Al-Adab Al-Mufrad
Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 493
حَدَّثَنَا مُوسَى، قَالَ: حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو عَوَانَةَ، عَنْ عَبْدِ الْمَلِكِ بْنِ عُمَيْرٍ، عَنْ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ سَعِيدٍ، عَنْ أَبِيهِ قَالَ: كُنْتُ مَعَ سَلْمَانَ، وَعَادَ مَرِيضًا فِي كِنْدَةَ، فَلَمَّا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهِ قَالَ: أَبْشِرْ، فَإِنَّ مَرَضَ الْمُؤْمِنِ يَجْعَلُهُ اللَّهُ لَهُ كَفَّارَةً وَمُسْتَعْتَبًا، وَإِنَّ مَرَضَ الْفَاجِرِ كَالْبَعِيرِ عَقَلَهُ أَهْلُهُ ثُمَّ أَرْسَلُوهُ، فَلاَ يَدْرِي لِمَ عُقِلَ وَلِمَ أُرْسِلَ.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Musa related to us: Abu ‘Awanah related to us, from ‘Abd al-Malik ibn ‘Umayr, from ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Sa‘id, from his father, who said: I was with Salman when he visited a sick man in Kinda. When he entered, Salman said to him, “Good news! Allah makes the illness of a believer an expiation and a means of regaining His good pleasure for him. The illness of a wicked person is like a camel that its people hobble and then release; it does not know why it was hobbled or why it was released.”
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The English witness renders مُسْتَعْتَبًا as “a restoration”; the Arabic word carries the sense of seeking or regaining good pleasure.
فَإِنَّ مَرَضَ الْمُؤْمِنِ يَجْعَلُهُ اللَّهُ لَهُ كَفَّارَةً وَمُسْتَعْتَبًا،
The exact nuance of مُسْتَعْتَبًا is not transparent in this context; the English witness renders it “a restoration.”
Is “a means of regaining His good pleasure” an appropriate contextual rendering here?