well it’s pretty close in terms of context in which it’s used. it means “as God willed” and it is used to express awe or praise. a lot of people also mean it as a wish to protect against envy and ill will, so there can be an underlying wish to not jinx it, essentially.
side note
by the way if you’re a nonmuslim and especially white, christian or even atheist*, using these expressions muslims use would be great imo. the media almost exclusively associates these words with terrorism so I think normalizing them would be beneficial to reduce prejudice against muslims.
inshallah means “God willing”, and used in similar fashion, basically means “I hope/hopefully”. you might hear this a lot from muslims because they’re taught that it’s hubris to speak of the future in very certain terms (as no one knows what will happen tomorrow) so they soften it with inshallah.
el-hamdu-lillah (hyphenated to read more clearly) means “praise to God”, used most often similarly to “thank god” to express gratitude, to say you’re glad. if it’s tough to say you can pronounce it quickly as “elhamdillah” (that’s two syllables shorter) and people will still get what you’re saying.
and the one most demonized in media:
allahu akbar literally just means “God is the greatest”. it’s a very common exclamation, used in almost every situation where you would say “oh God!” or “Jesus!”. joy, disbelief, surprise, fear, exasperation, grief, frustration, hope, happiness… pretty much literally every kind of exclamation.
parts of what I said might change per person as Islam is spread across multiple continents and vastly different cultures.
* unless you’re the kind of atheist who makes a fuss everytime someone says “bless you” after a sneeze, then keep what you’re doing, whatever, I’m sure people love you for it
I agree. The new Dune movies mostly shied away from using Arabic, of particular note it avoided the word “jihad” despite it being very prominent in the books. It’s very Arabic in influence, but so much of our culture is scared of the language still.
I feel this is probably changing as most of our society has realized our wars have been bullshit, but have exposed us to the culture. I could be wrong though. It could just be my bias, having gone to a university with quite a few Arabic people, and being close friends with and living with a Saudi.
I think the first step for most people is food, and Arabic food has become a lot more common (though sometimes calling itself Mediterranean instead of Arabic).
i watched a music reaction video by this devout christian couple, like real believers, not just political hacks. they would listen to heavy metal songs and talk about the themes especially if there are religious themes.
the dude had an interesting past and apparently met some muslims and got to know about their faith so he would pretty regularly use the phrases “inshallah” and “mashallah” iirc as he knew what they meant and didn’t think it went against his faith to say them.
exposure is the best antidote to prejudice, and just like you he was exposed to real people which didn’t prevented him from getting fooled by the distorted depictions in media.
Vin and Sori if anyone’s wondering.
for those wondering, it’s kind of “[has been] blessed by god”
or at least that’s how it’s culturally used in turkish
My Arab colleagues used to say Insa Allah, which I understood to mean the same thing. Is it similar?
The other guy said it “God willing” but that means like “Am I gonna stick to this diet? God willing.” and then you go eat cake like “Guess God didn’t will it.” or “See you at 7? God willing.” and then your car breaks down but you manage to catch a cab there in time - clearly God wanted you there.
It’s like a maybe more than a hopefully.
again, culturally speaking, and not arabic translation, Inshallah is “If god permits” or some variant thereof.
Fun fact; that phrase stayed in spain and became “ojala” which is kinda “hopefully”
That is a fun fact! As I was reading your comment, the Spanish phrase “Si dios quiere” came to mind as that’s how we would say inshallah, but its funny that “ojala” quite literally came from that term.
I often heard it translated as “as god has wished” from Arabic languages (ma sha allah).
so yeah slay is close enough
For the curious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashallah
Mashallah or Ma Sha Allah or Masha Allah or Ma Shaa Allah (Arabic: مَا شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ, romanized: mā shāʾa -llāhᵘ, lit. ‘‘God has willed it’ or ‘As God has wished’’)[note 1] is an Arabic phrase generally used to positively denote something of greatness or beauty and to express a feeling of awe. It is often used to convey a sense of respect and to protect against the evil eye, suggesting that the speaker is acknowledging something positive without invoking jealousy.
It is a common expression used throughout the Arabic-speaking and Muslim world, as well as among non-Muslim Arabic speakers, especially Arabic-speaking Christians and others who refer to God by the Arabic name Allah.
So basically Deus vult?
In literal terms yes, but it sounds like this is used very differently
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_vult
Deus vult (Latin for ‘God wills it’) is a Christian motto historically tied to ideas of divine providence and individual interpretation of God’s will
[…]
Deus vult has been adopted as a slogan by a variety of Christian right and Christian nationalist groups, as well as alt-right and white supremacist groups. This usage was disseminated widely online, through hashtags and internet memes. Crusader memes (such as an image of a Knight Templar accompanied by the caption “I’ll see your jihad and raise you one crusade”) are popular on far-right internet pages.
I stand corrected and learned something new today. Thank you for this correction!
But in common usage it’s quite different. Like if your friend sends a pretty selfie you’ll be like “mashallah” or if your brother passes their exam, etc. Hence the comparison to “slay”.
Technically,
But not really
Shouldnt have deleted it. Would have been a power play.
Simply having a backbone against any form of oppression is a power play, and very fucking rare
