«اِلْفَاحِرْ نَازِلْ وِالْبَانِي طَالِعْ»

The saying contrasts two kinds of people. Here فاحر is a colloquial transposed form of حافر, "digger," not فاخر, "proud." The schemer who works to trap others is like a man digging a pit: he only goes downward, his deeds come to light, people repay him in kind, and malice never earns him standing.

The person who serves others is like a builder, who climbs a little higher with every course of stone he lays. The proverb holds that goodwill and constructive effort raise a person's position over time. Hostile plotting, by its very nature, pulls the plotter down. A related vocative variant likewise pairs the rising builder with the sinking digger.

Use it when someone's scheming against others is backfiring, or to reassure a person that steady, constructive effort will lift them while plotters sink. It works as a moral comment or a gentle warning, not as a literal description of construction or excavation.