# الحمد لله (Reply to: How are you?)



## Jessika_00

Hello,

I'm learning the basics of original Arabic,

today I told : Marhaban, kief haalek ?  to somebody, 

and he answered me : Al Hamdoulah


But I can't find the meaning, 

can somebody help me ? 

Thanks, shoekran,

Jessika


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## Josh_

Hello Jessika,

The phrase literally means "praise be to God," but is also used as a response to the question you asked meaning that everything is good (God being the reason why and thus deserving thanks).


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## Whodunit

Josh is completely right. Literally it means "praise be to God" (al-7amdu 'l-llah *الحمد للّه*). Whenever my teachers asks me about my well-being (keef 7aalak/7aaluka? - *كيف حالك*), I respond "il-7amdullah", which should be the pronunciation used in Palestine, if I'm not mistaken.

It might be different in Egypt. 

PS: Jessica, look up 7amd (*حمد*) in a dictionary. A good one should list the complete phrase with its meaning.


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## MarcB

al-7amdu 'l-llah *الحمد للّه *is used everywhere. In colloquial speach there are a few variants everywhere also. So Whodonit's and Jessika's versions are understood everywhere.


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## ayed

If I am not mistaken :

In Egypt, they say :Mash *ماشي*

In Syria ,they say : Meneeh  *منيح*


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## abusaf

I've never heard any Egyptian say Maashi when asked how he is. Everyone says الحمد لله or كويس الحمد لله


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## Whodunit

Doesn't maashii mean something like "okay"?


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## abusaf

Yeah maashiii means like "It works", "No problem", but the closest English equivalant is "alright"

_We'll meet tonight at six o clock
- Maashii.._


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## cherine

Correct, it can mean "ok".



			
				ayed said:
			
		

> If I am not mistaken :
> In Egypt, they say :Mash *ماشي*


You are mistaken, Ayed. No one would ever use mashi as a reply to "ezzayyak/ezzayyek" or "3aamel/3amla eih" (the Egyptian equivalent of "how are you").
There's al Hamdul*i*llah (you all forgot the "i"), also some would say "tamaam", "kowayyes" (usually followed by al Hamdulillah)
Some  Christians say "noshkor rabbena" (we thank our Lord), or "noshkor 'r-rab" (we thank The Lord).


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## Whodunit

cherine said:
			
		

> There's al Hamdul*i*llah (you all forgot the "i")


 
I wouldn't say that the "i" has to be pronounced. To be honest, I have never heard it pronounced with an "i" between the L's. I have a book about colloquial Palestinian Arabic which writes it like "ilhamdillah".


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## cherine

This is true, because the "i" is not clearly pronounced.


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## MarcB

I agree with Cherine the i is often pronounced but not always.


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## elroy

Are you sure your book lists "il7amd*u*llah"?

In Palestinian Arabic, we say either "l7amd*i*lla" (notice that the first "i" is not pronounced) or the MSA version: "al7amdu lillaah."  I've never heard "(i)l7amd*u*lla."

As for "maashi," we also don't use it as a response to "how are you?".  However, we can say "maashi* 'l-7aal*" (is this done in Egypt?).  "Maashi" can only be used to indicate agreement.


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## SofiaB

As Elroy says al7amdu lillaah in all varients from east to west and I have heard many diiferent abreviations from each country but all are easily understood as varients from the original.


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## cherine

elroy said:
			
		

> However, we can say "maashi* 'l-7aal*" (is this done in Egypt?).


Yes, some people can say it. It's like "fine" or "not bad".
Personally, I never use it and it's not very common.
Another variant is "tamaam" تمام which means "very good", and is often followed by الحمد لله


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## Sarahh

Hi 
I just wanted to add...
there are so many ways of replying to that question "how are you?" in arabic.
Just like in english and other languages you have answers such as:

"I'm well"
"great"
"good"

etc..

its the same in arabic. I have met so many arabs and they are all from different countries in the middle east and they all understand each other.

mashi is like "all right" or "not bad" or "okay"
kwayis is "good"
zein is "okay" (iraqis use this mostly)
mneeh (mnee7) "good"

and so on...


