“他们把我所供给他们的给养，分一部分给他们所不知道的东西”（第56节）。他们因此禁止自己食用某些牲畜，不允许自己骑乘这些牲畜或食用其肉；或者允许男子使用这些牲畜，却禁止女子使用，正如我们在第6章《牲畜章》中所见。他们这样做，是以他们所谓的神明的名义，而他们对这些神明一无所知。那些不过是他们从先前愚昧的世代承袭下来的虚假捏造。赐予他们这份恩惠的是真主，即他们所骑乘和使用的牲畜。然而他们却把其中一部分分给了那些实际上他们并不了解的事物。他们的虚假神明并没有赐给他们这些牲畜。
“They assign a share of the sustenance We provide for them to what they know nothing of” (Verse 56) They thus prohibit themselves some types of cattle, not allowing themselves to ride these or to eat their meat, or they allow these animals’ use to men, forbidding them to women, as we saw in Sūrah 6, Cattle. They do this in the name of their alleged deities of which they know nothing. They are simply false inventions which they inherited from earlier ignorant generations. It is God who gave them this bounty, the cattle which they ride and use. Yet they give a portion of these to things which are in reality unknown to them. Their false deities did not give them the cattle.
牲畜是真主创造的，祂使它们为人所用。祂呼吁人们信仰祂的独一，而他们却固执地以伙伴归于祂。
The cattle were created by God who has made them available to them. He calls on people to believe in His oneness, but they stubbornly associate partners with Him.
整个局面充满了讽刺，任何神智清醒的人都无法接受。
The whole situation is full of irony which no human being of sound mind can accept.
尽管以真主独一为基础的信仰已经确立，仍有一些人把真主所赐予他们的一部分给养，归于与蒙昧时代的偶像相似的存在或事物。例如，有人放任一头牛犊自由，称之为“赛义德·巴达维的牛犊”。这头牛犊因此被奉为圣物，任其随意走动、吃它想吃的东西，没有任何人从中获得任何益处，直到它被宰杀，以纪念埃及城市坦塔的一位神秘主义者赛义德·巴达维。还有人把牲畜许愿献给已故的“圣徒”，与蒙昧时代的阿拉伯人把真主的给养划归偶像的做法如出一辙。这类牲畜是禁止以这种方式许愿的，即使宰杀时提到了真主的名字，宰杀后也禁止食用，因为它们已被奉献给真主以外的对象。
Despite the fact that the faith based on God’s oneness is well established, some people continue to assign a portion of the sustenance God provides for them to beings or things similar to the idols of ignorant days. Some, for example, set loose a calf, which they call, ‘Sayyid Al-Badawī’s calf.’ The calf is thus sanctified. It is allowed to roam freely, eat whatever it will, with no one benefiting from it in any way, until it is slaughtered in honour of Sayyid Al-Badawī, a mystic buried in Ţanţa, an Egyptian city. Others pledge sacrificial animals to dead ‘saints’ in the same way as the ignorant Arabs used to do when they assigned portions of God’s provisions to their idols. Such sacrificial animals are forbidden to be pledged in this way, forbidden to be eaten when they are slaughtered, even though God’s name is mentioned at their slaughter, because they have been sanctified to things other than God.
“以真主起誓，你们必定会为你们所捏造的谎言受到清算。”（第56节）
“By God, you shall certainly be called to account for your false inventions.” (Verse 56)
这一说法以发誓的口吻郑重地陈述，但它是一种杜撰，它摧毁了信仰的根基，因为它与真主独一的理念相违背。
This is stated emphatically, with an oath. It is an invention that destroys the very foundation of faith, because it flies in the face of the concept of God’s oneness.
