Arabic proverbs

Skip this round of buying rather than spend your cash at an inflated price.

The saying advises restraint when prices have suddenly risen. It treats the money in hand as the thing to protect, so a buyer should pass up an overpriced purchase and let the market settle.

Children are God's dear ones.

The saying asks adults to treat young children gently. Calling them the beloved of God is an affectionate appeal to tenderness rather than a formal doctrinal claim, and it makes harshness toward them feel out of place. Anyone tempted to lose patience is reminded that a child holds a cherished, protected position.

The leader has ridden off, so the festival is over.

The image comes from the mawlid of al-Sayyid Ahmad al-Badawi. The khalifa, head of the Sufi order linked to him rather than a political caliph, rides in a grand procession on the festival's last day. Once he mounts and rides out, everyone knows the celebration is finished and the crowds disperse.

Every bean has someone to measure it.

In its bare form, the saying holds that nothing escapes valuation: every item, even a single bean, has someone whose task is to gauge it, and that judgment fits the thing's own condition and worth rather than a single fixed scale.

Crying over what is already gone only shows a lack of sense.

The saying holds that lamenting something already lost or over and done with shows poor judgment. Tears and complaints cannot restore what has slipped away, so dwelling on it only wastes effort and reveals a lapse in good sense.

Once the family’s foremost figure has gone, no one remains to fill that place.

The proverb voices the sense of emptiness that follows the death of the person on whom a household chiefly relied. It presents that loss as more than personal grief: the family has lost its central point of direction.

Reaching into someone else's purse feels like scooping from a sand dune.

The proverb mocks how lightly people handle wealth that belongs to someone else. A hand dipping into another person's purse senses nothing of the value it touches, much as striking a mound of sand gives no feeling of handling anything precious.

Ties formed by marriage are as fragile as milk, and the slightest thing can spoil them.

The saying uses nasab in the sense of affinity, the bond that marriage creates between a family and its in-laws, rather than descent by blood. Its image of milk, which curdles or turns at the smallest jolt and cannot easily be restored, presents such ties as delicate and quick to break.

Nobody hawks his own oil as murky.

Picture a vendor crying his oil in the market: he will praise it freely but will never shout that it is cloudy. The proverb states plainly that people selling something do not publicize the faults of what they offer.

No baby on her lap, yet her milk runs down to her skirt.

The saying pictures a woman whose lap holds no infant while her milk flows so freely that it soaks the hem of her garment. Abundant nourishment is ready, but there is no child to receive it, so the plenty simply goes to waste.

The camel is down on its knees, too sick to stand, and someone says, 'Put a load on it and it'll get up.'

The picture is of a camel so weakened by illness that it has sunk to its knees, and of an onlooker whose remedy is to put a load on its back. The joke lies in the advice itself: the supposed cure would only make the animal's helplessness worse.

"Seen the camel?" "I didn't even see the man leading it."

The saying praises or describes total discretion about a secret. Asked only about one obvious detail, the camel, the speaker volunteers a denial of more, its driver, showing they will give away nothing, not even a clue leading back to the hidden matter. The animal and its handler are figurative; the point is refusing information.

Cowering like a frightened cat.

The comparison casts a person as a frightened cat that has crept into a corner and keeps very still. Here the cat suggests fear and submission, not the cunning, independence, or grace cats carry in other sayings. It describes someone made small, timid, and submissive, staying quiet because they are afraid or have been put in their place.

A man who shames his wife invites others to treat her with contempt.

When a husband insults his wife or taunts her over perceived flaws, he may diminish the regard others show her. His own disparagement can encourage other people to treat her with less respect.

Better to know a thing than to be ignorant of it.

The saying holds that awareness of something is always preferable to being unaware of it. Its 'X and not Y' structure implies the preference without stating 'better'. Even when knowledge is never put into practice, holding it brings no loss, so learning carries no real risk.

With enough money, even the sultan’s daughter can become your bride.

The proverb portrays money as able to fulfill even an exceptionally ambitious wish. Its image of marrying the ruler’s daughter is deliberate exaggeration, heightening the claim that wealth can make a desired outcome possible.

He just sits there tracking every word that slips out and everyone who picks it up.

The expression paints a person planted in place, alert to every remark that slips out and to whoever snatches it up. It mocks someone preoccupied with other people's affairs, keeping a running tally of their words and actions instead of attending to their own business.

