IBM – ‘Insha’llah, ‘Bukra,’ & ‘Ma’lesh’ (“God willing,” “Tomorrow,” & “No Matter”) – Misconceptions about these Three Arabic Words
By John Mason/Arab America Contributing Writer
When my family and I arrived in Cairo, my new American colleagues at the university where I’d be teaching were tossing about the acronym ‘IBM,’ as if it were a bromide all their ills of living in a new, different cultural environment. Besides denoting the acronym of the behemoth, International Business Machines, for these Americans it had a slightly pejorative connotation. To them, IBM denoted the three words, Insha’llah, ‘Bukra,’ and ‘Ma’lesh,’ which roughly translate, respectively, as “God willing,” “tomorrow” and “no matter.” In concert, these three concepts captured most of their frustrations of living in a new culture in which the daily rhythm of life contrasted starkly with what they were used to back home. Even when used lightheartedly, the Americans were expressing their difficulties of working, living and basically getting things done in Egypt.
IBM, the company, and the acronym on which Insha’llah, ‘Bukra,’ and ‘Ma’lesh are based
Use of the Term, Insha’llah
The ‘I’ of IBM thus stood for insha’llah, in Arabic, إن شاء الله. It’s an expression for “God willing” or “if God wills”. The phrase is commonly used by Muslims in general but also Christian Arabs to express an intention or a hope, something one believes may occur in the future. The religious idea behind it is that everything a person does is based on the belief that nothing will happen unless it is willed by Allah. God’s will, thus transcends human will.
Arabic script for Insha’llah
The use of insha’llah, when spoken in common parlance, can express the belief that nothing happens unless God wills it. In this sense, if nothing indeed happens, then the individual uttering it can hypothetically avoid responsibility. But it is also a social convention which may not involve much forethought, as when English speakers in ending a conversation might say, “we’ll talk soon” or I’ll see you soon,” but with little specificity about when that might be, if at all. When used excessively, insha’llah can be interpreted as someone shirking her or his responsibility.
When it comes to Egyptian government services, such as getting a driving license or a passport, you hear the use of insha’llah all day long. This is because the bureaucracy, which has traditionally been overridden by underemployed, underpaid staff, has seen itself as the arbiter of services the public depends on. Often a bureaucrat would expect bakshish or a relatively small amount of money given for services rendered, as by a carpark attendant or tipping a waiter. (The Government of Egypt has more recently introduced the practice of ‘portals’ or ‘one-stop-shops’ to reduce the bureaucracy of providing services and thus expedite and make more transparent its and the public’s business.) When we lived in Cairo, Egyptians might spend hours waiting for government approval for this request or that, usually at the Mogamma, the monumental edifice just off the central, Tahrir Square. It is jammed with hundreds of offices on several floors. There, an individual’s day might be spent moving from one office to the next, upstairs and downstairs, for hours on end, just to get a simple piece of paper. No wonder there were reports of suicides at the Mogamma, which because of its height, served as a jumping off point for desperate souls.
Cairo’s Mogamma, the government admin building for many services such as passports, business licenses, has been rumored to be closing
“Trust in Allah, but Tie your Camel”
This phrase, Trust in Allah, but tie your camel, from the reported sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, has become an Arab proverb. It teaches that one’s trust in some higher source must be accompanied by individual diligence. The incident that sparked the Prophet’s words is the following:“…one day Mohammed noticed a Bedouin leaving his camel without tying it. He asked the Bedouin, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?” The Bedouin answered, “I placed my trust in Allah.” At that, Mohammed said, “Tie your camel and place your trust in Allah.”
This parable teaches that one’s trust in some higher source must be accompanied by individual diligence
This phrase is equivalent to the English, “God helps those who help themselves,” which underscores the importance of self-initiative or self-help.
In any case, my American colleagues meant no offense in their use of the IBM acronym. Rather, they used it as a colloquialism that captured some of their frustrations of living in a culture very different from their own. In that sense, they did not have any deep understanding of the significance of the words themselves comprising IBM.
