رب ضارة نافعة

[eac]

Mar7aba,

An article in As Sharq Al Awsat says:
كما يقول المثل رب ضارة نافعة
The article is about arms dealers in Syria so I imagine it has to do with profiting from suffering but what does the proverb mean exactly? Shukran!

 

[akhooha]

رُبَّ ضارةٍ نافعة = many a harmful (thing) is beneficial.....

That is, something that looks bad at first may actually turn out to be good for you.

 

[Tilmeedh]

According to the Wiktionary page for the English phrase[1], 'every cloud has a silver lining' is equivalent to (رب ضارة نافعة). Might this expression work?

[1]

every cloud has a silver lining - Wiktionary

 

[elroy]

No, I don’t think they’re really the same. I would say “a blessing in disguise” is a good equivalent.

a blessing in disguise: seems bad initially, but turns out to be good

every cloud had a silver lining: it is bad, but there’s an upside somewhere