Mashallah
Arabic phrase to express appreciation, joy, praise, or thankfulness
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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
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', 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.
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Other uses
Mashallah can be used to congratulate someone. It is a reminder that although the person is being congratulated, ultimately God willed it. 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.
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", along with some Georgians, Armenians, Bosnian Croats, Pontic Greeks (descendants of those that came from the Pontus region), Greek Cypriots, and Sephardic Jews.