Insha'Allah
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- Category: Stories and articles
- Created: Friday, 25 December 2009 16:04
- Published: Friday, 25 December 2009 15:55
- Written by Mead Simon, One Baha'i's approach...
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One of my favorite phrases is "Insha'Allah". God willing.
It's very amusing to me when I use that phrase and friends from the middle-east are surprised that I know it. "How do you know that phrase?"
What? You have to be fluent in Arabic to know it? I often want to ask them how they know an English phrase, but that would just seem rude to me.
And really, insha'Allah indicates such wonderful perspective, that everything is always conditional upon God's pleasure. We may make our plans, but God's plans always triumph. Sort of like the old phrase "man proposes, but God disposes".
{josquote}Next time, just tell them that yes, you'll be home by eleven, insha'Allah.{/josquote}There is that wonderful story in the history of the Faith where Mulla Husayn was having tea with the Bab during that first fireside, and wanted to excuse himself saying that he told his companions he would be back for evening prayers. The story in the Dawn-Breakers says, "With extreme courtesy and calm He replied: 'You must surely have made the hour of your return conditional upon the will and pleasure of God. It seems that His will has decreed otherwise. You need have no fear of having broken your pledge.'