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

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

", 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

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s of every background due to its centrality in the texts of the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical 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 in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

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 approval ...

, the words of the

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God in Islam, God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. So ...

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

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

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

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

Meaning

The phrase has three basic parts: *''

al- ( ar, ٱلْـ), also Romanized as ''el-'', ''il-,'' and ''l-'' as pronounced in some varieties of Arabic, is the definite article in the Arabic language: a particle (''ḥarf'') whose function is to render the noun on which it is prefixed de ...

'', the definite article, "the". *''ḥamd''(''u''), literally meaning "praise", "commendation". *''li-llāh''(''i''),

preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

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, d ...

''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 In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...

of the ancient Semitic name for God, El. The phrase is first found in the second verse of the first

sura A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...

of the Qur'an (

Al-Fatiha Al-Fatiha (alternatively transliterated Al-Fātiḥa or Al-Fātiḥah; ar, ألْفَاتِحَة, ; ), is the first ''surah'' (chapter) of the Quran. It consists of 7 '' ayah'' (verses) which are a prayer for guidance and mercy. Al-Fatiha i ...

). 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'' (Χρι ...

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, he, ח-מ-ד) is the triconsonantal root of many Arabic and some Hebrew words. Many of those words are used as names. The basic meaning expressed by the root is "to praise" in Arabic and "to desire" in Hebrew.'' A Concise Hebrew a ...

( 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 Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

)

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