Mashallah

Mashallah or Ma Sha Allah or Masha Allah or Ma Shaaa Allah(Arabic: مَا شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ, romanized: mā shāʾa -llāhu)[note 1] is an Arabic phrase that means, in its literal sense, that 'Allah has willed it [has happened].' It is used to express a feeling of awe or beauty regarding an event or person that was just mentioned. It is a common expression used throughout Arabic-speaking and Muslim world, as well as among non-Muslim Arabic speakers, Arabic-speaking Christians, and other Arabic-speaking communities of Abrahamic religions.

For other uses, see Mashallah (disambiguation).
Mashallah in Arabic calligraphy

Etymology

The triconsonantal root of shāʾ is šīn-yāʼ-hamza 'to will', a doubly-weak root. The literal English translation of Mashallah is 'God has willed it',[1] the present perfect of God's will accentuating the essential Islamic doctrine of predestination.

The literal meaning of Mashallah is "God has willed it", in the sense of "what God has willed has happened"; it is used to say something good has happened, used in the past tense. Inshallah, literally 'if God has willed', is used similarly but to refer to a future event.

Other uses

"Masha Allah" can be used to congratulate someone.[2] It is a reminder that although the person is being congratulated, ultimately God willed it.[3] In some cultures, people may utter Masha Allah in the belief that it may help protect them from jealousy, the evil eye or a jinn. The phrase has also found its way into the colloquial language of many non-Arab languages with predominantly Muslim speakers, including Indonesians, Malaysians, Persians, Turks, Kurds, Bosniaks, Azerbaijanis, Somalis, Chechens, Avars, Circassians, Bangladeshis, Tatars, Albanians, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Turkmens, Tajiks, Afghans, Pakistanis, and others.

It is also used by some Christians and others in areas which were ruled by the Ottoman Empire: Serbs, Christian Albanians, Bulgarians and Macedonians say "машала" ("mašala"), often in the sense of "a job well done";[4] also some Georgians, Armenians, Bosnian Croats, Pontic Greeks (descendants of those that came from the Pontus region), Cypriot Greeks[5] and Sephardi Jews.[6]

See also

Notes
  1. also written Masha'Allah, Maşaallah (Turkey and Azerbaijan), Masya Allah (Malaysia and Indonesia) and Mašala (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

References
  1. MashAllah meaning Islamic-dictionary.com
  2. Bhala, Raj (24 May 2011). Understanding Islamic Law. LexisNexis. p. 1143. ISBN 9781579110420.
  3. Al Subaihi, Thamer (22 May 2013). "Mashallah: what it means, when to say it and why you should". Thenational.ae. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  4. Karadžić, Vuk (1818). Lexicon serbico-germanico-latinum. Gedruckt bei den P.P. Armeniern.
  5. "μάσιαλλα". Wikipriaka.com.
  6. Naar, Devin E. (2019-01-31). "Sephardic Studies and the boundaries of Jewish Studies: A year in review". jewishstudies.washington.edu.
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