这一章现在提到大地，真主为人类创造了大地供其居住。祂将大地铺平，并在其中提供了使它能够承载人类生活的一切条件：
The surah now refers to the earth, which God has created for man to live on. He smoothed it and provided in it all the means that enable it to support human life:
他就是使大地为你们驯服的主，你们可以走遍大地的各个山岗，并享用他所供给的给养。你们终将复活，归于他。（第67章第15节）
He it is who has made the earth easy to live upon. Go about, then, in all its highlands and eat of His provisions. To Him you will be resurrected. (Verse 15)
人类在地球上生活了很长时间,能够轻松地在其上定居、行走,并利用其潜能——包括土壤、水、空气、矿物以及其他一切自然资源。因此,人们常常忘记了真主的恩典,因为祂使大地便于人们居住,并使他们能够从其所蕴藏的一切中获益。这章经文提醒他们这一伟大的恩典,以一种精妙的表述将其呈现在他们眼前,无论生活在哪个时代的人,都能依照自己对大地及其潜能的认识而理解。
Man has lived long on earth finding it easy to settle upon, walk along and utilize its potentials - including its soil, water, air, minerals and all other natural resources. Hence, people forget Gods blessing as He made the earth easy for them to live on and to benefit by what it contains. The surah reminds them of this great blessing, putting it before their eyes, in a fine expression that everyone, regardless of when do they live, can understand according to their knowledge of the earth and its potentials.
对于那些古代的世代而言，称大地宜于居住，指的是大地的表面被铺平，使人和动物能够在其上行走，船只能够在其海洋中航行。这也意味着大地适合耕种和收获，并被赋予了使生命成为可能的大气、水和土壤。然而，这些只是一般性的概念。
The description of the earth as easy to live upon meant for those generations of old the surface of the earth and its being smoothed out so that people and animals could walk upon it, and boats could sail through its seas. It also meant for them that it has been made suitable for cultivation and harvest, and given the sorts of atmosphere, water and soil to make life possible. These, however, are general notions.
科学发现直至今日，提供了更多细节，使这段古兰经经文的含义变得更加广阔。
Scientific discoveries, up to the present day, provide further details that give a much broader sense to this Quranic statement.
在该章中用来形容大地适于居住的阿拉伯语词是“dhalul”，它通常用来描述一头被驯服、供人骑乘的牲畜。科学告诉我们，使用这个词是恰当的，因为我们看来稳定不动的大地，实际上确实在运动。更重要的是，它在不停地高速运行。然而，它已被驯服，因而不会把骑乘者甩下，也不会在前行时将他踩踏。它不会在移动时使他颠簸，而是给他带来轻松的骑乘。此外，它就像一头产奶丰富的坐骑，出产众多。
The Arabic term used in the surah to describe the earth as easy to live upon’ is dhalul, which is normally used to describe an animal that is ‘broken so that man can use it as a mount. Science tells us that use of this term is apt, because the earth which we see as stable and motionless is nonetheless certainly moving. What is more is that it is running at a fast pace, without stopping. Nevertheless, it is broken so as not to throw off its rider and not to trample him as it goes along. It does not shake him as it moves, but rather gives him an easy ride. Moreover, it is just like a mount that produces milk, yielding much.
地球——人所骑乘的这座坐骑——以每小时约1000英里的速度自转；与此同时，它沿着轨道绕太阳公转，速度约为每小时65000英里。此外，地球、太阳以及整个太阳系还在太空中以约每小时20000
The earth, this mount man rides, revolves at a speed of 1,000 miles per hour, and, at the same time, moves in its orbit around the sun at a speed of approximately 65,000 miles per hour. Furthermore, the earth, the sun and the solar system travel in space at a speed of around 20,000
每小时英里。尽管运动速度如此之快,人依然能在地球表面保持完全的舒适与稳定。没有任何东西将他撕裂,他的财物也不会被抛向空中。事实上,他既不会感到头晕,也不会受到震荡,而是牢牢地留在自己的坐骑上。
miles per hour. Despite such speedy movements, man stays in perfect comfort and stability on the earths surface. Nothing tears him apart, nor are his belongings thrown in the air. Indeed, he suffers neither dizziness nor concussion. Instead, he remains firmly on his mount.
这三种运动有其明确的目的。我们知道其中两种运动对人类生活以及地球上生命的整体影响。
These three movements have a definite purpose. We know the effect of two of these movements on human life, and on life on earth in general.
