ترجمهٔ معانی آیه 59 سوره سوره نحل - ترجمهٔ انگلیسی ـ دکتر ولید بلیهش العمری - دایرة المعارف قرآن کریم

آیه: 59

يَتَوَٰرَىٰ مِنَ ٱلۡقَوۡمِ مِن سُوٓءِ مَا بُشِّرَ بِهِۦٓۚ أَيُمۡسِكُهُۥ عَلَىٰ هُونٍ أَمۡ يَدُسُّهُۥ فِي ٱلتُّرَابِۗ أَلَا سَآءَ مَا يَحۡكُمُونَ

(59) He cowers away from the folk^[3317], for the enormity of what he was given news of; shall he hold on to it in degradation^[3318], or slip it in the dust—sordid indeed how they judge!

[3317] In what is widely known as the age of ignorance, al-jāhiliyyah, i.e. before Islam, when the wife goes into labour, the husband would hide away until he knew the sex of the child. If the child was a boy, he became elated but if it was a girl, he became downcast and miserable. He, would then remain in hiding, to weigh his options as to what to do with her, whether to hold on to her ‘in degradation’ or to bury her alive, (or, ‘slip her in the dust) (cf. al-Wāḥidī, al-Basīṭ).
[3318] Exegetes are of two opinions as to whom the ‘degradation’ refers to (cf. al-Rāzī, al-Samīn al-Ḥalabī, al-Durr al-Maṣūn): the father who considers himself, given their heathen social norms, disgraced by her birth (cf. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah), or the daughter whom he holds on to but only to degrade her by humiliating her, not looking after her, treating her male brother preferentially and depriving her of her inheritance (cf. al-Wāḥidī, Ibn Kathīr, al-Qāsimī).