Explore Arabic traditional proverbsReviewed 2026-10-29
Meaning: Verified- English translation
What you own is more dependable than what you borrow.
- Literal wording
A borrowed garment does not keep one warm.
- Meaning and lesson
The image is of clothing worn on loan: however it looks, it fails to give the wearer real warmth. In the same way, anything borrowed is presented as yielding no genuine benefit to the person using it.
True usefulness is placed instead in one's own belongings. Because an owned thing stays with its owner, it is there to be reached for and relied upon whenever the need for it actually comes.
- When it is used
Fitting when contrasting dependence on a borrowed item with having something of one's own, to stress that only what a person owns truly serves them at the moment it is needed.
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How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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