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## mansio

By what I have understood "al-7amdu llah(i)" is "praise of God" and "al-7amdu lillah(i)" is "praise (be) to God".

Do people in spoken language say "al-7amdu llah" as a short form of "al-7amdu lillah" ?


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## cherine

Both forms mean praise be to God (Fr: Grâce à Dieu), like a shorter form of (Tout va bien, grâce à Dieu).
In spoken language, people sometimes don't pronounce the (i) of al-7amdul*i*llaah, specially when they speak a bit fast. But both forms as used, and they both mean the same thing.


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## Jessika_00

Thank you so much for sharing your opinions with me, I definitely learned a lot out of it as I thought it was a simple question with a simple answer. I've seen now that there a lot of possibilities and quite big changes in answering, depending of the regions. It made my curiosity to learn the Arabic language even bigger ! 

Thanks x Jessika


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## Abu Bishr

An interesting point concerning the expression الحمد لله [pronounced originally as (al-hamdulillah)] is that in some commentaries of the Quran with reference to this verse, they mention a linguistic phenomenon known as الإتباع (al-itba') - type of vowel or vocalic harmony - which means to make the one consonant follow another in its vowel-marking. Thus, you could make the Dal follow the vowel-marking of the Lam as in (al-hamdilillah) or you could make the Lam follow the vowel-marking of the previous Dal as in (al-hamdulullah), the latter being less common. The main reason for this is the movement from a dammah (u) to that of a kasrah (i) which is deemed somewhat hard to pronounce. Anyhow, it is possible that these two variants could be the precursors of al-hamdillah and al-hamdullah as used in colloquial Arabic today.


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## Witiza

In Morocco people usually say "al-7amdu-llah", nothing else.


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## bearded

I wonder whether an atheist (who wouldn't mention God in his speech) could reply to the question ''how are you?'' in the following way:  _bi-chayr, li Husn al Hadhdh _(well, by the goodness of fortune). Would that be understood in Arab countries, and would the person be looked upon strangely /unfavourably..?


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## I.K.S.

_ li Husn al Had _is not an option here...not a typical idiomatic reply for that.
بخير, في أفضل حال, مليح, لاباس etc.. are pretty common expressions used by the Muslims themselves, taking into account the regional variations and preferences.


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## cherine

Many Egyptian Christians who prefer to avoid Muslim-sounding expression use كويس kowayyes(a) instead of الحمد لله. The more religious ones amongst them use نشكر ربنا neshkor rabbena.

The كويس is (or used to be) considered slightly rude when used by a Muslim, but it's considered fine when non-Muslims use them. So I suggest you go for it when/if in Egypt.
بخير bekheer is another good choice, and I believe it works everywhere.


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## WannaBFluent

الحمد الله is used by many atheists. It's not a big deal to say it and it will be considered nice and friendly.


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## bearded

Many thanks for all you replies and comments concerning my question #22!


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## cherine

You're welcome.

And just a little confirmation regarding Egyptian usage: it seems كويس has become normal for many, and it's even being taught to little children instead of the longer الحمد لله.


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## Mahaodeh

cherine said:


> The كويس is (or used to be) considered slightly rude when used by a Muslim


Interesting! Why would they be rude? 

I understand the point though. In PA and IA I wouldn't say rude, just a little too confident of the speaker. When I hear such an answer (كويس أو منيح أو زين أو أي شيء آخر يعطي نفس المعنى) I would not feel that the speaker is being rude, I just automatically answer with الحمد لله myself (even if the speaker is not Muslim) because the answer seems lacking to me.



cherine said:


> and it's even being taught to little children instead of the longer الحمد لله.



Common sense tells me that the original answer was: كويس الحمد لله and then shortened to only الحمد لله. I'm saying this because the question is "how are you", and "thank God" is not an answer to the question, it's more like a comment on the answer. Due to the use of the phrase, first religiously and then socially, simply saying الحمد لله implies that our answer was positive*. It's like answering with الحمد لله to things like: صمت اليوم؟ or نجحت بالامتحان؟ or شبعت؟. This implied use is similar to the implied use of إن شاء الله in answering questions regarding the future like رح تيجي بكرة؟ or رح تشتري سيارة؟.

