44 Preface وَخُذ بِيَدِكَ ضِغثًا فَاضرِب بِهِ وَلا تَحنَث ۗ إِنّا وَجَدناهُ صابِرًا ۚ نِعمَ العَبدُ ۖ إِنَّهُ أَوّابٌAhmed Ali“Take a handful of herbs,” (We said to him), and apply and rub them, and do not make a mistake.”1 We found him patient in adversity, an excellent devotee, always turning in repentance. Tahnath means here ‘do note make a mistake,’ though it also means sin, disobedience and taking an oath and not fulfilling it. The context, however, does not allow any other meaning but ‘mistake’ in this verse which is concerned with the cure of disease of a dermic nature caused, it appears, by snake bite. For shaitan also means snake and ‘devil of the desert’, hence ‘thirst’, indicated by the instruction to go swiftly to the spring and drink its water and bathe in it, and to rub the body with a handful of herbs, as is clear from the use of zightha. See Taj and Raghib for tanath and zightha.