Hope you all are
having a lovely weekend! S is visited me this weekend, and he’s been the best
study buddy. Before I head to school, I just wanted to share a song that S played
this weekend called Insha Allah by Sting,
and I figured that I would give a bit of background on what insha allah means too!
Sting recently
released Insh allah as a way to honor Syrian refugees and remember those lost at
sea during the treacherous voyage across the Mediterranean. There were
decidedly mixed reactions to him singing this song at the Bataclan last month,
where he reopened the concert hall almost a year after it was one of the
targets of the Paris attacks. I personally appreciate his motivation to elicit
a more comprehensive sense of morality by discerning between terrorists and
refugees. Plus, his performance connected the victims of the Paris attacks to
the Syrian victims who also suffered from ISIS’ influence. In a city that’s
still undoubtedly traumatized by those attacks, it’s difficult to distinguish
between criticism is sympathetic to that trauma and criticism that is
islamophobic.
Anyway, thanks to this
beautiful song, Sting is raising awareness to the plight of Syrian refugees and
keeping people conscious of the regime-sponsored horrors that continue. Feel
free to follow my twitter account if you’d also like to stay updated on current
events in Syria.
The phrase insha allah is a great one because it is
very versatile with several meanings. Insha
allah literally means “God’s will,” and is used as a response to a lot of
conversation and questions. I’ve heard it used in response to questions like
“Will you do this?” or “Will you come to that?” In my experience, when some
people use insha allah, it may have a
connotation of wanting to do that thing or to go there, but not being 100%
committed yet. It could also mean that the person wants to do that thing or go
to that place, and very well intends to, but life is never certain so you never
know what might or might not happen.
Insha allah could also be used when someone is talking about a future goal or
something that they really want. In that case, when someone talks about their
hopes, a friend might respond by saying insha
allah to mean that hopefully it’s the will of God and that it’s meant to
happen.
So what does Sting
mean by saying insha allah in his
song? I think he means to do several things. He wants to evoke the Syrian
people’s amazing resilience by nodding to their ability to have so much faith
and hope. He also may want to evoke the first meaning of insha allah I mentioned, which always considers how life can be
precarious and fragile.
Listen to the song and
see what you think!
