Stories of Piety and Prayer

Deliverance Follows Adversity

al-Muḥassin ibn ʿAlī al-Tanūkhī, Julia Bray

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781479855964
• eBook ISBN: 9781479850242
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Uplifting tales from one of the most influential Arabic books of the Middle Ages

One of the most popular and influential Arabic books of the Middle Ages, Deliverance Follows Adversity is an anthology of stories and anecdotes designed to console and encourage the afflicted. Regarded as a pattern-book of Arabic storytelling, this collection shows how God's providence works through His creatures to rescue them from tribulations ranging from religious persecution and medical emergencies to political skullduggery and romantic woes.

A resident of Basra and Baghdad, al-Tanukhi (327–84/939–94) draws from earlier Arabic classics as well as from oral stories relayed by the author's tenth-century Iraqi contemporaries, who comprised a wide circle of writers, intellectuals, judges, government officials, and family members. This edition and translation includes the first three chapters of the work, which deal with Qur'anic stories and prayers that bring about deliverance, as well as general instances of the workings of providence. The volume incorporates material from manuscripts not used in the standard Arabic edition, and is the first translation into English. The complete translation, spanning four volumes, will be the first integral translation into any European language.

A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

الفرج بعد الشدّة

Deliverance Follows Adversity

Author’s Introduction

١،٠

0.1

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم ربّ يَسّر

In the name of God, full of compassion, ever compassionate. Lord, «ease» my task.¹

٢،٠

0.2

قال الفقيه القاضي أبو عليّ المحسّن بن القاضي أبي القاسم عليّ بن محمّد بن أبي الفهم التنوخيّ رحمه الله تعالى الحمد لله الّذي جعل بعد الشدّة فرجًا ومن الضرّ والضيق سعةً ومخرجًا ولم يُخْلِ محنةً من منْحة ولا نقمة من نعمة ولا نكبة ورزيّة من موهبة وعطيّة وصلّى الله على سيّد المرسلين وخاتم النبيّين محمّد وآله الطيّبين.

The author of this work, the learned judge Abū ʿAlī al-Muḥassin, son of Judge Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī l-Fahm al-Tanūkhī, may God Exalted show him compassion, says:

Praise God, Who has made deliverance follow adversity, comfort and relief follow loss and constraint, Who lets no trial be devoid of gain, no blow be devoid of blessing, and Who makes all calamities and bereavement yield bountiful gifts. God bless the chief of all His emissaries, Muḥammad, Seal of the Prophets, and his noble kin.

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0.3

أمّا بعد فإنّي لمـّا رأيت أبناء الدنيا متقلّبين فيها بين خير وشرّ ونفع وضرّ ولم أَر لهم في أيّام الرخاء أنفع من الشكر والثناء ولا في أيّام البلاء أنجع من الصبر والدعاء لأنّ من جعل الله عمره أطول من عمر محنته فإنّه سيكشفها عنه بتطوّله ورأفته فيصير ما هو فيه من الأذى كما قال من مضى ويروى للأغلب العجليّ أو غيره رجز

أَلْغَمَرَاتُ ثُمَّ يَنْجَلِينَا

ثَمَّتَ يَذْهَبـْنَ وَلا يَجِينَا

ويُروى

أَلْغَمَرَاتُ ثُمَّ يَنْجَلِينَهْ

ثَمَّتَ يَذْهَبْنَ وَلا يَجِينَهْ

فطوبى لمن وُفّق في الحالين للقيام بالواجبين.

Now I come to my topic. I have seen that humankind’s passage through this world is an alternation of good and ill, profit and loss, and that in good times nothing is more profitable than thankfulness and praise, and in bad times nothing more salutary than acceptance and prayer, since if God lets a sufferer outlive his trials, once His generosity and mercy have preserved him from his woes, they will seem, in the words of a bygone poet (al-Aghlab al-ʿIjlī according to some):

A sea of troubles; but it withdraws,

ebbs, and comes not back again

or:

A sea of troubles; but it withdraweth,

ebbeth, and cometh not back again.²

Blessed, therefore, are those to whom it is granted in both good times and bad to behave as befits.

