A few weeks ago, in a televised debate, US presidential candidate Joe Biden dropped an inshallah bomb. It became a hot topic on Twitter with Arab and Muslim-Americans reacting first with skepticism (Did he really? Yes.), then laughter and glee, and then of course the counter punch of contempt and disdain.
So to recap for those who remain unfamiliar with the word, inshallah means “God willing”. It is probably the most ubiquitous phrase among both Arabic speakers and Muslims, punctuating every third sentence or so. The intention behind the use of the phrase is an enjoinder to remain humble when speaking of the future in any capacity, out of deference to God’s plan, which may differ from the speaker’s and that supersedes her own will.
As noted in this article, the use of the phrase is not always divinely inspired or uttered in a spirit of caution (1). It is often used to avoid an outright refusal to another’s request. Or, as Joe Biden used it, as a tool of sarcasm, like “yeah, right” or “when bats fly out of my ass” or a halal version of “when pigs fly”. So, like many terms in other languages that happen to employ the word “God”, the religious aspect of the phrase is not necessary for its use.
Inshallah has become a loan word in several, non-Islamic, non-Arabic speaking circles (2). It’s a catchy phrase, one whose use may start off as a joke, but eventually becomes a habit. Even if it’s not uttered, you may think “inshallah” at the end of sentence using the future tense. Why? Because “inshallah’s” function is universal. Forget the God part. Inshallah encapsulates uncertainty, a feature of the future that all humans are subject to, god-fearing or not. We know that no statement about the future can be made with complete certainty. There remain, always, the dregs of the unknown in our predictions and expectations. Yet, not all languages allow for the common expression of this uncertainty. In principle, one could punctuate a statement with “I hope”, or “I think” or “Maybe” but the first two impose agency on the speaker, when uncertainty in the future stems mostly from the exogenous. Then, the word “maybe” erases whatever prediction was previously made, as it represents a coin-toss, and therefore contains no useful information.
There is a natural urge to acknowledge uncertainty that is paired with a common desire to be accurate in one’s speech. Individuals generally don’t want to make liars of themselves. Tacking on an “Inshallah” to a prediction rescues us from that possibility. It also, in religious circles, passes the buck onto an unaccountable God, but other powerful forces can easily take the place of the divine. Think the weather, pandemics and natural disasters, all the things that fall into the category of “Force Majeure”. Same same.
So to summarize, inshallah is a trendy buzzword that finds purchase in various individuals’ lexicons simply because there is a hunger to acknowledge and share our awareness of uncertainty in the future. It is, in that sense, no more than the necessary error terms we include in statistics and data analyses, even though it’s not an emotionally neutral term: it usually denotes hope.
As of the time of writing, Joe Biden looks set to win the 2020 presidency, with 6 electoral votes missing. He cannot claim victory just yet and the statistical difference between him and his opponent looks like…error to me. So Joe, and anyone else who’s heart has been stewing in uncertainty the past couple of days, it is the perfect time to let loose another “inshallah”.
- Mehawesh, M. I., & Jaradat, A. A. (2015). Inshallah: Extensive Flouting of Grice’s Maxim of Quality. Asian Social Science, 11(4), 319.
- CLIFT, R., & HELANI, F. (2010). Inshallah: Religious invocations in Arabic topic
transition. Language in Society, 39(3), 357–382.