Mashallah or Ma Sha Allah or Masha Allah or Ma Shaa Allah (Arabic: مَا شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ, romanized: mā shāʾa -llāhᵘ)[note 1] is an Arabic phrase that literally translates to 'God has willed it', implying that something has happened, generally used to positively denote something of greatness or beauty. 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 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.
Etymology
editThe 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
edit"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, Swahili, Chechens, Avars, Circassians, Bangladeshis, Tatars, Albanians, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Turkmens, Tajiks, Afghans, Pakistanis.[citation needed]
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] along with some Georgians, Armenians, Bosnian Croats, Pontic Greeks (descendants of those that came from the Pontus region), Greek Cypriots[5] and Sephardi Jews.[6]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ also written Masha'Allah, Maşaallah (Turkey and Azerbaijan), Masya Allah (Malaysia and Indonesia) Mašala (Bosnia and Herzegovina), "Maşeła", "Maşella" (Kurdistan)
References
edit- ^ MashAllah meaning Islamic-dictionary.com
- ^ Bhala, Raj (24 May 2011). Understanding Islamic Law. LexisNexis. p. 1143. ISBN 9781579110420.
- ^ Al Subaihi, Thamer (22 May 2013). "Mashallah: what it means, when to say it and why you should". Thenational.ae. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ Karadžić, Vuk (1818). Lexicon serbico-germanico-latinum. Gedruckt bei den P.P. Armeniern.
- ^ μάσιαλλα at the Wayback Machine (archived 29 November 2022)
- ^ Naar, Devin E. (2019-01-31). "Sephardic Studies and the boundaries of Jewish Studies: A year in review". jewishstudies.washington.edu.