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0.4

ووجدتُ أقوى ما يفزع إليه من أناخ الدهر بمكروه عليه قراءة الأخبار التي تنبّي عن تفضّل الله عزّ وجلّ على من حصل قبله في محصله ونزل به مثل بلائه ومعضله بما أتاحه له من صنع أمسك به الأرماق ومعونة حلّ بها من الخناق ولطف غريب نجّاه وفرج عجيب أنقذه وتلافاه وإن خفيت تلك الأسباب ولم تبلغ ما حدث من ذلك الفكر والحساب فإنّ في معرفة الممتحن بذلك شحذ بصيرته في الصبر وتقوية عزيمته على التسليم إلى مالك كلّ أمر وتصويب رأيه في الإخلاص والتفويض إلى من بيده مُلك النواصِ وكثيرًا ما إذا علم الله تعالى من وليّه وعبده انقطاع آماله إلّا من عنده لم يكِله إلى سعيه وجهده ولم يرض له باحتماله وطوقه ولم يخله من عنايته ورفقه.

وأنا بمشيئة الله تعالى جامع في هذا الكتاب أخبارًا من هذا الجنس والباب أرجو بها انشراح صدور ذوي الألباب عند ما يدهمهم من شدّة ومصاب إذ كنت قد قاسيت من ذلك في محن دُفعت إليها ما يحنو بي على الممتحنين ويحدوني على بذل الجهد في تفريج غموم المكروبين.

To those enduring fate’s injuries, nothing, I find, affords more powerful solace than reading accounts of God’s graciousness, Mighty and Glorious is He, toward those who have previously suffered the same plight and undergone the same tribulations and perplexities, for they show how those at their last gasp have been preserved through the working of His ordinance, those sore beset succored, or saved by an extraordinary grace, or freed by a marvelous deliverance that made all come right again. How these things came to pass may not be evident; what happened may not be susceptible to reasoning or calculation. Nevertheless, knowing that such things have happened hones the sufferer’s perception of what acceptance of God’s will means. His resolve to consign himself to the Lord Omnipotent is strengthened. He sees that his proper course is to love Him with all his heart and commit himself to the One in Whose hand lies the «governance» of all creatures.³ And so it often happens that God Exalted, understanding that His friend and servant has placed all his hope in Him, will not leave him to his own endeavors, is pleased not to let him struggle alone under his burden, and does not withhold from him His kindly providence.

In this book, if God Almighty wills, I shall gather accounts of this sort, which I hope will open out the breasts⁴ of the discerning when adversity and mishaps befall them. As a result of trials that have overtaken me, I have been through experiences that make me feel for my fellow sufferers and move me to exert myself to relieve the sorrows of others who are afflicted.

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0.5

وكنت وقفت في بعض محني على خمس أو ستّ أوراق جمعها أبو الحسن عليّ بن محمّد المدائنيّ وسمّاها كتاب الفرج بعد الشدّة والضيقة وذكر فيها أخبارًا يدخل جميعها في هذا المعنى فوجدتها حسنة لكنّها لقلّته أنموذجُ صبرة فلم يأت بها ولا سلك فيها سبل الكتب المصنّفة ولا الأبواب الواسعة المؤلّفة مع اقتداره على ذلك ولا أعلم غرضه في التقصير ولعلّه أراد أن ينهج طريق هذا الفنّ من الأخبار ويسبق إلى فتح الباب فيه بذلك المقدار واستثقل تخريج جميع ما عنده فيه من الآثار.

In the course of one such trial, I came across five or six folios put together by Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Ma...

Table of contents

• Letter from the General Editor
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Map: The Geography of Stories of Piety and Prayer
• Note on the Text
• Notes to the Introduction
• Deliverance Follows Adversity
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Further Reading
• Index of Qurʾanic Quotations
• Index of Prophetic Hadith
• Index of Poems
• General Index
• About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
• About this E-book
• Titles Published by the Library of Arabic Literature
• About the Editor–Translator