随着地球自转，昼夜交替出现。如果黑夜成为永久的状态，地球上的一切生命都会被冻死。与此相反，如果白昼永久存在，万物则会被烧毁。地球绕太阳公转，造成了我们每年所享受的四季。如果其中任何一个季节成为永久的状态，按照真主的意志所创造的生命形式就不可能存在。我们至今尚未发现太阳系中第三种运动的目的，但它必定与宇宙中明显可见的整体和谐相关。
As the earth revolves, the day and night alternate. Had night been the permanent condition, all life on earth would have been frozen out. By contrast, a permanent day condition would result in everything being burnt. The earths orbiting of the sun causes the four seasons we enjoy each year. Had any of these seasons been permanent, life would not have been possible in the form God has willed. We have not as yet discovered the purpose of the third movement in the solar system, but it must relate to the overall harmony clearly noticeable in the universe.
尽管存在这三种极快的运动，这颗"破损的坐骑"——地球——仍保持着由其自转轴以23.5度倾角所确定的同一姿态。地球轴的这一倾斜姿态，与地球的公转轨道一道，共同造成了四季的更替。
Despite these three exceedingly fast movements, this broken mount, the earth, maintains the same position defined by the position of its axis at an angle of 23.5 degrees. This position of the earths axis is instrumental in producing, along with the earths orbit, the four seasons.
如果地轴的倾角发生变化，就会扰乱四季的循环。
A change in the axis angle would disrupt the cycle of the four seasons.
然而，维持这一循环对植物的生命乃至地球上所有生命而言都是至关重要的。
Yet maintaining this cycle is essential for the life of plants, and indeed for all life on earth.
上帝赋予大地一种引力，使人能够稳稳地站立、保持平衡，同时大地进行它的三种快速运动，从而使大地成为人类易于居住的地方。祂还确定了大气压力的大小，以使人的整体活动变得轻松。如果这种压力更大，人的行动就会困难得多，甚至根据压力的程度而变得不可能。毫无疑问，过重的大气压力要么会妨碍人的活动，要么会将人完全压垮。如果大气压力更小，人的活动就会缺乏稳定性。事实上，人体内部还会因体内压力相对于大气压力过高而发生内爆，这确实有时会发生在那些攀登到高海拔地区的人身上。
God has made the earth easy for man to live upon by giving it a gravity which keeps people steady and in balance, while it makes its three speedy movements. He also determined the degree of its atmospheric pressure to make mans overall movement easy. Had this pressure been heavier, man would have found moving about much harder, or even impossible, depending on the level of such pressure. For certain, heavy atmospheric pressure would either hinder man’s movement or crush him completely. Had it been lighter, man’s movement would have lacked stability. Indeed, he would have suffered implosions within his body, because his body pressure would be high in relation to the atmospheric pressure: this does indeed sometimes happen to those who climb to high altitudes.
此外,真主铺展了大地的表面,赋予其柔软的土壤。若大地表面如科学理论所推测的那样,在地球冷却凝固之后应当是坚硬的岩石,那么在其表面行走将极为困难,也不会生长任何植物。雨水、风以及其他大气因素得以将这坚硬的表面碾碎,从而按照真主的意志形成这片肥沃的土壤,使植物得以繁茂生长,造福人类与动物。
真主还创造了地表之上的空气,并在其中按照精确的比例配置了生命所必需的各种元素。若这些比例有所不同,生命将受到扰乱,甚至无法存在。空气中氧气约占21%,氮气约占78%。其余部分由一氧化碳(约万分之三)以及其他元素构成。正是这些精确的比例,才足以维持地球上的生命。
另外,真主还设定了成千上万种其他的相互关联,以使地球上的生命成为可能。其中包括地球、太阳和月亮的大小,三者之间的距离,太阳的温度高低,地壳的厚度,地球的转速,地轴的倾角,海水与陆地的比例,覆盖地球的空气密度,等等。正是这些因素共同作用,使地球变得适宜生命居住,能够产出养生之物,并使生命总体、尤其是人类的生活得以繁荣。
Furthermore, God has stretched the surface of the earth, giving it its soft soil. Had its surface been made of hard rock, as scientific theories suppose should have been the case following the earth’s cooling and hardening, walking on its surface would have been very difficult, and it would not have produced any plant life. Rain, wind and other atmospheric elements managed to crush this solid surface so as to form, by Gods will, this fertile soil, allowing plant life to flourish for the benefit of man and animal alike. God also made the air above the earths surface, putting in it the elements necessary for life in all their accurate proportions. Had these proportions been different, life would have been disturbed, even been impossible. Oxygen constitutes 21% of the element air, while nitrogen forms 78% of it. The remainder is made up of carbon monoxide at a rate of 3 portions out of 10,000, as well as other elements. These are the exact proportions vital for supporting life on earth. In addition, thousands of other correlations have been established by God so as to make life on earth possible. These include the sizes of the earth, the sun and the moon, the distance between these three, the level of the suns temperature, the thickness of the earths crust, its speed, the angle of its axis, the proportion of sea water to dry land, the density of air covering it, and so forth. Maintaining all these together is what ‘breaks’ the earth, making it ready to support life, allowing it to produce sustenance and enabling life in general, and human life in particular, to flourish.