My point is, answers such as كويس أو منيح أو زين are probably the correct answers that are sometimes omitted in speech because they are understood from the context. I don't see them as a replacement to الحمد لله.


* Unless of course it was الحمد لله الذي لا يحمد على مكروه سواه or الحمد لله على كل حال .


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## jack_1313

There's been a few times in the Levant that I've given responses like تمام or كويس or كل شيء على ما يرام, only to have the person asking then tell me that I should instead say الحمد لله. Now, I found _that_ to be very rude and presumptuous, and I hear that it's a more common issue for locals who don't like using the religious version (i.e. Arab atheists and agnostics, though of course many such people have no qualms about using day-to-day religious expressions like الحمد لله and إن شاء الله).


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## Mahaodeh

jack_1313 said:


> There's been a few times in the Levant that I've given responses like تمام or كويس or كل شيء على ما يرام, only to have the person asking then tell me that I should instead say الحمد لله.


I'm assuming here that what people say is قول الحمد لله.

I don't think they mean to say الحمد لله _instead_ _of_ كويس; I believe they are suggesting that you follow-up with الحمد لله or expressing that they hope you are always كويس (see below).



jack_1313 said:


> Now, I found _that_ to be very rude and presumptuous,



I wouldn't take it personally if I were you. They* probably have no intention of enforcing a belief system upon you or even assuming that you follow one, it's just that most people believe that if you don't say الحمد لله you jinx it somehow, the same goes to إن شاء الله. I understand that it comes from a religious belief, but it's so widespread that it has become cultural, a considerable number of people automatically say something like قول الحمد لله أو قول إن شاء لله أو احمد ربك الخ and it's more to express that 'they hope it stays the same' rather than actually meaning that you should say it. It's sort of like in English some _used_** to say 'touch wood', they don't really want you to actually find a piece of wood and touch it though!

If you don't want to actually say الحمد لله, then when someone says قول الحمد لله, just nod or say آه طبعا or something like that.



jack_1313 said:


> i.e. Arab atheists and agnostics,



I can't speak for them, because in the Arab world people are not so keen on mentioning that they are atheists or agnostics. I've personally never come across anyone who said it out loud. Hence, I wouldn't know how they feel about it.

*Of course I don't know who _they_ are, I'm just giving you the most likely line of thought based on how well I know the culture.
**I say_ used to_ because I haven't really heard it in quite a while.


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## cherine

Mahaodeh said:


> Interesting! Why would they be rude?


Maybe rude is not the best adjective, but I remember being taught to always say الحمد لله and that it's not right to give a short/curt كويس. But that was a very long time ago, and apparently things have changed now. We get to hear different replies الحمد لله، تمام الحمد لله، كويس الحمد لله and just تمام and كويس.


jack_1313 said:


> There's been a few times in the Levant that I've given responses like تمام or كويس or كل شيء على ما يرام, only to have the person asking then tell me that I should instead say الحمد لله. Now, I found _that_ to be very rude and presumptuous, and I hear that it's a more common issue for locals who don't like using the religious version (i.e. Arab atheists and agnostics, though of course many such people have no qualms about using day-to-day religious expressions like الحمد لله and إن شاء الله).


Most such people do not advertise their belief or lack thereof to everyone  so they shouldn't be offended when asked to used religious expressions. And yes, as you noted, most such expressions are more cultural than religious, and people use them without really thinking their meaning. Most people use إن شاء الله as a simple future tense indicator (some even use it for "yes", like عندك كذا؟ and the answer is إن شاء الله which is a very weird answer, but it doesn't seem to bother those who use it). So you don't need to take it litterally yourself or be offended by its use or the requests from anyone to use it.



Mahaodeh said:


> I can't speak for them, because in the Arab world people are not so keen on mentioning that they are atheists or agnostics. I've personally never come across anyone who said it out loud. Hence, I wouldn't know how they feel about it.