The walker arrives almost as soon as the rider has settled the animal.

The saying stresses that an apparent advantage may amount to very little. In its traditional image, a rider may get ahead, but stopping and removing the pack saddle lets the person on foot nearly catch up.

A gracious tongue brings you honor even with no kin to back you.

A person who speaks to others pleasantly and graciously wins their affection and esteem. That goodwill works like the backing of a clan, giving such a person honor, standing, and a kind of protection even when no relatives or allies stand behind them.

Before the unlucky man's fortune ever turns, his days have run out.

The saying observes that by the time a person dogged by bad luck finally becomes well-off, his life has already been spent. The good fortune hoped for is chiefly material prosperity, and it comes so slowly that death arrives before the wealth does.

If you admire something you own too much, sell it before harm comes to it.

This traditional saying advises selling a possession that greatly delights its owner, in hopes of protecting it from harm attributed to the evil eye. It presents sale as a precaution against feared loss, not as ordinary commercial advice.

Make use of the lesser coin you have until a sound one comes along.

The saying recommends accepting and using an imperfect resource when it is the only one presently available. Rather than remaining idle while hoping for a better option, a person should make practical use of what is in hand for the time being.

Go against everyone and you'll get yourself noticed.

The saying describes a shortcut to visibility. An unremarkable person who cannot earn notice through merit sets himself against what everyone else thinks or does, and his opposition alone makes people take note of him.

Anyone who counts every cost of keeping poultry will never raise it.

In its household image, keeping domestic birds can seem uneconomical when every feeding cost is counted separately. The saying holds that a genuinely needed thing may not justify itself item by item, yet still be worth keeping or providing.

Squeeze yourself between an onion and its skin, and all you'll take away is the stink.

Whoever forces their way into something that does not concern them will come away with nothing worth having. The picture is of someone wedging into the thin gap between an onion and its peel, where the only reward is صنّة, the pungent, unpleasant smell left behind.

Whoever chews with his own teeth gains the benefit.

The proverb praises taking personal responsibility for what concerns one’s own welfare. A person gains most directly by doing the necessary work for himself rather than leaving that essential task to someone else.

No bigger than a bean, yet loud as an ogress.

The saying pokes fun at someone tiny in body who nonetheless fills the air with a booming voice and constant racket. The humble fava bean stands for smallness, while the ghoul of folk belief stands for a terrifying roar; the feminine ghūla rhymes with fūla and need not comment on the target's gender.

Tomorrow Rajab begins, and you will see these wonders.

The saying cautions against making or amplifying dramatic predictions about what has not happened. Rather than treating rumor or conjecture as knowledge, it points to the near future as the test of such claims.

Contentment of the soul is the truest kind of riches.

The saying holds that a self at ease with what it has, free from endless craving, possesses the only wealth that is truly complete. It sets this inner sufficiency against material holdings, which may be abundant while the owner still feels deprived. Measured by possessions alone, a person's riches therefore remain partial.

They read like cats do, with no understanding at all.

The proverb targets a person who has no real knowledge yet wants to be taken for a learned one. Their method is to read a great deal, but the material they work through is beyond their comprehension, so the reading leaves them as uninformed as before.

Marrying into a family makes you family.

The saying holds that a bond formed through marriage, rather than blood descent, carries the weight of a family tie. Once two households are joined by a wedding, their members are expected to treat one another with the loyalty, support, and familiarity normally reserved for relatives by birth.

Food from other people's homes won't keep you fed, and if it does, it won't sit well with you.

The saying warns that food taken at someone else's table rarely truly sustains a person. Even when it fills the stomach, it figuratively fails to 'stay the night': it does not sit well, because a sense of being beholden, whether spoken by the giver or only imagined by the receiver, spoils the benefit.

Anyone standing safely ashore can claim to be an expert swimmer.

People can easily boast of abilities when they are protected from the test that would reveal whether those abilities are real. Safety and distance make confident claims inexpensive, without necessarily meaning that every untested person is dishonest.

Given enough time, one may achieve what one hopes for.

The saying expresses confidence that time can make hopes attainable. What cannot be achieved today may still be reached later, provided a person lives long enough to see another opportunity.

