Never say “my origin, my lineage”: a man’s origin is…

Merit grows through learning, work and personal qualities. The verse encourages people to seek value in their own achievements rather than rely solely on ancestry or family prestige.

The verse is from the Lamiyya of Ibn al-Wardi, the poem in which Zayn al-Din Umar ibn al-Wardi gathered his advice to the young, and which opens: “Leave aside the talk of songs and love; speak the decisive word and shun those who jest.” The text adopted here, however, comes from Ahmad Taymur’s Al-Amthal al-Ammiyya (Popular Proverbs): explaining the Egyptian proverb “He whose origin is unknown to you, his deeds are the proof of his lineage”, that is, look at what a man does and you will know his origin, Taymur cites al-Ibshihi’s version of it in Al-Mustatraf, then writes: “In the same sense is the saying of Ibn al-Wardi in his Lamiyya”, quotes the verse, and adds verses of the same meaning by Ziyad ibn Zayd al-Udhri and Safi al-Din al-Hilli.

Ibn al-Wardi, a Shafi’i jurist and man of letters from Ma’arrat al-Nu’man, died in Aleppo in 1349, in the great plague that swept through Syria. His Lamiyya, among the most famous Arabic poems of counsel, has often been commented on. Ahmad Taymur Pasha, an Egyptian scholar who died in 1930, collected colloquial proverbs, explained them and arranged them alphabetically.

The verse answers those who boast of their “origin and lineage”, that is, their descent and branches: a man’s true origin is what he has achieved by himself in learning, character and deeds.

Lamiyya of Ibn al-Wardi

The text appears in the indicated source. A traditional attribution remains distinct from proof of authorship: see the context.

Read the passage in the work