Inshallah

For other uses, see Inshallah (disambiguation).

Inshallah (Arabic: إن شاء الله‎, ʾin shāʾa llāhu), also in sha Allah or insha'Allah, is Arabic for "God willing" or "if Allah wills".[1] Variants of inshallah are used not only among Muslim groups, but also in Christian and Jewish groups from the Middle East, in parts of Africa, and among Portuguese and Spanish-speaking peoples.

Religious explanation

In the Quran, Muslims are told that they should never say they will do a particular thing in the future without adding insha-Allah to the statement.[2] This usage of insha-Allah is from Islamic scripture, Surat Al Kahf (18):23-24: "And never say of anything, 'I shall do such and such thing tomorrow. Except (with the saying): 'If God wills!' And remember your Lord when you forget...'" Muslim scholar Ibn Abbas stated that it is in fact obligatory for a Muslim to say insha-Allah when referring to something he or she intends to do in the future.

Derivations

Due to the Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula from the 8th to 15th century, a similar derivation from Arabic occurred: the adverbs ojalá in Spanish and oxalá in Portuguese, which mean "hopefully".[3]

A similar expression exists in the Maltese language: jekk Alla jrid (if God wills it).[4] Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic (the Arabic dialect that developed in Sicily and later in Malta, between the end of the 9th century and the end of the 12th century).[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Inshallah: Religious invocations in Arabic topic transition
  2. ↑ "Saying, 'In šāʾ Allāh' (If Allah Wills) when Determining to do something in the Future". Ahya.org. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
  3. ↑ Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la lengua española, s.v. "ojalá".
  4. ↑ Azzopardi-Alexander, Marie; Borg, Albert (2013-04-15). Maltese. Routledge. ISBN 9781136855283.
  5. ↑ The European Union. PediaPress.

External links

Look up inshallah in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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