«اِلْعِرْيِ يْعَلِّمِ الْغَزْلْ»

Someone with no clothes to wear has no choice but to learn how to spin yarn and make cloth. Here الغزل means spinning thread, not its other senses of love poetry or flirtation. Hardship becomes the teacher, pushing a person to master a craft they would otherwise never have attempted.

More broadly, the saying holds that want and pressure turn the unskilled into the capable. People rarely learn out of mere curiosity; they learn when circumstances leave no alternative, so lack itself becomes the spur to resourcefulness.

Suited to moments when someone, cornered by need, picks up a skill they never bothered with before: a person who learns to cook after moving out, or to repair things once money runs short. It can sound wry, admiring, or mildly teasing.