I've had a couple of colleagues who were either atheists or agnostics, but they wouldn't say it so directly. They'd say things like "I don't believe in such things" when there's mentioning of religion-related topics, or if they're comfortable around others they'd laugh at any religion-related thing (stories of prophets, either from the Qur'an or the Bible), prayer (I heard of one of our colleagues who said أنا مش باصلي ومش باحب اللي بيصلوا)...
Those people would use الحمد لله and إن شاء الله from time to time, not because they suddenly became believers, but because that's what people say (a cultural and linguistic thing).

P.S. Just today a Christian woman answered my إزيك with an الحمد لله. Another colleague greeted me شيرين، إزيك؟ and I replied with an إزيك يا فلانة and, influenced by this thread , I realized how I instinctively replied and thought I'd add this to the thread as a possible reply.


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## jack_1313

Mahaodeh said:


> I believe they are suggesting that you follow-up with الحمد لله


To me, there's no real difference between suggesting that someone should say الحمد لله instead of their response and suggestion that they should add it.



> or expressing that they hope you are always كويس (see below) ... it's more to express that 'they hope it stays the same' rather than actually meaning that you should say it


If that was the intent, then I most definitely misunderstood and misjudged those people and I take it all back!  However, today I asked some friends here in Jordan about this scenario, specifically using the phrase قل (قول) الحمد لله, and they didn't give this interpretation. Rather, they understood the intent the way I did, namely that the person is suggesting that respondent should express their gratitude to God for their good fortune. One (an atheist) even commented that "هاذ بشبه لما أحكي لحدا "مرحبا" وهو برد ب"وعليكم السلام. I think this notion is reflected by Cherine's comment:



cherine said:


> but I remember being taught to always say الحمد لله and that it's not right to give a short/curt كويس.


Why would it be "not right" to take the shortcut? Obviously, because it neglects the praising of God.



> I can't speak for them, because in the Arab world people are not so keen on mentioning that they are atheists or agnostics. I've personally never come across anyone who said it out loud. Hence, I wouldn't know how they feel about it.


I think people are more open with me about these things because I'm a foreigner from a secular country and an obvious proponent of individual freedoms. I've been in Amman for two years and I know half a dozen Arab atheists and agnostics in this city, not counting the multitude of people who don't seem religious but haven't specifically told me so (and I don't frequent places that atheists might be expected to congregate, like bars). All but one of these atheists and agnostics are not open with their families about it. One had actually complained to me about some of the reactions he gets when he avoids using religious expressions, mentioning الحمد لله in particular - namely inquiries about whether he really is fine and whether he is praying enough and so forth. He is the person I was referring to with my comment that "I hear that it's a more common issue for locals who don't like using the religious version".



> Most such people do not advertise their belief or lack thereof to everyone  so they shouldn't be offended when asked to used religious expressions. And yes, as you noted, most such expressions are more cultural than religious, and people use them without really thinking their meaning ... So you don't need to take it litterally yourself or be offended by its use or the requests from anyone to use it.


Disregarding the religious dimension of the issue, I just think that it's a bit rude to ask someone a question and then tell them how they should respond (unless, as Maha mentioned, the intended message is actually to express a hope that the person remains well), or in general to tell people how they should speak. And of course, if a person is specifically insisting that you say الحمد لله, that insistence in and of itself fully restores the religious dimension of the expression because - if the intent isn't what Maha stated - the reason for it is fundamentally religious (you should remember to thank God). Of course, it could just be that I'm a delicate little butterfly injured by the slightest perceived transgression 



> I wonder whether an atheist (who wouldn't mention God in his speech) could reply to the question ''how are you?'' in the following way: _bi-chayr, li Husn al Hadhdh_


That seems like a bad idea. It makes sense, but it seems like a really obvious effort to substitute a religious phrase with a secular alternative, which is likely to rub people up the wrong way in the Middle East. As is evident from this thread, there are a range of secular, commonly used alternatives that won't offend.


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