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Mohammed Bennani carefully balances a platter of steaming couscous in his hands, carrying it to a table in the courtyard of his family home in Tunis’ old Medina on a brisk January Wednesday.
在一月份里的一个凉爽的星期三，穆罕默德·本纳尼小心翼翼地平衡着手中一盘热气腾腾的蒸粗麦粉，把它端到了他家院子里的一张桌子上, 他家位于突尼斯老麦地那市(Medina)。
The guests? Whoever shows up.
来客人了吗? 不管是谁出现。
The free weekly meal is open to all, but Mr. Bennani is not running a charity kitchen. This is his inheritance.
每周的免费用餐对所有人开放，但本纳尼经营的不是慈善厨房。 这是他的传统做法。
“My grandfather donated a portion of his fortune to help others, and it is up to us to continue this tradition until the end of time,” Mr. Bennani says.
“我的祖父捐出了他的一部分财产来帮助他人，我们要把这个传统延续下去，直到时间的尽头，”贝纳尼说。
“This is how we were raised: You respect the waqf.”
“我们从小就是这样长大的:你要尊重义捐(waqf)。”
In Tunisia, as the country’s economy continues to falter, unemployment soars, and the ranks of vulnerable people swell, activists are seeking to breathe new life into a centuries-old Islamic social safety net.
在突尼斯，随着国家经济持续低迷，失业率飙升，弱势群体不断壮大，活动人士正寻求为已有几个世纪历史的伊斯兰社会保障网络注入新的活力。
Seven decades after the country cast off the last vestiges of the traditional social welfare system, advocates’ message to Tunisians and the debt-riddled government alike is the same: Give waqf a chance.
在突尼斯摆脱传统社会福利制度的最后残留70年之后，倡导者们向突尼斯人和债务缠身的政府发出了同样的信息:给义捐一个机会。
Although only a handful of individual Tunisians carry on the tradition today, the creation of charitable trusts – the word waqf refers to an endowment – was once a widespread practice in Tunisia.
尽管现在只有少数突尼斯人保留了这一传统，但创建慈善信托(waqf是捐赠的意思)曾是突尼斯的一种普遍做法。
Under this Islamic system, citizens would donate a portion of their salary, profit, or agricultural production to a trust, which would be managed in perpetuity to support poor people and the community.
在这个伊斯兰制度下，公民将把他们的工资、利润或农业生产的一部分捐赠给一个信托基金，该基金将被永久管理，以支持穷人和社区。
While elsewhere in the Islamic world waqf saw wealthy individuals bequeath lands or establish trust funds to support mosques and schools,
而在伊斯兰世界的其他地方，义捐见证了富人遗赠土地或建立信托基金来支持清真寺和学校，
in Tunisia the practice, known colloquially also as habous, relied on a much broader base.
而在突尼斯，这种被俗称为habous的行为有着更广泛的基础。
Between the 10th and 19th centuries, donations from middle-class and working-class Tunisians, artisans, business owners, bakers, and baristas were used to fund public works as Tunisia grew into a center of learning, trade, and culture.
从10世纪到19世纪，突尼斯中产阶级和工薪阶层、工匠、企业主、面包师和咖啡师的捐赠被用来资助公共工程，突尼斯逐渐发展成为一个学习、贸易和文化中心。
“Waqf was designed to support the community,” says Mohsen Ettamimi, an imam and former member of Parliament who has researched and documented hundreds of waqf charitable trusts in the holy city of Kairouan.
“义捐是为了支持社区而设计的，”莫森·埃塔米米说。他是一名伊玛目(伊斯兰宗教领袖)和前国会议员，研究并记录了圣城凯鲁万数以百计的义捐慈善信托基金。
“It was a social support network that was derived from the people but organized, audited, and managed by the authorities.”
“这是一个来自人民的社会支持网络，但由当局组织、审计和管理。”
