- English translation
An enemy will never turn into a friend, any more than a fig tree will ever bear raisins.
- Literal wording
Never will the enemy become a beloved, and never will the fig tree bring forth raisins.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying holds that real hostility cannot turn into genuine affection. Someone who has been an enemy stays an enemy at heart, whatever warmth they may show, so expecting true friendship from them is as hopeless as waiting for an impossible harvest.
The second half supplies the proof by analogy: raisins are dried grapes, so a fig tree can never yield them. The point is not the quality of figs but that each thing produces only what its nature allows, a fixed rule the proverb applies to an adversary's feelings.
- When it is used
Said when someone hopes a known adversary has truly changed sides, or when a former foe suddenly acts friendly. It voices settled distrust rather than advice on reconciliation, and can sound dismissive or fatalistic in tense personal disputes.
- Register
- Colloquial Arabic, in the idiom of everyday popular speech
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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