- English translation
Told to wash the dead man and wrap a turban around his head, he answered: "My job is washing the dead. Am I supposed to guarantee them Paradise as well?"
- Literal wording
"Wash him and wind a turban around his head." He said: "Am I a washer of the dead and a guarantor of Paradise?"
- Meaning and lesson
Someone is asked to wash a dead man for burial and wind a turban around his head, as if this dressing of the body might secure him a place in Paradise. The washer indignantly protests that his trade is preparing the corpse, not deciding its fate. The saying refuses blame for outcomes beyond one's work and power.
It fits a person loaded with a task that exceeds his role and over which he has no real control. Put as a pointed rhetorical question to someone else, it also rebukes a person who busies himself with matters outside his own job, reminding him that his duty stops where his competence ends.
- When it is used
Use it to push back when asked to guarantee results outside your job and control, or pose it as a pointed question to someone meddling in affairs beyond their own task. The tone is wry, mildly indignant protest against unreasonable expectations.
Cite or copy proverb
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