Use of the Term Bukra
Bukra, in Arabic, بكرة, is just a bit ‘easier’ to grasp than either insha’llah or ma’lesh. It is used in some ways like the Spanish mañana, that is, as in an event “in the future” but not necessarily the very next day. It denotes that a task, for example, will be finished “later, not now, and probably not the next day.” In this sense bukra is often elided with insha’llah, as in the commonly used phrase, bukra insha’llah. For some foreigners, this may translate as, “oh, jeez, when will it ever happen!”
There is an Arabic proverb that expresses another usage of Bukra. ‘Bukra f’il mish-mish’ is an Arabic idiom and proverb meaning “[you can have] apricots tomorrow.” Its colloquial meaning is that “it will never happen.” Literally, apricots bloom so quickly that the fruit is only really tasty after it’s immediately picked; the day after, it turns mushy and grainy. The saying is comparable in English to “when pigs fly.” Bukra f’il mish-mish, implies, then, “let it go, it’s not going to happen.”
Use of the Term Ma’lesh
The Arabic word ma’lesh, معلش, in its colloquial usage, shares some of the issues as its cousin, insha’llah. It can be used in the sense of “no matter,” “never mind” – but it can also imply a certain sense of slackness, that someone hasn’t tried hard enough. In its social sense, ma’lesh is used as a word of encouragement or comfort when something has not quite worked out for someone. Or it may be used to console someone, as in “forgive me.” In its deepest religious sense, as I understand it, the response ma’lesh implies that, “I have diligently tried to accomplish an activity but ultimately its success rests in the hands of Allah” or “I have done everything I can to complete an act, but now it’s in God’s hands.”
Illustrative of the use of ma’lesh occurred once while I was taking a very crowded bus, a so-called express, from downtown Cairo to the island of Zamalak. It was a very warm, humid summer day, with practically no movement of air. A passenger had apparently snuck on without paying his/her fare, driving the bus driver into a state of rage. The driver tried to come back through the bus to find the culprit, but it was so glutted with passengers, he couldn’t budge. Some of the passengers began to complain loudly that the driver needed to get back in his seat and drive the bus, at least to get some air moving through the open windows and avoid possible suffocation. Getting to where we were going, at this point, seemed secondary.
Typical Cairo bus of bygone days, where the author heard for the first time, use of the phrase, “no ma’lesh!”
In any case, a woman passenger tried to calm her irate fellow passengers by saying the situation was no one’s fault, ma’lesh. A nearby passenger, a middle-aged man, replied in an angry, harsh tone, “maafi ma’lesh—meaning “no or not ma’lesh!” I’d never heard that phrase before—how could there be “no ma’lesh? This told me that the use of the term was being employed in very different ways by the two passengers. The first was attempting to use it to console, to lower the level of anger, while the second was using it by negating it to express blame, to say the situation could have been avoided (he didn’t say how). When the angry one said, “no ma’lesh,” passengers around him, including myself, smiled, chuckled, since to negate the possibility of the word itself seemed to turn things on their head. If there was no ma’lesh, there’d be no recognition that Allah has dominion over everything, no forgiveness, no consoling. In the end, the ‘cheater’ got his/her ‘free ride,’ which in its own way, I guess, turned out to be the “Will of Allah.”
IBM turned out to be a gloss for how foreigners could construct their sense of the reality of life in Egypt. While that construct, in my eyes, was demeaning, it did allow them to cope in their own way. More time in-country, more cultural learning and perhaps more effort to learn Arabic could enrich their sense of what it’s like to be Egyptian, to be Arab, and to be Muslim. Would that be asking too much?
John Mason, an anthropologist specializing in Arab culture and society, is the author of recently-published LEFT-HANDED IN AN ISLAMIC WORLD: An Anthropologist’s Journey into the Middle East, 2017, New Academia Publishing. This article is adapted in part from his book.
