Arabic proverbs

No bigger than a speck of dung, yet it tries to fight the current.

The saying ridicules a trivial, insignificant person or thing that insists on resisting a force vastly greater than itself. The image is a tiny scrap of dung tossed in flowing water that still seems to push back against the stream. Its smallness makes the stubborn defiance look absurd rather than brave.

Like donkeys horsing around: nothing but bites and kicks.

The image is of donkeys fooling around together. Their play looks no different from a fight, because all they do is nip and kick each other. Their amusement and their aggression take the same physical form.

He's like a bone stuck in my throat.

The saying describes a burdensome, unwelcome person who keeps blocking someone's way and clings to them without letting up. Such company is likened to a hard heel bone wedged in the throat: rigid rather than soft or minor, impossible to ignore, painful to endure, and stubbornly refusing to budge.

The cloak of safety never wears thin.

Safety is pictured here as a piece of clothing that never frays. The image rests on the belief that when God decrees protection for a person and dresses them in it, that protection does not deteriorate the way ordinary cloth does.

A co-wife wishes her fellow wife nothing but ruin, until not even her footprints are left.

In this traditional saying, a woman sharing her husband with another wife feels no real goodwill toward her rival. Her only wish is for some calamity to overtake the other woman and erase her completely, not merely harm her. The image rests on a stereotype of co-wife hostility and should not be taken as endorsing it.

Go ahead, take your revenge out on your neighbor.

The proverb mocks misplaced retaliation. Someone has been wronged but cannot reach the true culprit, who is either far away or too strong. So the person lashes out at whoever happens to be close by. Here that is a neighbor, chosen only for being near, who did nothing wrong.

If you are patient, you will gain; if not, you will be buried—and God’s decree takes effect either way.

It says that patience is preferable when events are governed by God’s decree. Whether a person accepts the situation patiently or resists it, the decree will still take effect.

You can only be generous with what you actually have.

Here jūda means generosity, not the similar-looking modern jawda, 'quality'. Openhandedness depends on having something to give. A person may come from a line famed for hospitality, yet that heritage counts for nothing when the cupboard is bare. Means, not pedigree, decide what anyone can actually offer.

When God is displeased with someone, He lets that person's stomach rule over him.

The proverb treats an insatiable appetite as a burden rather than a pleasure. A person who is constantly driven by hunger and craving is pictured as handed over to the rule of a tyrant, and that subjection is read as a mark that God has turned away from them.

If someone has heaped good on you, repay him with even more devotion, and pledge your children to his service as well.

The proverb teaches that generosity should be answered with more than a token thank-you. When a person has enriched your life, you owe them heightened faithfulness, devotion, and service in return, rather than repayment in money or goods.

'Tomorrow' is a word that never gets used up.

The proverb mocks the habit of answering every request with 'tomorrow'; قولة here means the act of saying that word as a stock excuse, not a formal statement. Because there is always another tomorrow, such a reply can be repeated forever, and the promised action never has to arrive. The word itself becomes an inexhaustible supply of delay.

We can't stand you, but we can't bear to let you go either.

The saying puts words into the mouth of a person, or a group speaking together, who complains about others while insisting on keeping them close. It may echo what is openly said, or it may sum up what behavior reveals even when it is never said aloud.

An enemy's eye gives him away, and it stings.

However carefully a hostile person guards his words and manners, his gaze lets the hidden resentment slip out. The eye does not literally appear; rather, hostility becomes plain to see through it, and the look often discloses what face and speech try to hide.

Anyone who can eat a loaf is not weak.

The proverb casts ordinary eating as proof against a claim of weakness. It targets a person who presents themselves as ill during work while otherwise seeming to have the vigor of a healthy person.

He lives on one man's bounty and gives his devotion to another.

The saying condemns ingratitude: a person enjoys what a benefactor provides, yet turns devotion and obedience toward someone else. The 'worship' here is figurative, meaning loyal service rather than religious devotion, and the bounty belongs to the benefactor, not to the person criticized.

Only your own hand can scratch your itch.

The saying holds that a person's own needs are best met by the person who feels them. The image is of relieving an itch by scratching the skin with one's own nails: just as only you know exactly where it lies and how hard to scratch, only you can fully grasp and resolve your own concerns.

The joy was cut short, snatched away by a crow that flew off with it.

