على قد لحافك مد رجليك (ʿalā qadd liḥāfik midd rijlayk)

Literally: Stretch your legs to the length of your blanket

Example: “لا تشتري سيارة فاخرة وأنت طالب؛ على قد لحافك مد رجليك.” — Don't buy a luxury car while you're a student; cut your coat according to your cloth.

English equivalent: Cut your coat according to your cloth

Origin: Recorded in Arabic heritage-proverb collections as a traditional cautionary tale: a young man inherits substantial wealth from his father but squanders it entirely on entertainment and lavish parties rather than managing it wisely, and once the money runs out, the friends who had gathered around his generosity abandon him along with it. Left with nothing, he eventually finds work with an orchard owner, who — recognizing the young man's original good family standing despite his current poverty — takes him in, arranges his marriage to his own daughter, sets him up in a small nearby home, and gives him a camel to start rebuilding a modest, sustainable livelihood by gathering and selling firewood. His parting advice becomes the proverb itself: stretch your legs only as far as your blanket (liḥāf) reaches — since pushing your feet out beyond a blanket too small to cover them leaves them exposed to the cold, matching your ambitions and spending to what you can genuinely sustain, rather than to what you wish you had.