«مِنْ خَلِّفْ مَا مَاتَ»

The saying holds that a person who leaves worthy children behind keeps living in a sense after death. Their conduct carries the parent's good name forward, so people keep remembering and praising the parent for as long as those descendants survive and behave well.

In a mocking turn, the same words can target a disreputable person whose children turn out just as bad. The parent's flaws have not disappeared with them. They live on in the offspring, and the 'immortality' becomes an inherited embarrassment rather than an honor.

Use it sincerely to honor someone whose good children keep the family's reputation alive, especially when consoling mourners or praising heirs. It can also be said wryly when someone's misbehaving offspring clearly mirror a disreputable parent, so the speaker's tone must signal which sense is meant.