Classical Arabic: كصلاح المرض بغير آوانه

[analeeh]

Hi again.
This is from al-Marudi (page 58 here). He's setting out conditions for the Imam's policy. He says there are three. The third condition is that the Imam does all things at the right time, because:

فإن فعل الشيءفي غير زمانه كصلاح المرض في غير أوانه لا يقع من الانتفاع موقعا ولا يكون العمل فيه إلا ضائعا

I'm not sure what this means. I assume that the intended reading here is مَرْض, rather than مرَض, with the meaning something like 'an error (in religion)'. But I'm still not sure what the sense of the line would be, since putting a problem wrong is presumably always worth doing. This might be more of a content problem than a language problem.

Thanks!

 

[Abbe]

I think it is marad. He's pointing out that things has to be done in the right time. Say you have a headache and you know that if youi don't take some aspirin in time it will evolve to a migraine and at that point it will be of no use to take aspirin.

If he does something at the wrong time, like trying to cure a sick person at the wrong time, it wont benefit and his actions would be in vain.

 

[analeeh]

But صلاح doesn't mean trying to cure someone, does it? صلاح means the person being cured. So صلاح المرض can't mean taking aspirin at a time when it won't help your headache, it means the headache going away, right?

 

[Abbe]

As I understand it salah al-marad means to cure the disease. I might be wrong

 

[Abbe]

I think that I'm right considering the rest of the text:

أن يترجى لها زماﻧﻬا ويتوقع إباﻧﻬا حتى لا تضيع الرغبة والرهبة إن قدمهما ولا يقر بأن آن آخرهما فإن فعل الشيء
في غير زمانه كصلاح المرض في غير أوانه لا يقع من الانتفاع موقعا ولا يكون العمل فيه إلا ضائعا
وقد قيل من أخر العمل عن وقته فليكن على ثقة من فوته
وليسير ذلك في وقته أنفع من كثيره في غير وقته
وربما ضر كما يستضر بالدواء في الصحة وإن كان نافعا في المرض
وإذا صادف بالرغبة زماﻧﻬا ووافق بالرهبة أواﻧﻬا سعد بحزمه وحظي بعزمه وطبق مفاضل أغراضه وبلغ كنه مراده
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Ps I think that the author's name is al-Mawardi

 

[analeeh]

You're certainly right about the overall point he's trying to make - it's a simile for doing things late, which is a bad thing. But I'm not sure that the additional context makes the reading of صلاح المرض as 'trying to cure a disease' any more (or less) likely.

That said, the fact that nobody seems to feel the need to explain it or gloss it or stick a diacritic on it to indicate a different reading of مرض from the obvious one does seem to favour your interpretation. And I'm not sure what else it could be!

 

[Abbe]

On this site they put the tashkil

أَن يترجى لَهَا زمانها ويتوقع إبانها حَتَّى لَا تضيع الرَّغْبَة والرهبة إِن قدمهما وَلَا يقر بِأَن آن آخرهما فَإِن فعل الشَّيْء فِي غير زَمَانه كصلاح الْمَرَض فِي غير أَوَانه لَا يَقع من الِانْتِفَاع موقعا وَلَا يكون الْعَمَل فِيهِ إِلَّا ضائعا

ص191 - كتاب تسهيل النظر وتعجيل الظفر في أخلاق الملك - شروط استقامة الملك بهذه القواعد الأربع - المكتبة الشاملة

In this passage he reiterates the points about al-raghba, al-rahba and al-marad. That's why I think that the interpretation is correct
وربما ضر كما يستضر بالدواء في الصحة وإن كان نافعا في المرض
وإذا صادف بالرغبة زماﻧﻬا ووافق بالرهبة أواﻧﻬا سعد بحزمه وحظي بعزمه وطبق مفاضل أغراضه وبلغ كنه مراده

 

[analeeh]

Thanks Abbe!

 

[Sadda7]

I understand your confusion, the issue is not about مرض being مرْض or مرَض. The author appears to be using صلاح in the same way as إصلاح, because صلاح is a masdar of an intransitive verb صلُح/صلَح and one would understand "كصلاح المرض في غير أوانه" initially as the illness being healed\gone at the wrong time.