She left her dough to spoil in the trough and went off to make music instead.

The saying reproaches a person who neglects the responsibilities that fall to them and lets diversion take their attention away from those duties. The image of dough left in the kneading vessel is figurative: it stands for an obligation that has been abandoned, not a literal account of cooking, while the stringed instrument points to music and pleasure.

Anyone who sees him first thing in the morning will end up selling even his children.

This saying describes someone whom others cast as deeply unlucky. Seeing that person at the beginning of the day is portrayed as bringing such misfortune that the observer is driven into total loss; it is an insulting attribution, not a factual judgment about a person.

A whole minaret fell on a little hoopoe.

The saying makes an absurd comparison: a minaret comes crashing down upon a small hoopoe, vastly more force than such a tiny bird could warrant. The image criticizes an enormous measure applied to a trivial target; no literal incident is being reported.

He has a resource that never runs dry.

The saying describes a person who has a steady source of gain or support that they can keep drawing on without interruption. The image is of a young fowl that never dies, a figure for a supply that keeps going and is not used up.

A head with no sense in it is worth less than a gourd bought for a coin nobody accepts anymore.

The saying holds that a head lacking reason is inferior even to a large gourd that cost almost nothing. A gourd can at least be put to some use, whereas a head without sense contributes nothing worth having to anyone.

Go on, all of you, foul me as you like; it was fate that left me in your hands.

The speaker dares everyone present to defile him however they please, using a crude colloquial verb for urinating or defecating, then excuses them in the same breath. Time is what handed him over to these people and to their era, so any reproach belongs to time and not to those who mistreat him.

When the unlucky try to celebrate, even the celebration meets an obstacle.

The picture is concrete: a woman whose lot has been grief finally sets out to enjoy her own wedding, yet finds no actual spot where she can celebrate. Her one chance at happiness is thwarted by something as basic as a lack of space.

A drowning man will clutch even at a flimsy reed.

A person in mortal danger will seize whatever lies within reach, even a frail stalk that cannot possibly hold them up. Panic and need override any judgment about whether the support is real, so the grasping itself becomes the point.

Just like stray street dogs

The simile likens a person to the stray dogs that roam a lane, sniffing at every doorway for scraps. It marks the target as contemptible and lacking self-respect, someone who behaves with the meanness associated with ownerless animals, an especially degrading image.

If you and I are both too grand for it, who's going to drive the donkeys?

The saying points to the paralysis that follows when two people each insist on their own standing and neither will undertake an ordinary necessary task. Their shared self-importance leaves the work without anyone to carry it out.

Pull your hand back from the stew before you burn yourself.

In its main sense, the saying exposes false concern. Someone warns another about the hot broth as if protecting their fingers, while really wanting to keep them from eating. It describes anyone who hides a selfish wish to deny a person some benefit behind a mask of kindness or friendly advice.

As jittery as the foil streamers in the perfume bazaar, where the faintest breeze sets them quivering.

The saying pokes fun at a person who loses their nerve at almost nothing. Like delicate gilded foil hung in a Cairo market quarter, which trembles at the slightest movement of air, such a person startles, frets, or retreats at the smallest pressure, rumor, or threat.

A mere gnat putting on the airs of a buffalo.

The saying sets the tiny mosquito against the hulking water buffalo to ridicule anyone insignificant who carries themselves as though they were weighty and powerful. The opening "said" simply introduces the saying rather than naming a speaker, and the feminine forms follow the Arabic nouns, so the target can be of any gender.

To the Bedouins, it's all soap.

The saying mocks a person who cannot tell things apart and treats very different items as if they were identical. Its word for "Arabs" here means Bedouins or desert dwellers, not Arabs as a whole; the picture is of them lumping every unfamiliar substance together as "soap," overlooking obvious distinctions.

Master Bunduq could hardly believe his luck before he leapt at it.

The saying describes a person who has long been kept from doing something by some hindrance. The instant an opening appears, he seizes it without a moment's pause. Here 'did not believe' means he could scarcely believe the chance had finally come, not that he doubted it.

Blame my eyesight, not me.

The speaker uses this traditional formula to shift responsibility for a lapse onto faulty eyesight. It concedes that something went wrong, yet presents the failure as one of seeing rather than of intention, inviting the listener to blame the eyes instead of the person who acted.