Is it offensive to say inshallah?

[Loulou599]

I think it's a really beautiful sound and is more wistful than saying touch wood or god willing, but would it be offensive (if you're not muslim)?

@Iinventedmckenzie
I'm French and I don't find it weird in the slightest, I've lived in the UK a long time and it makes sense: enjoy your food is so basic and almost animal like. Bon appétit is somehow more beautiful, and that's how I feel about inshallah too.
BTW in France a lot of people say things like let's go or on y go, or "oh my god" and I do get the cringe in reverse, so maybe its a "one of your own doing it" thing. Recently in Paris I heard a young bobo woman talking about "mon baby" which is just.....shudders

I’m not sure I know many people who don’t know what it means, but yes, I wouldn’t use it in that case.

Same as I wouldn’t use certain Latin phrases when talking to certain people.

We all adjust our vocabulary according to who we’re speaking to (a young child, a priest, our boss, our best mate)

bon chance

Or your culture. I'd find it a bit odd if someone I knew who wasn't Arabic speaking suddenly started using it. As someone else said, is she using other languages? As language teachers, my department all swap between the languages we speak as natives/in our teaching when speaking to each other but I wouldn't use a language we don't teach/speak, although I use the occasional word to students I know speak a different language at home eg thanks, hi etc.

I was raised Muslim and don't find it offensive. It's a phrase of hope (and also sometimes tongue in cheek. Like mum asks dad to do something he doesn't fancy doing and he says insha'Allah. Meaning if God doesn't will it, it probably won't happen).

I would actually love it to become more mainstream as it really gets the sentiment across.

My Foster son belongs to a cricket club that has a lot of Muslim players. They have a WhatsApp group which I am on too as I often give a lift to a few players. I see this phrase come up a lot and I've seen my Foster son puts it too sometimes and no one seems offended.

I lived in Paris for a bit and definitely heard things like "oh my god". That didn't bother me, but I'm not native French, so you might be on to something about it being someone whose first language is the same as your own doing it!

It isn't a major problem or anything. I don't get angry if I hear it.

I worked in restaurants for a long time and never said it (in the UK anyway). I think I said "enjoy" or "enjoy your meal".

I agree that was a disingenuous answer.

"As someone else said, is she using other languages?"

Of course she does. We all use expressions from other languages. That's how languages work, which you must know as a language teacher.

Don't go around just dropping random words from other languages into your everyday conversation if you don't actually speak the language. It's weird.

The English language is chock full of foreign words and new words are added to the Oxford English dictionary all the time. Languages are not static.

Mange tout Rodney!

In the middle east everyone uses it as a caveat to the fact they probably won't bother doing what they promised.

But Bon Appetit is a far nicer way to start a meal with friends, than the rather American “enjoy”

Are you a West Londoner? Everyone here, whether Muslim or otherwise, seems to have adopted ‘Inshallah’ in lieu of ‘God willing’, because the latter term doesn’t quite convey the same sense of reflection, resignation, and humility in the face of the great unknown. We have all sorts of linguistic borrowing in English, and if they don’t offend native speakers and are more precise, why shouldn’t they be used?

It is no more a "religious saying" than "God willing" (which is what it means in Arabic) or "Bless you" or any of the other phrases routinely used in English by people who may or may not have faith. I can't see any of those things being offensive. I know plenty of people of Asian heritage who say it but wouldn't be practicing Muslims.

Of course it is offensive.

Even you politely asking is offensive.

Everything is offensive these days.

Including this post, I imagine.

To you that may be true. Doesn't make it true for me

I say it a fair bit to my Muslim friends and they find it amusing; even a bit endearing!

What a conveniently timed and topical subject for a thread OP 🙄

It’s an Arabic phrase, not a Muslim one

It literally means God Willing, but is used very generally in conversation to mean with any luck / hopefully and is also used as a placater when something isn’t likely to happen in the timeframe the other person wants it to

I can’t see any issues with using it - we borrow a lot of phrases from different languages and you hear English phrases used in non-English speaking countries all the time

It’s fine

Alan Partridge? Cannot recall any scene where AP uses a foreign word out of context.

More Del Boy than Partridge.

Interesting point of note about Kosher, but then again some Hebrew or even Yiddish words have long been assimilated into the English dialect, there are a few I can think of. Jewish culture has been a part of British society for centuries. I wonder at what point it becomes ok to use words from other religious traditions than your own?

It’s religious, but also part of the vernacular in many countries where Islam is, or has been, dominant. Similar to how you don’t have to be Christian to say ‘oh my god’ (technically it’s the same god in all three Abrahamic religions, but you know what I mean).

It’s translation is commonly used in my home country and the surrounding ones, despite them being nominally Christian. So no, you don’t have to be Muslim, or even religious at all, to use it.

C'est la vie

It’s important to spell things correctly if you do use them. It’s “Bonne chance” because “chance” is feminine.