«أَلْحَسْ مِسَنِّي وَابَاتْ مِهَنِّي»

The saying praises self-reliance and contentment. It presents even an extremely meagre meal as preferable to accepting food or support that a giver later uses to humiliate the recipient or as leverage.

Traditionally used in praise of contentment, it rejects help likely to bring reminders, insults, or hurtful obligation. It does not condemn generous assistance freely offered and received without humiliation; its force is directed at degrading dependence, not kindness itself.

Use it to defend personal dignity when someone would rather manage with very little than accept a favor from a person likely to boast of it or cause resentment. Its deliberately stark imagery makes it a forceful saying, rather than a general rejection of hospitality or aid.