24 Arabic Proverbs With Meaning, Read Word by Word
24 Arabic proverbs with vowel marks, pronunciation, the literal sense and what each one means, plus what a learner can take from every line.
· Written by Amaan
What are some Arabic proverbs and what do they mean?
Arabic proverbs are short fixed sayings such as الْعِلْمُ نُورٌ, “knowledge is light”, and الصَّبْرُ مِفْتَاحُ الْفَرَجِ, “patience is the key to relief”. Many are a thousand years old and still used in writing and speech. Each has a literal sense and a meaning in use, and the two are worth learning separately.
An Arabic proverb is called a mathal. A wise saying without a story behind it is a hikma.
Most proverbs are complete sentences of three to seven words, which makes them good first reading.
Read the literal sense first. The equivalent in your own language is a comparison, not a translation.
Rhyme and balance are part of the form: jadda and wajad, qalla and dall.
Many sayings shared online as Arabic proverbs are lines of poetry, and some are verses or hadith. A proverb is none of these.
What counts as an Arabic proverb
The Arabic word is مَثَل, mathal, with the plural أَمْثَال, amthāl. A mathal is a short saying with a fixed wording that people quote when a situation resembles the one it describes. Many carry a story: someone said the line once, and it stuck.
A حِكْمَة, ḥikma, is a wise saying with no story behind it, such as “knowledge is light”. The two are usually collected together, and this guide does the same. Students in Indonesia and Malaysia know such lines as maḥfūẓāt, “things learned by heart”, because schools have them memorised.
These are sayings in Fusha, the written language. Each Arabic dialect has its own spoken proverbs as well, and those are a different collection.
Why proverbs are good reading for a learner
A proverb is a complete sentence that fits on one line. It uses common words, it is usually printed with its vowel marks, and it has a rhythm that helps you keep it. Each one also shows a piece of grammar at work, so twenty proverbs are twenty small grammar examples that you can say by heart.
They are also real Arabic. Writers and speakers quote them, newspapers build headlines on them, and a reader who knows the common ones recognises the reference.
How to read one, word by word
Take this one: الْوَقْتُ كَالسَّيْفِ إِنْ لَمْ تَقْطَعْهُ قَطَعَكَ. It is said al-waqtu ka-s-sayfi, in lam taqṭaʿhu qaṭaʿak, and it means: time is like a sword; if you do not cut it, it cuts you.
الْوَقْتُ is “time”, with the article. كَالسَّيْفِ is three things written as one word: كَ, “like”, the article, and سَيْف, “sword”. Arabic joins short words of one letter to the word after them.
إِنْ is “if”. لَمْ تَقْطَعْهُ is “you did not cut it”: لَمْ makes a verb negative and past, and the ـهُ at the end is “it”. قَطَعَكَ is “it cut you”, with ـكَ for “you”.
The same root, ق ط ع, appears twice, once for you and once for time. Finding the repeated root is often the fastest way into an Arabic sentence.
Literal first, equivalent second
Each proverb below has two translations. The first says what the Arabic words say. The second gives the meaning in use, often through a saying you already know.
Keep them apart. The equivalent tells you when to use the proverb. The literal sense is what teaches you Arabic, and it is usually the more memorable of the two: “the rope of lying is short” stays in the mind longer than “lies are found out”.
Where these sayings come from
Arabic scholars began collecting proverbs early. The best-known collection, by al-Maydani in the twelfth century, records several thousand with the stories behind them. Other lines began as poetry and became proverbs because everyone quoted them, as with the verse by al-Mutanabbi in the list.
Be careful with pages of “Arabic quotes”. They often mix proverbs with verses of the Qurʼan, sayings of the Prophet and lines by modern writers, without saying which is which. A proverb is quoted without naming an author, and it is not scripture.
How to keep them
Say the proverb aloud until you can say it without looking. Then find its verb, name the root, and think of one other word from that root. One proverb a day, said aloud, is a month of grammar examples you will not forget.
Twelve proverbs, read closely
Under each line: what the words say, what the saying means, and one thing it shows about how Arabic works.
- Two words, no verb: الْعِلْمُ نُورٌ — Knowledge is light.
- A tool word: الصَّبْرُ مِفْتَاحُ الْفَرَجِ — Patience is the key to relief.
- Four verbs and a rhyme: مَنْ جَدَّ وَجَدَ وَمَنْ زَرَعَ حَصَدَ — He who strives, finds, and he who sows, reaps.
- The word “of”: الْوَقْتُ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ — Time is of gold.
- A feminine noun without ة: الْيَدُ الْوَاحِدَةُ لَا تُصَفِّقُ — One hand cannot clap.
- A possessive chain: حَبْلُ الْكَذِبِ قَصِيرٌ — The rope of lies is short.
- Two doubled verbs: خَيْرُ الْكَلَامِ مَا قَلَّ وَدَلَّ — The best speech is that which is brief and to the point.
