- English translation
Sir, may a deadly blood disease seize you! Stop picking at everyone else and fix yourself first.
- Literal wording
O our master, may a blood-stroke strike your body; instead of finding fault with people, find fault with yourself.
- Meaning and lesson
The speaker curses a habitual critic, wishing a fatal blood disease on him, then tells him to turn his scrutiny inward. The target is someone who busies himself judging other people while his own conduct is no cleaner, and often worse, than theirs.
The point is that faultfinding loses its authority when the critic shares the flaws he condemns. The two halves end in rhyming words, 'lawhak' (your body) and 'ruhak' (yourself), pairing the curse on the critic's body with the demand that he correct himself.
- When it is used
Aimed at a meddlesome person who keeps finding fault with others while carrying the same or worse failings. It is a hostile, cursing rebuke, not playful teasing, suited to heated quarrels or bitter remarks about such a person, and inappropriate wherever courtesy or restraint is expected.
- Register
- Colloquial Arabic; a harsh, cursing retort
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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