«اِلسَّلَفْ تَلَفْ وِالرَّدِّ خْسَارَهْ»

The saying warns against lending: whatever you hand over as a loan (salaf here means lending, not forebears) should be counted as gone, since you are unlikely ever to see it again. The rhyming pair salaf and talaf ties lending directly to ruin, giving the line a punchy, quotable shape.

Its second half turns the logic around for the borrower. If the lender has already written the money off, paying it back only means you now suffer the loss instead. The proverb thus cynically casts lending as foolish and repayment as needless self-harm.

Applies to dealings in which one person lends money or goods to another: as counsel to a would-be lender to treat the loan as already gone, or as a borrower's excuse for keeping what was lent. It is cynical advice, not sincere ethical guidance.