他们却把女儿归于真主，愿主超绝万物！而他们自己却选择他们所渴望的。当他们中有人被告知生了女孩的喜讯时，他的脸色便变黑了，内心充满忧愤。他因所听到的这个坏消息而躲避众人，心中盘算：是忍受羞辱把她留下，还是把她埋入尘土之中？他们的判断何等恶劣！（第57-59节）
And they assign daughters to God, who is limitless in His glory, whereas for themselves they choose what they desire. And when any of them is given the happy news of the birth of a girl, his face darkens and he is filled with gloom. He tries to avoid all people on account of the [allegedly] bad news he has received, [debating within himself] shall he keep the child despite the shame he feels, or shall he bury it in the dust? Evil indeed is their judgement. (Verses 57-59)
偏离正信不仅限于信仰层面。事实上,当人们背离信仰的实质时,这种偏离会蔓延到他们的社会生活及其传统之中。无论在任何社会中,信仰是被突出强调还是被置于次要地位,它始终是影响生活状况的首要因素。蒙昧时期(jāhiliyyah,即"无明时代")的阿拉伯人声称真主有女儿,也就是天使;然而他们自己却憎恶生女儿。于是,女儿可以归于真主,而他们自己则留给自己所喜爱的儿子。
Deviation from the right faith is not limited to beliefs. Indeed when people deviate from the essence of faith, their deviation spreads into their social life and its traditions. Whether faith is given prominence or kept in the background in any society, it continues to be the prime influence on living conditions. The Arabs of the days of ignorance, or jāhiliyyah, used to claim that God had daughters, i.e. the angels, yet they themselves hated that daughters should be born to them. Thus daughters can be assigned to God, while they give themselves the sons they love.
这种对正信的背离，使他们活埋自己的女儿，或虐待、羞辱她们。他们担心，如果不保护女儿的名誉与贞洁，女儿会给他们带来耻辱；也担心女儿会带来贫困。因为女孩既不参加战争，也不谋生。相反，在没完没了的部落冲突中，她们可能被俘，这会给整个部落带来耻辱。另外，女孩需要抚养，给家庭的资源增加了负担。真正的信仰摆脱了所有这些误解。所有的给养都由真主为每一个人提供，没有人会获取超出其所被分配的东西。此外，无论男女，人类都蒙受真主赐予的尊贵地位。在伊斯兰教中，女性是人，在地位上与男性平等。正如伊斯兰教所言，她是人类整体的另一半。
Such deviation from the right faith led them to bury their daughters alive, or to ill- treat or humiliate them. They feared that girls would bring them shame, if they did not guard their honour and chastity, or bring them poverty. For girls neither fought in war nor earned a living. On the contrary, they could be taken captive in the never ending tribal skirmishes, and this brought shame to the whole tribe. Alternatively, girls needed to be fed, placing a burden on family resources. The true faith is free of all such misconceptions. All sustenance is provided by God for everyone. None will take anything more than what is assigned to him or her. Moreover, human beings, male and female, are given by God a position of honour. In Islam, a woman is a human being, equal to man in status. She is the other half of the human entity, as Islam states.
这一章以严厉的笔调描绘了蒙昧时代的习俗：“当他们中有人被告知生了女儿时，他的脸色变得阴沉，满心忧愁。”（第58节）他既悲伤又愤怒，极力压抑着怒火，仿佛生女儿是一场灾难，而实际上女儿与男孩一样，都是真主的恩赐。人无法在子宫中塑造胎儿，以决定孩子的性别。他无法赋予胎儿生命，也无法使受精卵成为一个人。只要想一想生命如何依真主的旨意，从精子发展成为人，便会明白，无论男女，孩子的降生都是一件值得欢喜的事。这是创造的奇迹，尽管它时时刻刻都在发生。既然人在创造过程的任何阶段都毫无主张之权，那么，一个得到女儿的人又有什么理由感到悲伤和阴郁呢？一切都是真主所为，而他自己只是成就真主旨意的工具。
The sūrah paints a grim picture of the practices of ignorance: “And when any of them is given the happy news of the birth of a girl, his face darkens and he is filled with gloom.” (Verse 58) He is sad and angry, trying to suppress his fury, as though the birth of a girl is a disaster when she is a gift from God, just like any boy. Man cannot fashion the foetus in the womb so as to determine the sex of his child. He cannot breathe life into it, or make the fertilized egg a human being. It is sufficient to reflect how life grows, by God’s will, from a sperm into a human being, to make the birth of a child, of either sex, a joyous occasion. It is a miracle of creation despite the fact that it takes place all the time. Why should a man who is given a daughter feel sad and gloomy when he himself has no say in any stage of the process of creation. It is all done by God, while he himself is only the means to accomplish God’s will.