经文提及这些事实，是为了让每一个人、每一个时代的人，都能按照他们各自的能力、知识水平和观察所及，去理解并体会其中的意义。由此，他们会认识到，那掌握一切主权的真主之手，照顾着他们和周围的一切，使大地适于他们居住，保护他们和大地安全稳定。倘若这份神圣的看顾哪怕只停止一刻，整个宇宙都将失去控制、天翻地覆，最终连同地上的一切生灵一同毁灭。
The surah refers to these facts so that they are understood and appreciated by every individual and every generation as they are able to do so, and as their levels of knowledge and observation put before them. Thus, they realize that God’s hand, in which all dominion rests, takes care of them and of all around them, makes the earth easy for them to live upon, keeping them and the earth safe and secure. Should this divine care be withheld for just one moment, the whole universe would reel out of control, leading to its destruction along with all those living on it.
当人的心灵警觉到这一伟大事实时,造物主、施恩的主、至仁至慈的真主,允许他随意往来于大地各处,并享用祂的给养:"祂是使大地为你们平坦的主,你们就走遍大地的各个山区,享用祂所供给的给养吧。"(第15节)
允许人走遍大地的山区,也就包含了允许他行走于大地的平原与山谷。当较为艰难的事情被允许时,较为容易的事情自不待言。地上的一切给养都是真主的创造,属于祂。真主所赐予的,其含义远比我们从"给养"一词所理解的要广泛,即便以复数形式使用也是如此。它并不仅指人手中用来支付所需与享受的钱财,而是指真主在地上所安置的、人可以借以谋生的一切事物。从根本上说,这些都是大地构成的一部分,即各种元素以相应比例存在,也包括真主赋予植物、动物和人类利用这些元素并从中受益的能力。
When man’s heart is alert to this great fact, God, the Creator, the Lord of Grace, the Ever Merciful, allows him to go about wherever he wishes, and to eat of His provisions: “He it is who has made the earth easy to live upon. Go about, then, in all its highlands and eat of His provisions. ” (Verse 15) Permission to go about the highlands incorporates walking along its plains and valleys. When the more difficult enterprise is allowed, the easier one goes without saying. The provisions available on earth are all of Gods creation and belong to Him. What God has provided is much wider in its significance than what we understand from the term provision, even when it is used in the plural form. It does not refer to the money one has in hand to pay for ones needs and enjoyments. Rather, it refers to everything God has placed on the earth that man can use to earn something that contributes to his livelihood. Essentially, these are part of the earth’s composition of the elements that are present in their relative proportions, as also the ability God gave to plant, animal and man to use these elements and benefit by them:
众所周知，一切植物生命都依赖于大气中数量极少的二氧化碳，可以说植物是在"呼吸"它。要用最简单的方式来表述这一复杂的光合化学反应：树叶就是肺，在阳光下，它们有能力把这种顽固的二氧化碳分解为碳和氧。
As is well known, all vegetable life is dependent upon the almost infinitesimal quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which, so to speak, it breathes. To express this complicated photosynthetic chemical reaction in the simplest possible way, the leaves of the trees are lungs and they have the power when in the sunlight to separate this obstinate carbon dioxide into carbon and oxygen.
换句话说,氧气被释放出来,碳被保留下来,并与植物从根部吸上来的水中的氢结合。通过一种神奇的化学作用,自然界用这些元素制造出糖、纤维素以及许多其他化学物质、果实和花朵。植物自己养活自己,并且产出的还足以养活地球上的每一种动物。与此同时,植物释放出我们呼吸所需的氧气,没有它,生命将在五分钟内终结……因此,所有植物、森林、草类、每一片苔藓,以及其他一切植物生命,其结构主要由碳和水构成。动物呼出二氧化碳,植物释放氧气。如果这种交换不曾发生,那么动物或植物生命最终都会耗尽几乎所有的氧气或全部二氧化碳,平衡被彻底打破,一方会枯萎或死亡,另一方也会随之很快消亡。近来人们发现,少量的二氧化碳对大多数动物生命也是必不可少的,正如植物也需要一些氧气一样。
In other words, the oxygen is given off and the carbon retained and combined with the hydrogen of the water brought up by the plant from its roots. By magical chemistry, out of these elements nature makes sugar, cellulose, and numerous other chemicals, fruits and flowers. The plant feeds itself and produces enough more to feed every animal on earth. At the same time, the plant releases the oxygen we breathe and without which life would end in five minutes... So, all the plants, the forests, the grasses, every bit of moss, and all else of vegetable life, build their structure principally out of carbon and water. Animals give off carbon dioxide and plants give off oxygen. If this interchange did not take place, either the animal or the vegetable life would ultimately use up practically all the oxygen or all of the carbon dioxide, and the balance, being completely upset, one would wilt or die and the other would quickly follow. It has recently been discovered that carbon dioxide in small quantities is also essential to most animal life, just as plants use some oxygen.
