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" تَرِبَتْ يَدَاكَ " has different translations here:

Sahih al-Bukahri:

"(otherwise) you will be a losers"

  • then where is "otherwise" in original (arabic) text?

Sunan ibn Majah :

"may your hands be rubbed with dust (i.e., may you prosper)"

  • so this has contrariwise meaning i.e. like if dusting of hand is something good. ( also Sunan an-Nasaa-i : "may your hands be rubbed with dust (may you prosper)" ).

if really dusting of hand means good, what logic is here? maybe working much and such getting dust?

What does it mean here? :

"He (the Holy Prophet) said: Let your hand be covered with dust, in what way does her child resemble her?"

and here :

"(and it seemed) as if Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) did not like it (his sitting with the children) and said to him: May your nose he besmeared with dust, ..."

  • in these 2 cases i see it is/means scolding. and also general meaning of dust is not positive, but it is something bad. so how can it mean "to prosper" as it is translated in some hadiths?
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  • "Tarib" means destitute or impoverished. It can also mean to be dusty, depending on the usage. But to mean "prosper" isn't part of the definition. The closest word for that is "Atrab" which means being rich. Both of these words have the same root despite their opposite meanings. Yet, the Prophet allegedly said "Tarib" and not "Atrab". To say it means to prosper goes against the definition.
    – Sayyid
    Sep 5, 2015 at 11:52
  • arabic.stackexchange.com is closed, but can be downloaded, see what answers were there : qdb.tmf.org.ru/fayllar/tarbit.html
    – qdinar
    Dec 22, 2015 at 8:16
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    I think, it would be better and more helpful if you posted it as an answer and accepted it!
    – Medi1Saif
    Dec 22, 2015 at 8:18
  • they do not answer all my questions
    – qdinar
    Dec 22, 2015 at 17:25

2 Answers 2

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This expression needed some search ,specially it is 100% fosha, it is not used anymore in modern Arabic.

here the word تربت in the Arabic-Arabic dictionary

and this Arabic Fatwa explained the hadeeth you mentioned. and that is what the fatwa said about the expression تربت يداك

وأما معنى (تربت يداك) فهو في الأصل دعاء معناه: لصقت يداك بالتراب من شدة الفقر إن لم تفعل

ولكن العرب أصبحت تستعمله لمعان أخر كالمعاتبة والإنكار وتعظيم الأمر والحث على الشيء وهذا هو المراد منها في هذا الحديث..

and as for the meaning of (taribat yadak) it was originally a doaa 1 دعاء meaning , may your hand get rubbed with dust "because of poorness" if you are not going to do.....

the old Arabs later get to use this expression to express other things like (blaming, disagreement,stressing the point, encouragement/motivation ) which how it is used in this hadeeth

1 Note: this doaa was an old doaa used by the old Arabs -including the disbelievers- even before the birth of the Prophet PBUH

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    Good answer it is about the same (but not well evidenced) as was posted by BIGother in the (former) now closed Arabic SE which qdinar has posted in his comment.
    – Medi1Saif
    May 25, 2016 at 5:56
  • @Medi1Saif thank you, I added the word "motivation" because it is a better translation for the word الحث more than the word "encouragement". after reading qdinar comment that you mentioned May 25, 2016 at 8:24
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salam alaikum. I found this explanation in Lane's Lexicon (ll). he had dust or earth in his hand-- this expression has 2 different and opposite meaning.(as a student I have seen several arabic words, one word used to express opposite meaning.) So according to lanes lexicon- this expression can mean : he became so poor that he clave to dust OR his wealth became much, abundant that it became like dust or earth. he became rich-- this is the more known meaning of the verb -ترب - as though he became possessed of wealth equal in quantity to the dust or earth.

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