The saying laments a happiness that never reached its completion. Something pleasant was underway or within reach, but before it could be fully enjoyed it was abruptly taken away, as if a crow had swooped down and carried it off. The crow serves simply as the thief, with no further symbolism.

Hard necessity sets terms of its own.

Pressing circumstances alter what counts as acceptable behavior. An act that a person would normally shun as improper or unwise can become reasonable, even unavoidable, once there is no other way out of a predicament.

If the thunder reached your ears, the rain will soon be before your eyes.

The saying pairs two senses: thunder reaches the ear first, and rain soon follows for the eye to witness. It is not weather lore; thunder and rain stand for a warning and the trouble that follows it. Whoever receives a warning should expect its substance to arrive, not treat the noise as empty.

A parent's heart can soften again.

A parent's love for a child is hard to uproot. Even after a son or daughter has caused hurt and been turned away, tenderness and longing may come back at times, because care for one's offspring lies deep within a parent's heart.

Bad enough to land in Hell, but must I also sit back by the shabby shoes?!

The speaker protests a double injury: one serious misfortune already weighs on them, and on top of it comes a further humiliation. Hell stands for the main calamity, and the spot near the door where rough, worn sandals are left marks the lowest, most degrading seat.

A stepmother is a punishment sent down by God.

The proverb casts a father's new wife as divine anger sent upon a household; the key word means wrath here, not deformation. It reflects a traditional attitude that a stepmother will feel little affection for her husband's children, a stereotype reported rather than endorsed.

When a rich man dies, the women come trailing their cloaks to mourn him; when a poor man dies, nobody even hears of it.

The saying contrasts two deaths. When a wealthy man dies, women hurry to the house of mourning in such numbers that their loose outer wraps (al-ḥabar, not ink) trail behind them, while a poor man's passing draws no visitors and not even a word of news.

Only forty days separate one seed from the next.

The saying pictures a seed being planted and producing a crop with fresh seeds forty days later. The two seeds mark the beginning and completion of a growing cycle, making the interval between them seem brief.

Let your neighbor's success spur you on, but never begrudge him what he has.

The saying separates two reactions to the good fortune of a neighbor, meaning anyone close enough to invite comparison. One is competitive emulation, not romantic or possessive jealousy: a rivalry that makes you strive until you reach the same level. The other is envy, a resentful wish that the other lacked what they have. Only the first is encouraged.

Like the bungling market inspector: underweight, down he goes; overweight, down he goes.

The image is a muhtasib, a market overseer charged with checking weights and fair dealing, who does not know his own job. He cannot tell whether a seller's weight is short or generous, so every case gets one verdict: throw the merchant down and beat him. The goods are not at issue; his only skill is blustering force.

You can tell what a letter says from its heading.

The saying holds that the outside of a thing announces what is inside it. Just as the heading on a letter, the outside label whose colloquial name is a variant of the ordinary word for a title, hints at whether its message is welcome or troubling, a situation's surface is taken as a dependable guide to its concealed content.

When a full man breaks bread for a hungry one, he takes his sweet time.

A person who is already full feels no hunger pangs, so when asked to break bread into pieces for a sop dish for someone starving, he works at a leisurely pace. The rhyming pair of sated and hungry sharpens the gap in urgency between the satisfied and the one still waiting.

Shearing makes a donkey look bigger, but it makes a camel look smaller.

The image contrasts two animals under the same shears. A trimmed donkey looks sleek and impressive, while a camel stripped of its thick coat looks scrawny. Only their appearance changes, not their bodies. The saying judges neither animal; a single action simply produces a gain in one case and a loss in the other.

You who keep covering up other people's blemishes, cover up your own first.

The saying addresses someone who takes it upon themselves to hide the small embarrassing flaws of others, pictured as the whitish crust that gathers in the inner corner of the eye. It tells that person to first cover and hide their own flaws before concealing anyone else's.

He plays the fine gentleman and acts put out with everyone.

The saying sketches a person who puts on airs: dressed with fussy care, pleased with his own looks, and at the same time wearing a sour, withdrawn expression. Both traits are presented as a pose he adopts rather than something natural to him.

A lively market counts for more than fine wares.

Whether goods sell depends far more on the state of the market than on how good they are. Quality still matters, but demand weighs more. With eager buyers, ordinary wares move quickly; in a slack season, even excellent merchandise may sit unsold.

People often speak repeatedly about what they love.

The proverb links love for a thing with repeated references to it in speech. What someone loves is said to become a subject they mention again and again.

Neighbors give rise to envy, and kin give rise to hatred.

The saying observes that closeness, rather than distance, is what tends to stir hostile feelings. People who live next door can watch each other's fortunes daily, so envy readily arises between them as each compares what the other household has gained.

The mouse was offered two pounds of sugar to deliver a letter to the cat. 'Handsome pay,' it said, 'but a tough job.'

The saying describes a task that carries a generous reward but exposes whoever undertakes it to serious peril. A mouse sent to a cat, called here by هِرّ, a word kept mostly for proverbs rather than everyday talk, is a vivid picture of an errand that may well end in destruction.

Clueless yet full of muscle, so he wrecks whatever he touches.

The saying pairs two traits that become dangerous together: ignorance of how a job should be done and an eagerness to show off physical power. Here the second word means displaying vigor, not recovering from illness, as a similar common term might suggest. Combined, these flaws produce someone who forces their way through work and ruins it.

The brick always finds the sore spot.

The saying pictures a thrown clay brick that somehow always strikes the one body part, or the one person, that is already wounded. It puts into words the bitter observation that fresh trouble seems drawn to whoever is suffering already.

Though she may be dressed in rough cloth, she remains the same Aisha.

Outward poverty or shabby clothing does not erase a person's inherent worth, good character, or honorable standing. Hardship may alter appearances without changing the person beneath them.

I married you for that grand mantle of yours, thinking you a man of substance, and now I find you're like a stray dog, making the rounds of every house for a scrap to live on.

A wife complains that she married her husband because his ample mantle, a man's broad outer garment worn to display standing, and his imposing, eye-catching bearing made him look prosperous. Married life showed her the truth: he owns nothing and must scrounge his daily food from house to house, like a dog.

Luck isn't something you get by being clever.

The saying speaks of luck in the sense of a favorable lot in life, not of happiness or contentment, and holds that such luck is not won through shatara, a mix of cleverness, skill and resourcefulness. Fortune appears as something allotted to a person. Ability does not ensure advancement, and its absence does not ensure decline.

Either I get my share, or I'll make sure none of you keeps it.

The saying voices a stark ultimatum from someone who wants a share in something others are enjoying together, whether a windfall, a profit, or a collective project. The speaker demands to be included and makes plain that refusal will carry a cost.

Give something up, and you will have to live without it.

The saying links relinquishing something with losing it. When a person lets a thing go, it stops being part of what they have, and the act of leaving it is what removes it from their life.

Someone with much to lose should not seek a fight.

The saying advises a person facing particular risk to avoid provoking disputes or entering needless contests. Prudence is presented as a sensible response when one’s safety, security, or an important responsibility could be harmed.

Spin a hundred threads a day, and by year's end you will have two whole garments.

The proverb measures achievement by what repeated action can build, rather than by the apparent size of any one day’s output. Work that looks slight when viewed alone may yield an impressive total when it is faithfully continued.

Looking up at those above you only leaves you with a sore neck.

The saying warns that constantly measuring oneself against people of higher standing or better circumstances can produce pain rather than benefit. Fixation on what others possess may turn aspiration into dissatisfaction.

If you are going to incur blame, let it be for something substantial.

The saying argues that a person who chooses an act likely to draw reproach should not do so for a trifling result. Its paired images make the point that the scale of the undertaking should match the blame one is prepared to bear.

Once the feast has passed, it is too late to shape the holiday cakes.

The saying criticizes starting an undertaking only when the moment that made it useful has gone by. It emphasizes that timing is part of the task itself, so a delayed effort can fail even if the work is eventually done.

You're no different from anyone else.

The saying reminds a person that their situation is shared: whatever the rest of the group has had to accept, they can accept too. Going along with a common burden is not a personal failing, so no one should single them out for blame.

When you have too much to do, spread the tasks over several days.

The saying recommends dividing a burdensome workload into smaller portions instead of treating it as a single immediate demand. A measured sequence of tasks can make sustained effort feel more workable.

No one who comes to the revered doorstep goes away empty-handed.

In its most common sense, the saying expresses confidence that a pilgrim who goes to a holy figure's shrine and asks for intercession will not leave disappointed. The 'thresholds' stand for revered doorsteps. Seeking help at saints' tombs is contested among Muslims; this describes the usage without endorsing or condemning it.