Inshallah

The meaning of Inshallah is ‘if God wills it’. Now that’s a word I’ve been hearing since toddlerhood. When I grew big enough to think on my own, I knew that when Uppa said Inshallah in response to one of our requests, he had no intentions of fulfilling it; he just didn’t want to disappoint us with an outright No.

  

Later in college, one of my friends, Abid used to mention Inshallah a lot. Whenever he said it, things worked out just the opposite to our wishes. So, Inshallah started being associated with ‘no chance’ or ‘hell freezing over is likelier’. The word got so unpopular that a few of our non-Muslim friends started referring to it as ‘the I word’.

  

 
I used to poke fun of the word, a lot. That was until 29^th Aug, 2008 happened.
  

Case in point:  17^th Sept, 2007 was Kashi’s birthday. In contrast to our usual low-profile birthdays, this time we had planned a dinner out with our cousins (maternal cousins who were in the UAE at that time). We were all walking to our cars when suddenly Kashi told us that we’d have to take a rain check on the dinner. Another cousin (paternal) was unwell and had called up my brother to take him to the doctor. All of us dispersed saying that the next time we’d have a big bash. Mind you, there were no Inshallahs mentioned. Alas! As tragic and spooky as things got, there was to be no next time.

  

Another case in point: In early 2009, I was window shopping and saw a Premium edition Scrabble set, the kind that we had since our Saudi days.  I knew right then that this was the perfect gift for my father, a Scrabble enthusiast. I also knew that it was not the right time to randomly buy it for Uppa as he wasn’t big on gifts. His 65^th birthday was fast approaching and that seemed like a good time to gift him the prized Scrabble set. Sadly, no Inshallahs occurred in my mind. As things would have been, God never willed for that 65^th birthday to happen.

  

So, no more mocking Inshallah. Now, I am scared about forgetting to say Inshallah when I wish for something. Inshallah, I’ll be more mindful of God’s intentions.

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. ~ C.S. Lewis