氢必须包括在内，尽管我们并不呼吸它。
Hydrogen must be included, although we do not breathe it.
如果没有氢，水就不会存在；动植物物质中的水分含量之高令人惊讶，而且水分对生命绝对不可或缺。1
Without hydrogen water would not exist, and the water content of animal and vegetable matter is surprisingly great and absolutely essential.1
氮在大地所出产的各种养分中也扮演着重要的角色：
Nitrogen also plays an important part in the provisions the earth yields:
如果没有某种形式的氮，任何粮食作物都无法生长。氮进入土壤的一种途径，是通过某些细菌的活动。这些细菌寄居在豆科植物的根部，例如三叶草、豌豆、豆类以及许多其他植物。它们把大气中的氮转化为化合态氮，植物死亡后，其中一部分化合态氮便留在土壤中。氮进入土壤的另一种途径是雷暴。每当闪电划过大气层时，它会使极少量的氧与氮结合，雨水再将其以化合态氮的形式带到地面。2
Without nitrogen in some form not a food plant could grow. One way in which nitrogen can get into the soil is through the activities of certain bacteria which inhabit the roots of leguminous plants, such as clover, peas, beans, and many others. These bacteria take atmospheric nitrogen and turn it into combined nitrogen, and when the plant dies some of this combined nitrogen is left in the soil. Another way in which nitrogen gets into the soil is through thunderstorms. Whenever a flash of lightening rushes through the atmosphere, it combines a very small quantity of the oxygen with the nitrogen and the rain brings it to the earth as combined nitrogen.2
因此,氮以植物能够吸收的形式被带回到土壤中。
Thus nitrogen is brought down in the form plant life can absorb.
植物无法直接吸收空气中的纯氮气。
Plants cannot absorb pure nitrogen as it exists in the air.
埋藏在地球内部的固体和液体金属，同样是地球形成方式及其所经历的各种条件所产生的另一类给养。此处无需深入细节。我们只需说明：就上述简要讨论而言，阿拉伯语词汇 rizq（给养）的含义和意义，似乎比人们通常所理解的要广泛得多。它与地球的构造方式以及整个宇宙的设计有着更为密切的关系。
Solid and liquid metals buried inside the earth are other types of provisions resulting from the way the earth was formed and the conditions it went through. We need not go into any details here. All we say is that the Arabic term rizq, or provisions, appears, in the light of our brief discussion, to be wider in scope and significance than what people normally associate with this word. It is more significantly related to the way the earth is made and to the design of the universe as a whole.
当真主允许人类食用它时,祂已赋予他们利用和享用它以及整个大地的便利:"你们就当在大地的各个山岭行走,并食用祂所供给的给养。"(第67章第15节)
When God has permitted mankind to eat of it, He has granted them the facility to make use and partake of it and of the earth as a whole: “Go about, then, in all its highlands and eat of His provisions.” (Verse 15)
然而，这一切都局限于一段只有真主知晓的时间，因为是祂设定了人在生与死之中接受考验的期限。此外，这一切还局限于真主在今世为人所准备的一切。
This is, however, all limited to a period of time known only to God as He set the time allowed for testing people through life and death. It is further confined to all that God makes available for man in this life.
当考验的时限结束，死亡降临，随之而来的是死后的事：“你们终将被召回到Ta那里。”（第15节）的确，是归于Ta。
When the time of the test is over, death occurs, ushering in what comes after it: “ To Him you will be resurrected." (Verse 15) To Him, certainly.
是祂掌握着宇宙的主权，一切庇护都在祂那里。祂有能力成就任何事。若不归于祂，那复生又能归于谁呢？
It is He who has the dominion over the universe, and with Him all refuge lies. He is able to accomplish anything. If not to Him, to whom would resurrection be?