Editing Proverb (section)

===Religion===
Many proverbs from around the world address matters of ethics and expected of behavior. Therefore, it is not surprising that proverbs are often important texts in religions. The most obvious example is the [[Book of Proverbs]] in the Bible. Additional proverbs have also been coined to support religious values, such as the following from [[Dari Persian|Dari]] of Afghanistan:<ref>p. 54, J. Christy Wilson, Jr. 2004. ''One hundred Afghan Persian proverbs'' 3rd, edition. Peshawar, Pakistan: InterLit Foundation.</ref> "In childhood you're playful, In youth you're lustful, In old age you're feeble, So when will you before God be worshipful?"

Clearly proverbs in religion are not limited to monotheists; among the [[Badagas]] of India ([[Shaivism|Sahivite]] Hindus), there is a traditional proverb "Catch hold of and join with the man who has placed sacred ash [on himself]."<ref>p. 601, Paul Hockings. 1988. ''Counsel from the Ancients: A study of Badaga proverbs, prayers, omens and curses''. Berlin: de Gruyter.</ref>  Proverbs are widely associated with large religions that draw from sacred books, but they are also used for religious purposes among groups with their own traditional religions, such as the Guji Oromo.<ref name="Tadesse Jaleta Jirata 2009"/> The broadest comparative study of proverbs across religions is ''The eleven religions and their proverbial lore, a comparative study. A reference book to the eleven surviving major religions of the world'' by Selwyn Gurney Champion, from 1945. Some sayings from sacred books also become proverbs, even if they were not obviously proverbs in the original passage of the sacred book.<ref>Ziyad Mohammad Gogazeh and Ahmad Husein Al-Afif. 2007. Los proverbios árabes extraidos del ''Corán'': recopilación, traducción, y estudio. ''Paremia'' 16: 129–138.</ref> For example, many quote "Be sure your sin will find you out" as a proverb from the Bible, but there is no evidence it was proverbial in its original usage ([[Book of Numbers|Numbers]] 32:23).

Not all religious references in proverbs are positive. Some are cynical, such as the Tajik and Uzbek proverb, "Do as the mullah says, not as he does."<ref>p. 130, Evan Bell. 2009. ''The wit and wisdom of the Tajiks: An analysis of Tajik proverbs''. Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, MA thesis.</ref><ref>p. 18. Ergashev, Moujrodkhon and Issokhon Niyozov. ''Proverbes et dictons d'Ouzbékistan.'' Paris: Editions Géorama, 2006.</ref> An Indian proverb is cynical about devotees of Hinduism: "[Only] When in distress, a man calls on Rama".<ref>p. 16, P. R. Gurdon. 1895. ''Some Assamese proverbs.'' Shillong, India: Assam Secretariat Printing Office.</ref> In the context of Tibetan Buddhism, some Ladakhi proverbs mock the lamas, e.g. "If the lama's own head does not come out cleanly, how will he do the drawing upwards of the dead?... used for deriding the immoral life of the lamas."<ref>p. 142. August Francke. 1901. A collection of Ladakhi proverbs. ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'' 2: 135–148.</ref> There is an Italian proverb that mocks churches, "One barrel of wine can work more miracles than a church full of saints". There are so many Spanish proverbs mocking Catholic clergy that there is even a book of them, ''Refranero Anticlerical''.<ref>Esteban, José. 2010. Reino de Cordelia.</ref> Armenians have a proverb that mocks priests, "Outside a priest, inside a beast."<ref>p. 284. Sakayan, Dora. ''Armenian Proverbs: A Paremiological Study with an Anthology of 2,500 Armenian Folk Sayings''. Academic Resources Corp, 1994.</ref>

Proverbs do not have to explicitly mention religion or religious figures to be used to mock a religion, seen in the fact that in a collection of 555 proverbs from the [[Lur people|Lur]], a Muslim group in Iran, the explanations for 15 of them use illustrations that mock Muslim clerics.<ref>Peter Unseth (2017). Review of ''Warm Hearts and Sharp Tongues: Life in 555 Proverbs from the Zagros Mountains of Iran''. ''Iranian Studies'' 50:1, 163–167, {{doi|10.1080/00210862.2017.1269451}}</ref>

Dammann wrote, "In the [[Traditional African religions|[African] traditional religions]], specific religious ideas recede into the background... The influence of Islam manifests itself in African proverbs... Christian influences, on the contrary, are rare."<ref>p. 46. Ernst Dammann. 1972. Die Religion in Afrikanischen Sprichwörter und Rätseln. ''Anthropos'' 67:36–48. Quotation in English, from summary at end of article.</ref>  If widely true in Africa, this is likely due to the longer presence of Islam in many parts of Africa. Reflection of Christian values is common in Amharic proverbs of Ethiopia, an area that has had a presence of Christianity for well over 1,000 years. The Islamic proverbial reproduction may also be shown in the image of some animals such as the dog. Although dog is portrayed in many European proverbs as the most faithful friend of man, it is represented in some Islamic countries as impure, dirty, vile, cowardly, ungrateful and treacherous, in addition to links to negative human superstitions such as loneliness, indifference and bad luck.<ref>Sharab, Moayad; Sbaihat, Ahlam; Al Duweiri, Hussein (2013). La imagen del perro en la paremiología jordana: traducción y contraste con el español. University of Granada: Language Design, Journal of Theoretical and Experimental Linguistics, vol. 14, n. 1.</ref>