Inshallah (If Allah Wills)
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Inshallah (also written as in sha' Allah or insha'Allah), in Arabic إن شاء الله, is an Islamic phrase used by Arabic- and non-Arabic-speaking Muslims. The literal meaning of "in sha' Allah" is "if God wills" and Muslims are supposed to say this phrase whenever they express the intent to do something in near or far future.[1]
The phrase in Arabic
With diacritics it is written as:
- إِن شَاءَ اللَّهُ
In the old Qur'anic Uthmani script, the شَاءَ is written with alif maddah:
- إِن شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ
The three words are:
- إِن - in - (a particle) if
- شَاءَ - sha' - (3rd person perfect verb) wills [2]
- اللَّهُ - Allah - (proper noun) God
The three letters in شَاءَ are:
- ش - shin
- ا - alif
- ء - hamza
Hamza is read as a glottal stop (closing the throat), which is indicated by the apostrophe "In sha' Allah".
The root of شَاءَ is شيا.
A common misspelling places in and sha together, so one gets insha. انشاء الله (insha' Allah) means "we created/invented Allah" (insha is from a different root نشا).[3]
Origin
In Ibn Ishaq's sira (biography of Muhammad), we can read that some people were sent to Jewish rabbis, to ask them how to determine whether Muhammad is a real prophet. They prepared 3 questions for Muhammad and said that if he answers them correctly, then he was a prophet. Muhammad replied that he would give them the answers the next day, but after 15 days he was still without any answers. He later explained that this was because he had not said "in sha' Allah":
They came to the apostle and called upon him to answer these questions. He said to them, 'I will give you your answer tomorrow,' but he did not say, 'if God will.' So they went away; and the apostle, so they say, waited for fifteen days without a revelation from God on the matter, nor did Gabriel come to him, so that the people of Mecca began to spread evil reports, saying, 'Muhammad promised us an answer on the morrow, and today is the fifteenth day we have remained without an answer.' This delay caused the apostle great sorrow, until Gabriel brought him the Chapter of The Cave, in which he reproaches him for his sadness, and told him the answers of their questions, the youths, the mighty traveller, and the spirit.
I was told that the apostle said to Gabriel when he came, 'You have shut yourself off from me, Gabriel, so that I became apprehensive'. He answered, 'We descend only by God's command, whose is what lies before us, behind us, and what lies between, and thy Lord does not forget.The last sentence by Gabriel became a verse in the Qur'an:
After 15 days Muhammad revealed vague answers to the questions. The revealed answers seem to be collections of rumors circulating in Arabia at the time and did not answer the two of the three questions posed with any precision. The verses responding to the question on the number of the Sleepers of Ephesus include phrases like "some people say" with a list of different rumors, instead of giving the exact number. In response to the question regarding peoples' souls, the verses simply conclude that "Allah knows best". This verse deals with the number of the sleepers of Ephesus:
Immediately after that verse (18:22), come the verses (18:23-24) about the necessity of saying in sha' Allah:
The third of the responses was a general and, at the time, common formulation of the Alexander Romance. Critics have pointed out that the 15 days between the questions being posed and answered were probably required by Muhammad to prepare his response, however limited.
Relevant Quotations
18:23 And never say of anything, "Indeed, I will do that tomorrow,"
18:24 Except [when adding], "If Allah wills." (أَن يَشَآءَ ٱللَّهُ) And remember your Lord when you forget [it] and say, "Perhaps my Lord will guide me to what is nearer than this to right conduct."See Also
References
- ↑ And never say of anything, "Indeed, I will do that tomorrow," Except [when adding], "If Allah wills." And remember your Lord when you forget [it] and say, "Perhaps my Lord will guide me to what is nearer than this to right conduct." Quran 18:23-24
- ↑ http://corpus.quran.com/wordmorphology.jsp?location=(2:70:15)
- ↑ Insha is used in the Qur'an. For example in 23:78:
- وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنشَأَ لَكُمُ
- It is whe who created (أَنشَأَ) for you