- A sentence with no verb at all: الصَّدِيقُ وَقْتَ الضِّيقِ — A friend in times of hardship.
- A doubled middle letter: التَّكْرَارُ يُعَلِّمُ الشُّطَّارَ — Repetition teaches the clever ones.
- A line of poetry: تَجْرِي الرِّيَاحُ بِمَا لَا تَشْتَهِي السُّفُنُ — The winds blow not as the ships desire.
- A proverb with a story: رَجَعَ بِخُفَّيْ حُنَيْنٍ — He returned with Hunayn's two shoes.
- One of a kind: أَوَّلُ الْغَيْثِ قَطْرَةٌ — The first of rain is a drop.
| Proverb | What the words say | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| لَيْسَ كُلُّ مَا يَلْمَعُ ذَهَبًا | Not all that glitters is gold. | All that glitters is not gold. |
| إِذَا غَابَ الْقِطُّ لَعِبَتِ الْفِئْرَانُ | When the cat is away, the mice play. | When the cat's away, the mice will play. |
| دِرْهَمُ وِقَايَةٍ خَيْرٌ مِنْ قِنْطَارِ عِلَاجٍ | A dirham of prevention is better than a qintar of cure. | An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. |
| الْبَعِيدُ عَنِ الْعَيْنِ بَعِيدٌ عَنِ الْقَلْبِ | Far from the eye, far from the heart. | Out of sight, out of mind. |
| الْحَاجَةُ أُمُّ الِاخْتِرَاعِ | Necessity is the mother of invention. | Necessity is the mother of invention. |
| اضْرِبِ الْحَدِيدَ وَهُوَ حَامٍ | Strike the iron while it is hot. | Strike while the iron is hot. |
| خَيْرُ الْأُمُورِ الْوَسَطُ | The best of things is the middle. | Moderation is key. |
| الْأَفْعَالُ أَبْلَغُ مِنَ الْأَقْوَالِ | Actions are more eloquent than words. | Actions speak louder than words. |
| السُّكُوتُ عَلَامَةُ الرِّضَا | Silence is a sign of consent. | Silence gives consent. |
| الطُّيُورُ عَلَى أَشْكَالِهَا تَقَعُ | Birds alight on their own kind. | Birds of a feather flock together. |
| وَعْدُ الْحُرِّ دَيْنٌ | A free man's promise is a debt. | A promise is a promise. |
| رِضَا النَّاسِ غَايَةٌ لَا تُدْرَكُ | Pleasing people is an unattainable goal. | You can't please everyone. |
What does man jadda wajada mean?
مَنْ جَدَّ وَجَدَ means “whoever strives, finds”: effort is rewarded. It is often followed by وَمَنْ زَرَعَ حَصَدَ, “and whoever sows, reaps”.
What is the difference between a mathal and a hikma?
A mathal is a proverb: a fixed saying, often with a story, quoted when a situation resembles the original one. A hikma is a wise saying that states a general truth directly. Collections usually include both.
Are Arabic proverbs from the Qurʼan?
No. Proverbs are anonymous sayings of the language. Verses of the Qurʼan and sayings of the Prophet are often quoted in the same way, but they are a different kind of text and should be cited as what they are.
Are these proverbs in Fusha or in dialect?
In Fusha, the written Arabic shared across the Arab world. Every country also has proverbs in its own spoken dialect.
Which Arabic proverbs should a beginner learn first?
The shortest ones with common words: الْعِلْمُ نُورٌ, الْوَقْتُ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ, الصَّبْرُ مِفْتَاحُ الْفَرَجِ. Each is a complete sentence with no verb, the first sentence pattern Arabic teaches.
Why do some translations of the same proverb differ?
Because one translator gives the words and another gives the nearest saying in the target language. Both are useful, and neither replaces the other.
Sources
About Fasaha
Fasaha is a reading-first Arabic app for Fusha. The 24 proverbs in this guide come from its own collection, with the wording and translations the app shows.
- The app carries 267 proverbs and 240 idioms, each with a literal and a figurative meaning in 16 languages.
- A proverb of the day appears in the app, each one can be played aloud, and the whole collection can be searched.
- Available on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, with the interface in 17 languages.
- Free to start; Premium opens the full library.
Keep reading
- Your first 100 Arabic words, in ten themes: Question words, family, the days of the week, colours, food, home, the body, places, ten verbs and ten adjectives, with the patterns that make them easier to keep.
- Arabic–English dictionary apps for learners: which show the root, and how to look a word up: An Arabic lookup has three hidden steps: remove what is attached, find the root, choose among words spelled alike. What each kind of dictionary does for you, with eight words that hide their root.
- You already speak about twenty words of Arabic: English borrowed these words from people, not from a classroom, so almost everyone who says them has never seen one written. Here is what each one literally says, and the single distinction that clears up most of the confusion.