One word that conquers all – Inshahallah

The world is melting declares the WSJ – the Euro is on the verge of collapse – Obama’s economic recovery looks like its stuck in rasputitsa – and as for the stock market it pitching and yawing like a drunkard heading towards the edge of the cliff – against such tiring times, the sentiment that sums it all up can be linguistic.

 

Not so very long ago during the period when the Saffron route first opened Arabic gamers would usually use the phrase – inshahallah – the Arabs use it as a punctuation; but the Saffron route is a strange place; the more one spends time there; the more one gains a deeper understanding into the nuances of what the term inshallah really means – in literal translation it simply means – by the grace of God – these days in the virtual as in the real world everyone from peacekeepers in Iraq to stockbrokers have been muttering the phrase inshahallah or “by the grace of God” – it has permeated popular parlance only because no such word exist in the English compendium that describes the vagaries of the world and how one can is always at the mercy of the capriciousness of fate and destiny.

 

Recently, I was surprised when I switched on the TV and when a U.S. soldier who hailed from red neck Nebraska was asked about his chances of surviving his tour of duty – he replied laconically ‘inshahallah.’ Judging from the way George Yeo is handling the Romanian hit and run fiasco – his team would probably find that term useful.

 

It hardly requires any elaboration – words embrace meaning and along with it the whole idea of truism; they don’t belong to one particular community anymore than you can claim the word – “Oh my God,” can only be used by the pious and good fearing – meanings along with words are not so different from the economics of demand and supply; migrate they will only because the concepts they connote describe what cannot be described in the genre of local vocabulary – sometimes if words can’t describe the situation aptly – they’re just made up on the go – like FUBAR or SNAFU. When the Romans first paid their legionaires with salt – the word salary was born – when the Vienesse celebrated the defeat of the Ottomans at their gates – the word croissant was born – meaning crescent – the idea is we had them for breakfast and till this day – the croissant takes the shape and form of Islamic crescent, in both instance words, phrases and motifs were created to fill a vacuum to express the prevailing sentiments of their times.

 

Will inshahallah transplant itself into a sobriquet term of endearment that aptly describes the sign of our times along with describing the pathos of this age – I have absolutely no idea; all I know is it’s increasingly finding itself being used every where these days by almost everyone that’s faced with the vagaries of what it means to live in an uncertain age – but the idea isn’t as novel as what it painted out to be; for one inshahallah is simply a throw back to some age when the sages used to say to sardonically – men plan their lives only to be ruled by accidents – For better or worse – it may be a term that encompasses the idea of akan datang along with stay tuned as the Americans would say and probably all our hopes, fears and fascination – in an age when things have never been so uncertain – I can’t help but use this word at least 3 or 4 times a day – although I am Chinese and not a Muslim, my feel is no word describes the pathos of this age better than this one word – as I said words are born out of necessity of usage – they just don’t come about for no apparent reason – the Bedouin cradle  their heirloom 303 Lee Enfield rifle with the breach open as the act speaks the length of one sentence, “I come in the name of peace.” Doing otherwise guarantees a head shot – experienced alpinist learn to tie the Prussik with one hand as that’s the only reliable way to stop a free fall and Jews always light the first candle of the Menorah from left to right; as that’s the last the must burn out to make the Sabbath what it is – my point is words acquire their intrinsic meaning because they fulfill a primordial need for the human need for expression  – like the word ‘aiyoh’ or ‘aihhh’ – they all find a place in the history of man as they are fulfil a need – and in such times, the key to survival doesn’t lie in learning the seven habits of highly effective people as it remains dealing with the seven habits of highly unpredictable people – against this landscape where the sands shift; what’s required is the courage to face up to uncertainty stoically as best as a man can do without surrendering his pride, self esteem and being – it is for this one reason alone one word stands as king in the chess board called life – inshahallah.

 Darkness 2010

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Darkness: “Tell me Al Khaleed do you think the price of Sardonyx will hold or break water? I am worried about how the Interspacing Metal Exchange will intervene and prop it up by attempting to shore the price up with their reserves….what’s your opinion.

 

Al Khaleed (Liaison officer of the Saffron route): I have no idea Darkness; neither does the ASDF it seems; all their models don’t make sense – may I take the liberty of using a term that you seem to using with such regularity these days?

 

Darkness: What is it? Do you think we should use go back to pegging the price of sardonyx to the standard Imperium?

 

Al Khaleed (Liaison officer of the Saffron route): With the greatest of respects  Darkness – I think the appropriate term here is inshallah.

 Darkness: Suh-kahrah….of course….why didn’t I see it; I must be blind…inshahallah.

This conversation was captured by an auto crawler auto-bot in a thread in the Saffron route entitled “the eye of the needle.” – FILB (Free Internet Library Board) – sponsored by the Interspacing Mercantile Guild – The Brotherhood Press 2010

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N.B MESSAGE BY MISSY DOTTY:  DO BOOKMARK THIS SITE, IF SOME OF YOU CLAIM, YOU ARE MISSING OUT, BOOKMARK IT, THAT WAY WHEN WE DECIDE TO TAKE OFF SOMEWHERE ELSE, AT LEAST YOU CAN FOLLOW US ON THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO CONT READING SOME OF OUR STUFF . BOOKMARK, IT AS WHEN THEY TAKE OFF, AS THEY DO, AT LEAST, YOU WILL HAVE A LINK, DO IT NOW!– ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO BOOKMARK THIS SITE IS THIS HAS HAPPENED  RECENTLY – http://singaporedaily.net/2010/01/11/daily-sg-11-jan-2010/#comment-7611 , THE BP HAS BARRED ALL FUTURE ESSAYS TO BE POSTED BY THE SINGAPORE DAILY. I DID ASK BABY DARKNESS ABOUT THIS AND THIS IS WHAT HE HAD TO SAY, ” There are two ways to read, one is you let someone spoon feed you like a baby. The second is you choose what and how you want to eat.  Remember, if your body is a temple. Your mind has to be the altar piece; it’s the linchpin that makes possible the grand idea of La Convivencia with you and your community, spirit, mind and perhaps 7 million other things- without this one thing, the power to choose, you are simply a cactus on a window sill! 

So understand this little rich girl, there is reading and there is reading, there is a world of difference, if you dont even bother to argue with the belief, you are what you eat. Then you would have absolutely no problem understanding – why, you are most definitely without a shadow of doubt what you read and dont read.

You can certainly categorize what I write, but you have no right to judge ……that was what Singaporedaily did – a broad line has to be drawn, otherwise, dont be surprise, if someone decides its card blanche to give you and me the mushroom treatment, “feed you shit and keep you in the dark.” So this has nothing to do with Anime 3 and her rubberband brigade. I value her readership and support, but this is a bigger sphere we are dealing with here – so this is where I will draw the line…it will hurt…like that other fake site, Temasek review that kept faking doss attacks; but how could they let the real wolf out without first planting the idea in peoples mind, “if it can happen to me, it will also happen to you,” Think about it – they cried wolf – we helped, but this time, I am not going to stick my neck out for no one…its everyman for himself….I dont even care, if the whole house catches fire…call it tough love, but if you aren’t a hard man, then you shouldn’t be in the ring and that’s the only way to deal with people who cry wolf, its all here, the explanation

http://singaporedaily.net/2010/01/12/daily-sg-12-jan-2010/#comment-7618 – dont worry dotty, the readers will eventually pick up the scent…they always do, you just wait and see, dont ever sweat the small stuff, life is too short – Darkness 2010……”Missy Dotty