Alhamdulillah (الحمد لله) means "Praise to God"
in Arabic, similar to the Hebrew Halelu Yah. In everyday speech
it simply means "Thank God!"
The phrase is first found in the second verse of the first surah
of the Qur'an. 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.
In Islam, Alhamdulillah is used in the following situations:
After sneezing.
Alhamdu lillahi
All thanks and praise be to Allah.
Waking up.
Alhamdulillah-hillathee ah-yana ba'da ma ama tana wa ilayhi
nushoor.
Many thanks to Allah who has given us life after having giving
us death (sleep) and that our final return (on the Day of
Qiyaamah End of the world) is to Him.
The triconsonantal root H-m-d (ح م د), meaning "praise," can
also be found in the names Muhammad, Mahmud, and Ahmad. Allah,
"God", is the Arabic cognate of the ancient Semitic name for
God, El. |