这是神圣的智慧所作的安排:生命始于一对配偶,即一男一女。这意味着,女性对于生命的延续与男性同样不可或缺,甚至更为重要,因为生命的第一阶段正是在女性体内完成的。那么,当男人听到生了女儿的消息时,又怎会感到悲伤?当生命离开了夫妻双方便无法延续和兴旺,他为何还要因羞耻而躲藏起来?这显然是偏离正道的社会观念与习俗所致。因此,经文评论道:“他们的判断真是恶劣。”(第59节)
It is divine wisdom that has determined that life is started with a couple: a male and a female. This means that the woman is as essential to the continuation of life as the man, indeed more so, because it is inside the woman that the first stage of life is completed. How can a man thus feel sad when given the news of the birth of a daughter? Why does he hide away, feeling ashamed, when life cannot continue and prosper without both spouses? This is obviously then a case of deviant social concepts and traditions. Hence the sūrah comments: “Evil indeed is their judgement.” (Verse 59)
这里我们有一个很好的例子，说明伊斯兰信仰在以正确的基础确立社会规范和条件方面所起的作用。我们也赞赏伊斯兰教所倡导的对女性乃至全人类的尊贵看法。因为在阿拉伯的多神教社会中，受到不公正对待的不只是女性，而是全人类。
Here we have a fair example of the role of the Islamic faith in establishing social norms and conditions on the right basis. We also appreciate the honourable view of women, and indeed of all mankind, that Islam propagates. For it was not only women but the whole of humanity who was treated unjustly in Arab pagan society.
女性也是人，侮辱或贬低她，就是侮辱了真主所尊荣的人类。像阿拉伯人那样活埋女孩，就是杀害了半数的人类。这也与造化的整体目的相违背，因为造化要求每一个有生命的事物，而不仅仅是人类，都是由雄性和雌性所生。
A woman is a human being, and humiliating or insulting her is an insult to mankind whom God has honoured. To bury a girl alive, like the Arabs did, is to kill half of mankind. It is contrary to the whole purpose of creation which necessitates that every living thing, not only human beings, comes from a male and a female.
每当人类社会偏离真正的信仰时,愚昧的观念便会露出丑陋的面目。事实上,我们今天又看到了当年盛行的那些观念再度蔓延。许多社会阶层并不欢迎女婴的降生。一个女人往往得不到与男人平等的待遇,所受到的照顾和尊重也不如男人。这正是异教的一个方面,其种子随着许多社群偏离真正伊斯兰信仰而被播下。
Whenever human society deviates from the true faith, ignorant concepts begin to raise their ugly faces. In fact we see the same concepts that prevailed then creeping up again today. Many social classes do not welcome the birth of a girl. It is often the case that a woman is not treated on an equal footing with a man. She is not offered the same care or respect. This is an aspect of paganism the seeds of which were planted with the deviation from the true Islamic faith that has affected many communities.
令人惊讶的是，有些人竟然仅凭他们在偏离伊斯兰教的社会中所看到的现象，就批评甚至谴责伊斯兰教及其律法，尤其是关于妇女的律法。他们不愿花功夫去了解相关的伊斯兰概念，以及这些概念对社会状况、人们的思想和情感所带来的根本性改变。当他们审视伊斯兰教关于妇女的真正观点时，应当认识到：这一观点并非出于任何现实需要、人为理论，或社会与经济的需求，而是伊斯兰信仰本身所固有的观点。伊斯兰信仰是由真主启示的，真主赋予人类尊贵的地位。这份尊荣既属于男人，也属于女人。男女地位平等，都为真主所尊崇。
It is amazing that some people criticize, even condemn, Islam and its laws, particularly with regard to women, on the basis of what they see in societies that have deviated from Islam. They do not trouble themselves to look at the relevant Islamic concepts and the fundamental changes they have produced in social conditions as well as in people’s minds and feelings. What they should realize when they look at the true Islamic viewpoint with regard to women is that this viewpoint has not been the product of any practical necessity, human theory or social or economic need. It is a viewpoint that is inherent in the Islamic faith which was revealed by God who has given mankind a position of honour. This honour applies both to man and woman. Both have equal status and both are honoured by God.