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.
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.