In the Rainbow City in the Silk Province in the Star Kingdom, Mohammad Azzumurrud, the Arab and Muslim Koran memorizer, is still sharing his knowledge with his twenty Chinese friends (Yueliang Jian, Taiyang Jian, Junjie Song, Liling Heng, Mei Shun and the rest fifteen students) in regular knowledge sharing sessions held at the Merlin School. Since Arabs are the supreme masters of eloquent speech (prose and poetry), Mohammad wanted to translate some Arabic prose into Chinese to share some of the beauty and splendor of Arabic literature with his Chinese friends.
Therefore, Mohammad chose to translate 100 Arabic proverbs taken from the Arabic book: The Confluence of Proverbs (مجمع الأمثال). The Confluence of Proverbs was authored by Ahmad Bin Mohammad Almaydani (أحمد الميداني), a great famous Arab and Muslim scholar [AB-3]. Almaydani died on Wednesday, Ramadan 25, 518 AH (Hegira Date) [equivalent to November 5, 1124 AD] [AB-3] [W-7]. Almaydani said in the introduction of his book that he compiled more than 6000 proverbs [AB-3]. Almaydani authored numerous useful books and was a distinguished luminary of the Arabic and Islamic civilization. One of the friends of Almaydani praised him with an indelible quote [AB-3][EB-1]:
"If intelligence, chivalry and grace had a picture, Almaydani would have been that picture".
Proverbs occupy an exalted rank and play a central role in the Arabic language, literature and lore. There is a plenty of reasons for this lofty rank of proverbs and one eloquent quote by Ibrahim Alnazzam explains this phenomenon [AB-3][EB-1]:
"Four elements are combined into a proverb that are not combined in other types of speech: the conciseness of the word, the accuracy of the meaning, the beauty of simile and the quality of metaphor so it is the ultimate rhetoric".
Concise proverbs are short and fast ambassadors for any civilization and they provide us with a feeling about the collective mind of a nation. They frequently reflect indelible stories that emitted wisdom, shrewdness and acumen [EB-1]. Here is a list of the 100 proverbs that Mohammad Azzumurrud translated into Chinese for his twenty Chinese friends [EB-1]:
The 100 Arabic Proverbs
1إن المعافى غير مخدوع
The healthy person is not deceived.
2إن في الشر خياراً
In evil there is good.
3إن الجواد قد يعثر
The horse may stumble.
4إن المعاذير يشوبها الكذب
Apologies might be tainted by lies.
5إن من لا يعرف الوحي أحمق
He who does not know nonverbal signals (or indirect speech) is a fool.
6إن في المعاريض لمندوحة عن الكذب
Indirect speech is an alternative for lying.
7إن الكذوب قد يصدق
The liar might say the truth.
8إن لم تغلب فاخلب
If you do not defeat, deceive.
9إن البلاء موكل بالمنطق
Tribulation is associated with speech.
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