Azeez, Al educator for Pooma Educational Trust
In Islam, Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un (انا لله وانا اليه راجعون) is part of the Quran, Sura Al-Baqara, Verse 156. The full verse is as follows:
الذين اذا اصابتهم مصيبة قالوا انا لله وانا اليه راجعون “Who, when a misfortune overtakes them, say: ‘Surely we belong to Allah and to Him shall we return’.”
This is the phrase that Muslims recite when a person is struck by calamity in life, and is usually recited upon hearing the news of someone’s death. This can also be recited in any situation involving risk of any sort. The phrase is commonly translated as “Verily we belong to God, and to God we return.”
Muslims believe that God is the One who gives and that it is He who takes away; He is testing humankind. Hence, a Muslim submits to God and is grateful and thankful to God for whatever they receive. On the other hand, they are patient and say this expression in times of turmoil and calamity.
Abu Musa al-Ashari reported that the Prophet Muhammad ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, “When a son of a servant of Allah dies, Allah Says to the angels, ‘Have you taken the son of My servant?’ They say, ‘Yes.’ Then Allah Says, ‘Have you taken the fruit of his heart?’ They say, ‘Yes.’ Allah Says, “What has My servant said?’ They say, ‘He has praised You and said, Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un (To Allah we belong and to Him is our return). Then Allah Says, ‘Build a house for My servant in Paradise and call it the house of praise.’ From Tirmidhi, Musnad Ahmad and ibn Habban.
A brief (grammatical) dissection of the phrase, for understanding the words better (and not mixing them up or mispronouncing them):
Inna: Inna is really inna-na. The first part is “verily”, the last part is “we”–but Arabic tends to simplify, so it is written as inna (with only 1 noon and shadda for stress). It means “Indeed, we” or “verily, we”.
Li-llahi: Li is a harfu jarr (preposition) meaning “to” or “is for.” It is used as a kind of possessive case. “a laka akhun” (the la is really the same as li) means “is for you a brother?” or “do you have a brother?” So here, “lillahi” means “belong to God” or “are for God”. (It’s also because of the ‘li’ that ‘allah’ takes kasra.)
Wa: Wa means “and”.
Inna: Same as above.
Ilay-hi: This is two parts, it means “toward him”. Ilay is actually a form of ila (a preposition), which means “to”. A grammatically similar phrase is “thahabtu ila masjidin” — “I went to a masjid”. “Hi” is actually “hu“, the third-person possessive pronoun (”his”). (It takes kasra because of “ila”.) So the overall translation is “toward him”.
Raji3oon: This is a form of raja3a, “return” (the 3 represents the letter ‘ain, which is voiced with a tightened throat). Raji3 is a noun/adjective form, meaning ‘a person who is returning’. The oon at the end makes it plural (so that it refers to 3 or more people). Raji3oon basically means ‘returners’, or better ‘returning ones’.
Taken together, the phrase can be translated as “We indeed belong to God, and we indeed toward him are returning.”
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