// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Mashallah say to the potato? You're a-maize-ing?
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.
Etymology
[edit]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
[edit]Mashallah 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 Mashallah 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, Kashmiris, Turks, Kurds, Bosniaks, Azerbaijanis, Somalis, Swahili, Chechens, Avars, Circassians, Bangladeshis, Tatars, Albanians, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Turkmens, Tajiks, Afghans, Pakistanis, and Indian Muslims.[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 Sephardic Jews.[6]
See also
[edit]
General links
[edit]Terms
[edit]Notes
[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 Archived 2021-06-16 at the Wayback Machine 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". Archived from the original on 29 November 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ↑ Naar, Devin E. (2019-01-31). "Sephardic Studies and the boundaries of Jewish Studies: A year in review". jewishstudies.washington.edu.