Most Moroccans are Muslims, and among very commonly used Arabic phrases with religious tone is the phrase, insha’llah, which means, “God willing.” When I get into a taxi, and tell the drive to go to the train station, he will say, “insha’llah.” I go to a post office and ask how long it might take for my mail to arrive in the U. S., the postal workers says, “14 days, insha’allah.” I make a lunch appointment with a friend and tell him that I will see him tomorrow, he says insha’llah. And so on. We foreigners either take it as a yes or no, and end up being confused and frustrated all at the same time. What do they mean? Yes or no or maybe? What do you mean, God willing?
I took my car – a 1998 Peugeot 406 with 2.0 liter petrol engine (Peugeots are by far easiest to obtain parts or get repairs in Morocco) – to a garage last week. I kept checking back with the garage each day to find out whether they were making any progress. (By the way, I trust this garage and they are quite good auto mechanics. It’s just the way it works with obtaining parts and repairing things that you normally replace in the U. S.) I ask when it is going to be finished. The good natured shop owner answers, “It will be done tomorrow or day after, insha’llah.” And it’s been ten days since I’ve heard that phrase! They tell me that they can’t find the parts they need for my engine, and I ask if they think they will eventually find those parts. They go, “Let’s see tomorrow, my friend, insha’llah.”
Don’t get me wrong. I am in no way criticizing my Moroccan friends and neighbors and car mechanics. It’s just that… Isn’t it just amazing to see the wide variety of social usage for a simple phrase insha’llah? It amazes me. It’s a polite way to say whatever you need to say. Insha’llah reflects the way things go here, a cultural and social reality flowing deeply in the current of the culture, here in Morocco as well as other Muslim nations – and most of non-western countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa for that matter. (I can’t help but think that the western culture in general is the most strange culture in the world.) In these so-called “shame cultures,” saving face and not directly saying no to a friend or neighbor or customer in a direct manner is a normal way of life.
Insha’llah is a perfect way to maneuver your way around socially and relationally in this culture. Some devout Muslims might actually mean it. Others may use it as a cultural expression of saying, “Yes, no, and whatever answer you expect me to say.” It’s a neat thing. But also an annoyance to a foreigner, especially if s/he is from the west. Those of us who were raised or got used to the culture in the west prefer to know when the car will be fixed and how much those parts cost, etc. up front. We prefer things to be straightforward, transparent, open, honest, let your yes be yes, no be no. Those insha’llah responses just feel like… a joke or a lie or something in between. But it also teaches us to relax, go with the flow, and not take things too seriously. It’s a bit difficult thing to do for a type-A person like myself, but I may just get to laugh a bit more, have little more fun, and enjoy life a bit more by living in this way, insha’llah!
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