，它深深扎根于人类生活的方方面面。
All the deviations that afflicted the followers of earlier divine religions, and which corrupted their beliefs, ideas and lives arose, in the first place, from a deterioration of the concept of God’s absolute oneness in their minds. But what distinguishes this concept in the Islamic faith is the fact that it is deeply rooted throughout human life.
它确实构成了人类生活中一套切实可行的体系的基础，这一点在立法和信仰两方面都有清楚的体现。
Indeed, it forms the foundation of a realistic and practical system for human life, clearly reflected in both legislation and belief.
说“他是真主，是独一的真主”（第1节），即是说“他是永恒的、绝对的”（第2节），并且“他不生育，也不被生育，没有任何事物能与他相比”（第3-4节）。然而，《古兰经》对此作了详尽的阐述，以加强和澄清其意义。
To say, “He is God, the One and only God,” (Verse 1) means that “He is the Eternal, the Absolute,” (Verse 2) and that “He begets none, nor is He begotten, and there is nothing that could be compared to Him.” (Verses 3-4) But the Qur’ān states it all in detail for added emphasis and clarification.
“永恒的、绝对的”也指那位所有受造物都向其求助的主，没有他的许可，任何事都不会被决定。真主是唯一的主。他是独一的神与主宰，而其他一切存在都只是他的仆人。一切祈祷与祈求都只向他献上，唯独向他。他独自决定一切，没有任何人与他分享权能。
“The Eternal, the Absolute” also means the Lord to whom all creation turns for help, and without whose permission nothing is decided. God is the One and only Lord. He is the One God and Master while all other beings are but His servants. To Him and Him alone are addressed all prayers and supplications. He and only He decides everything independently. No one shares His authority.
“他不生育，也不被生育”，意思是真主的本体根深蒂固、永恒常存、永不消逝。任何变化的境况都不会影响它。它的品质在任何时候都是绝对完美的。生育意味着衍生和繁衍，意味着一个存在在不完整或虚无之后逐渐发展而成。它需要以存在与结构的相似为基础的配偶关系。这一切对真主而言都是绝对不可能的。
“He begets none, nor is He begotten,” means that the reality of God is deep-rooted, permanent and everlasting. No changeable circumstances ever affect it. Its quality is absolute perfection at all times. Birth is descent and multiplication and implies a developed being after incompleteness or nothingness. It requires espousal which is based on similarity of being and structure. All this is utterly impossible in God’s case.
"一"这一属性包含了对父亲与儿子的否定。
So the quality of ‘One’ includes the renouncement of a father and a son.
“没有任何事物可与祂相比”，意思是：无论在存在的实质上，在唯有祂是真正有效的力量这一点上，还是在祂的任何本质特性或属性上，都没有任何人与祂相似，也没有任何人与祂等同。
“There is nothing that could be compared to Him,” means that no one resembles Him in anything or is equivalent to Him in any respect, either in their reality of being, in the fact that He is the only effective power, or in any of His qualities or attributes.
这一点已经包含在第一节经文所说的“独一”之中，但此处重复提及，是为了确认并进一步阐明这一事实。它是对二神信仰的否定。二神信仰认为，真主是善的主宰，而恶则有其自己的主宰，据说这位主宰与真主对立，破坏真主的善行，并在地上传播邪恶。最为人所知的二神信仰是波斯人的信仰，他们信奉光明之神与黑暗之神。这种信仰为阿拉伯半岛南部的人们所知，波斯人曾在那里建立过国家并行使过统治权。
This is implied in the statement of his being ‘One’ made in the first verse, but it is repeated so as to confirm and elaborate upon that fact. It is a renunciation of the two- god belief which implies that God is the God of Good while Evil has its own lord who, as the belief goes — is in opposition to God, spoils His good deeds and propagates evil on earth. The most well-known two-god belief was that of the Persians, who believed in a god of light and a god of darkness. This belief was known to the people in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, where the Persians once had a state and exercised sovereignty.
本章明确地确立并肯定了伊斯兰教关于真主独一的信仰;而第109章《不信道的人》则斥责任何将伊斯兰的真主独一观念与那些赋予真主人形、属性或人格的信仰相提并论或存在交汇之处的说法。这两章从不同角度阐述真主的独一。先知ﷺ每天清晨总是在黎明拂晓的会礼(Fajr)之前的sunnah(圣行的副功拜)中诵读这两章。这无疑具有极其重大的意义。
This sūrah firmly establishes and confirms the Islamic belief in God’s oneness just as Sūrah 109, The Unbelievers, is a denunciation of any similarity or meeting point between the Islamic concept of God’s oneness and any belief that ascribes human form, attributes, or personality to God. Each sūrah deals with God’s oneness from a different angle. The Prophet used to start off his day reciting these two sūrahs in the sunnah, or voluntary prayer before the obligatory dawn or fajr prayer. This, surely, was immensely significant.