- English translation
If you don't know where someone comes from, let what they do tell you.
- Literal wording
Whoever's origin is absent from you, the proofs of his lineage are his deed.
- Meaning and lesson
When you cannot tell where a person comes from or what family stands behind them, their behavior answers the question for you. Actions serve as testimony to inherited family standing: honorable conduct suggests honorable roots, while base conduct exposes a base background.
The saying shifts attention from claims about ancestry to what can be observed, though its premise ties character to descent, a view some modern listeners find dated or unfair toward individuals. In the Arabic, the halves close on rhyming words, 'aṣluh' (his origin) and 'fiʿluh' (his deed).
- When it is used
Use it when someone's family or background is unknown and judgment must rest on how they behave, such as sizing up a newcomer, either praising a stranger's generosity or criticizing their meanness as revealing the upbringing behind them.
- Register
- Colloquial Arabic proverb
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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