«مَا يْمُوتْ عَ السَّد إِلَّا قَلِيلِ الْفِلَاحَهْ»

The image comes from old quarrels over irrigation, when one group blocked a small earthen channel barrier, not a large reservoir dam, to send water toward its own crops. Fights broke out there. The men who risked their lives were landless hired hands, not lazy farmers, while field owners stayed safely at home.

More broadly, the saying observes that conflicts and hardships fall hardest on the humble and expendable. The people who stand to gain the most are usually shielded from the danger, and those with the smallest stake end up paying the highest price.

Use it as a wry or bitter remark when ordinary people, workers, or subordinates take the blows in a struggle that mainly serves wealthier or more powerful parties. Those parties stay comfortably out of reach.