''Alhamdulillah'' ( ar, ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّٰهِ, ') is an Arabic phrase meaning "praise be to

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

", sometimes translated as "thank God". This phrase is called ''Tahmid'' ( ar, تَحْمِيد, lit=Praising, link=no). A longer variant of the phrase is '' al-ḥamdu l-illāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn'' (), meaning "all praise is due to God, Lord of all the worlds", second verse of Surah Fatihah. The phrase is frequently used by Muslims of every background due to its centrality in the texts of the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

and

Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

, the words of the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

. Its meaning and in-depth explanation have been the subject of much

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...

. It is also commonly used by non-Muslim speakers of the Arabic language.

Meaning

The phrase has three basic parts: *'' al-'', the definite article, "the". *''ḥamd''(''u''), literally meaning "praise", "commendation". *''li-llāh''(''i''), preposition +

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, ...

''Allāh''. ''Li-'' is a dative preposition meaning "to". The word '' Allāh'' ( ar, ٱللَّٰه) means "The God", and it is a contraction of the definite article ''al-'' and the word ''

ʾilāh ' ( ar, إله; plural: ') is an Arabic term meaning "god". In Arabic, ilah refers to anyone or anything that is worshipped. The feminine is ' (, meaning "goddess"); with the article, it appears as ' (). The Arabic word for God (') is thought ...

'' ( ar, إِلَٰه, link=no, "god, deity"). As in English, the article is used here to single out the noun as being the only one of its kind, "the God" (the one and only) or "God". Therefore, ''Allāh'' is the Arabic word for "God". ''ʾilāh'' is the Arabic cognate of the ancient Semitic name for God, El. The phrase is first found in the second verse of the first sura of the Qur'an ( Al-Fatiha). So frequently do Muslims and Arabic-speaking

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

invoke this phrase that the quadriliteral verb ''hamdala'' ( ar, حَمْدَلَ, link=no), "to say al-ḥamdu li-llāh" was coined, and the derived noun ''ḥamdala'' is used as a name for this phrase. The triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D ( ar, ح م د, link=no), meaning "praise", can also be found in the names

Mahmud Mahmud is a transliteration of the male Arabic given name (), common in most parts of the Islamic world. It comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D, meaning ''praise'', along with ''Muhammad''. Siam Mahmud *Mahmood (singer) (born 1 ...

Hamid Hamid refers to two different but related Arabic given names, both of which come from the Arabic triconsonantal root of Ḥ-M-D (ِِح-م-د): # (Arabic: حَامِد ''ḥāmid'') also spelled Haamed, Hamid or Hamed, and in Turkish Hamit; it ...

and

Ahmad Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

, among others.

Translation

English translations of ''alhamdulillah'' include: * "all praise is due to God alone" (

Muhammad Asad Muhammad Asad, ( ar, محمد أسد , ur, , born Leopold Weiss; 2 July 1900 – 20 February 1992) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Pakistani journalist, traveler, writer, linguist, political theorist and diplomat. He was a Jew but, later conve ...

) * "all the praises and thanks be to God" (

Muhammad Muhsin Khan Muhammad Muhsin Khan (Pashto/Dari/Arabic: ; 1927 – 14 July 2021) was an Islamic scholar and translator of Afghan origin, who lived in Madinah and served as the Chief of Department of Chest Diseases at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and ...

) * "praise be to God" (

Abdullah Yusuf Ali Abdullah Yusuf Ali, CBE, MA, LL.M, FRSA, FRSL (; ur, عبداللہ یوسف علی‎; 14 April 1872 – 10 December 1953) was an Indian-British barrister who wrote a number of books about Islam including an exegesis of the Qur'an. A sup ...

Marmaduke Pickthall Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (born Marmaduke William Pickthall; 7 April 187519 May 1936) was an English Islamic scholar noted for his 1930 English translation of the Quran, called ''The Meaning of the Glorious Koran''. His translation of the Qur ...

) * "all praise is due to God" (

Saheeh International The Saheeh International translation is an English-language translation of the Quran that has been used by Islam's most conservative adherents. Published by the Publishing House (dar), ''dar Abul Qasim'', Saudi Arabia, it is one of the world's mos ...

) *“All perfect praises belong to the Almighty alone.” ( A. R. Rahman)

Variants

Various Islamic phrases include the Tahmid, most commonly:

Use in other historical sources

Jabir bin `Abdullah (ra) narrated that : the Messenger of God (ﷺ) said: “The best remembrance is: ‘there is none worthy of worship except Allah (Lā ilāha illallāh)’ and the best supplication is: ‘All praise is due to Allah (Al-ḥamdulillāh).’” t-Tirmidhi''. Abu Hurairah reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Any matter of importance which is not begun with Al-hamdu lillah (praise be to Allah) remains defective." bu Dawud''. Anas bin Malik ؓ reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Allah is pleased with His slave who says: 'Al-hamdu lillah (praise be to Allah)' when he takes a morsel of food and drinks a draught of water." uslim''.

References

External links