ProverbHub
Arabic · Arabic scriptProverb: Verified

«رَبِّنَا رَيَّحِ الْعِرْيَانْ مِنْ غَسِيلِ الصَّابُونْ»

Meanings

Each meaning is reviewed on its own.

Meaning: Verified
English translation

God has spared the naked man the bother of soap and laundry.

Literal wording

Our Lord has relieved the naked one of washing with soap.

Meaning and lesson

A person with no clothes has nothing to launder, so soap and washing are simply not their concern. The saying describes someone who has no need of a particular thing, because not having it also releases them from every chore and expense attached to it.

It can also carry a wry, resigned philosophy: having little brings its own kind of ease, since possessions demand upkeep, worry, and cost. The speaker half-seriously ranks the calm of poverty above the troubles of plenty, without literally celebrating nakedness or poverty.

When it is used

Use it, often with a wry smile, when someone's lack of a thing also spares them the trouble it brings, or when contrasting the ease of having little with the cares of owning much. Its appeal to God is idiomatic framing, not a theological claim.

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