«اِلْعَيَا مِنْ جَبَلْ وِالْعَافْيَه مِنْ خُرْمْ إِبْرَهْ»

The saying contrasts how illness and recovery move. Sickness, not mere tiredness, is pictured as a mountain, a vast weight that drops onto a person suddenly and flattens them. Health, by contrast, must squeeze its way back in through an opening as tiny as a needle's eye, and so it returns only in small amounts.

In practice, the proverb counsels patience. Being struck down can happen in a moment, but getting well is slow and incremental. The needle image concerns this narrow, gradual passage, not impossibility as in the camel-and-needle saying. Strength seeps back little by little, not in one rush.

Suited to consoling someone frustrated that they or a relative are recovering slowly after a sudden illness. It gently reframes impatience: the collapse came all at once, but regaining strength naturally takes time. It can also apply, by extension, to setbacks that strike quickly but mend gradually.