ProverbHub
Arabic · Arabic scriptProverb: Verified

«مَا لَكْ وِالْخِيطِ الْمِعَلَّقْ؟»

Meanings

Each meaning is reviewed on its own.

Meaning: Verified
English translation

What business have you with that dangling thread?

Literal wording

What do you have to do with the dangling thread?

Meaning and lesson

Framed as a rhetorical question, the saying warns against involvement in an affair bound up with other affairs. The 'dangling thread' suggests something that hangs on, and depends on, other things. Such a matter tends to bring worry and wasted effort, so the speaker asks why anyone would take it on.

It also carries positive advice: prefer what is clear, settled, and free of strings. Instead of chasing something uncertain and entangled, a sensible person keeps to straightforward matters whose results are in their own hands and that will not drag them into needless trouble.

When it is used

Say this to someone tempted to take on a complicated affair whose outcome hinges on other people or unsettled conditions. It is not a genuine question but friendly, slightly reproving advice to stay out of tangled business and stick to matters that are simple and fully one's own.

Register
colloquial
Cite or copy proverb