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In my country, whereas it has an eastern, religious type of the culture when someone wants to say that an event must happen 100% in order to achieve something or when someone wants to say that it is not "very" necessary to do something and generally when someone wants to emphasize that a specific belief is not very necessary, says:

  • It is not a divine message / voice for you to do that.

  • It is not a divine message / voice that it must happen. etc.

I am looking for an idiom, expression in AE for "divine message / voice" in the ways that I used in above self-made / translated sentences. I would be thankful if you could help me.

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  • Not sure what you mean by "must happen 100% in order to achieve something" or "very necessary".
    – Tᴚoɯɐuo
    Sep 14, 2016 at 12:55
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    I agree; your first sentence is very unclear. What do you mean "an event must happen 100%" or that it is not "very" necessary to do something? Those seem like two completely different things.
    – stangdon
    Sep 14, 2016 at 13:33
  • must happen 100% in order to achieve something = In order to something else happen, something must happen and there is no other way round
    – A-friend
    Sep 17, 2016 at 7:03
  • You are right @stangdon . They are completely different situations, but in my language in both of these senses we use the same idiom which Chenmunka mentioned to. :)
    – A-friend
    Sep 17, 2016 at 7:04

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A common phrase is: "It is not cast in stone" or "It is not carved in stone"

Although this does have a religious origin, which may not be what you wish.

Moses brought down the ten commandments on tablets of stone. Thus, cast in stone suggests the word of God. The words cannot be altered.

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  • Exactly it was what I needed. Thank you very much Chenmunka. :)
    – A-friend
    Sep 17, 2016 at 7:02
  • Another phrasing of the same idea is "set in stone". Just one more option; making a comment since it's a variation on a theme.
    – Mark Foskey
    Jun 14, 2021 at 5:00

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