Insha'allah

If I ever write an anthropology paper or book about Qatar and the Gulf, its going to be called simply "Insha'allah."

Literally, insha'allah means "God willing" or "if God intends it." Basically, any time Westerners say the word "hopefully," someone in the Gulf could substitute "Insha'allah." The origin comes from the belief in Islam that God controls all aspects of our everyday life. Not only an all-powerful God but an extremely involved one as well.

Here are some common examples:

It can mean that another person will try to keep a commitment, but something could come up (a family situation, traffic, etc.) that will keep them from it. For example, when I say "let's meet tomorrow at 2:00pm," a student is very likely to respond "Insha'allah" - which means "probably I'll be here, unless something else happens."

Or it could indicate desire with doubt, for example the management at my compound once told me, "the part to fix your air conditioner will be here by the end of the week insha'allah." Yeah, my AC wasn't going to be working anytime within the next month, and we all knew it.

It can also indicate desire with uncertainty, for example I could also say "I will return to India one day insha'allah." I personally think this is the best use of the phrase, because it doesn't frustrate me so much as the others.

Not surprisingly, the excessive use of "insha'allah" frustrates Westerners because we come from a culture in which structuring our time and actions is just what we do. The structure is an effective stress-relief mechanism in the West. In Islam, the ultimate faith in God is the stress management mechanism, and so structure is unnecessary.

More surprisingly, I know many very pious Muslims who also get frustrated by the excessive use of "insha'allah." In my first example, in their minds, it is acceptable to use it if you think that you may miss your meeting because a family member is seriously ill, but unacceptable if you simply think that there might be more traffic than you accounted for. This comes from a belief among more devout Muslims that you should only use God's name when it is truly something that is in His hands, not when you are trying only to avoid responsibility for a situation.

Anyway, I mostly put this concept out there because I often find myself wanting to type "insha'allah" in my blog posts, but not being able to because I haven't explained what it means.