Fatalism

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.

If happiness is yours, it was promised to you long ago.

The saying presents good fortune as something allotted in advance. A person who enjoys happiness is viewed not as merely lucky in the moment, but as someone whose share of well-being was already destined.

What is bound to be lost will be lost, even if you lock it in a chest.

The saying holds that whatever is fated to be lost will slip away no matter how carefully it is guarded. Its opening word refers to a thing destined to perish or go missing, not a destitute person. Even a chest, the household's most secure place and here spelled in a colloquial form, cannot rescue it.

Each mouthful summons the one it is meant for.

The saying holds that whatever share of food or fortune has been set aside for someone will find its way to that person. The morsel is pictured as almost alive, summoning the one it belongs to. The word for its eater can suggest a heavy eater, but here it simply means the person destined for that morsel.

There's no running away from what is fated.

The saying holds that whatever has been destined for a person will reach them no matter what they do. 'The written' means fate as already recorded, not a physical document, so efforts to dodge it are futile, and the wise response is to accept what arrives rather than flee it.

God's written decree will prevail.

The proverb says that the one who has written the outcome prevails, casting God as the ultimate author of events and placing his determination above human plans.

If you're fated to live long, you'll make it through every hardship.

The saying holds that a person who is meant to live a long life will get past sickness, danger, or crushing setbacks, outlasting them rather than merely enduring. Within its fatalistic worldview, survival is decided by the length of one's appointed span, not by how severe the trouble happens to be.

Whatever fate has written for you, you are bound to live through.

The saying expresses the belief that each person's destiny is already set down, drawing on the traditional image of fate inscribed on the brow rather than any visible mark on the face. Whatever has been decreed cannot be dodged; sooner or later the person will meet it and witness it with their own eyes.

What you hold may still end up belonging to another.

The proverb says that physical possession does not guarantee final ownership or enjoyment. Something can seem securely within reach, yet circumstances may carry it away and give its benefit to another person.

If you come upon a blind man, strike him and take the food from his chest pocket; you cannot be more merciful than his Lord.

The saying reflects the belief that disability is a condition a person deserves and that it therefore need not awaken pity. Its violent commands press the claim that divine judgment, rather than human compassion, determines the sufferer’s lot.

Luck is something you were pledged long before you went looking for it.

The saying holds that good fortune is not earned or chased down but allotted in advance. A person's luck is treated as something pledged to them before they ever act, so whatever good comes their way was already set aside for them. Its key word, sa'd, also carries shades of luck and happiness.

Luck stays with the people it belongs to.

The proverb pictures a person's fortune as a constant companion that cannot be left behind. Wherever someone goes, the same luck travels along, so a change of location brings no fresh start.

However hard you chase after a livelihood, you cannot obtain more than the share destined for you.

The saying sets a vivid picture against a sober limit: someone dashing about with the frantic speed of a wild animal, and a portion of provision that remains exactly the size it was always going to be.

When the shares were dealt out, I took my pile along with the rest. 'Poor thing,' people said. 'It's been that way since the day I was born,' I told them.

The saying pictures a sharing-out of fortunes in which the speaker, who is a woman, gets her 'heap', meaning her allotted lot in life, like everyone else. When onlookers pity her, she replies that her bad luck dates 'from my day', that is, since birth. It is not the result of this one distribution.

If I still have days left to live, the sea will not be my end.

The saying imagines someone surviving even after being thrown into the sea because their allotted lifetime has not ended. The danger is grave, but it cannot bring death before that time.

Even if you toss it onto a roof, you will not lose what is allotted to you.

The image of throwing something onto a roof makes a careless act the test: can someone lose a share that has already been allotted to them? The proverb answers no.

The proverb presents death as predetermined: someone fated to die in one way cannot meet their end in another. Escaping drowning is therefore treated as a consequence of fate, not proof of lasting safety.