Arabic الحمد لله | Literal meaning Praise to God | |
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Romanization Al-Ḥamdulillāh, Alḥamdulillāh Similar Mashallah, Takbir, Inshallah | ||
Al-ḥamdu lillāh (Arabic: الحَمْد لله) or alḥamdulillāh, also known as Tahmid is an Arabic phrase meaning "Praise be to God". It is frequently used by Muslims of every background, due to its centrality to the texts of the Quran and the words of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but also spoken by some Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews.
Contents
The meaning and in-depth explanation of the phrase have been the subject of much exegesis.
Meaning
The phrase has three basic parts:
The word "Allah" is itself the fusion of the definite article al (the) and the word ilah (a god, deity). Like in English, the article is used here to single out the noun as being the only one of its kind, "the god" (the one and only) or "God" with a capital G (the concept of capital letters does not exist in Arabic). Therefore, "Allah" is the Arabic word for "God". "ilāh" is the Arabic cognate of the ancient Semitic name for God, El.
The phrase is first found in the second verse of the first sura of the Qur'an (Al-Fatiha). So frequently do Muslims and Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians invoke this phrase that the quadriliteral verb hamdala (حمدل), "to say al-Hamdu li-'llah" was coined, and the derived noun hamdalah (حمدلة) is used as a name for this phrase.
On any occasion and in any situation when Muslims desire to praise God, they may say: Alhamdulillah (الحمد لله).
The triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D (ح م د), meaning "praise," can also be found in the names Muhammad, Mahmud, Hamid and Ahmad.
Translation
English translations of "Alhamdulillah" include: