Islam is a religion that advocates the pursuit of excellence, and good conduct is its reflection. Among all the phrases that a non-Arabic speaker seeks to learn first are those related to formulas of politeness, and saying thank you in literary Arabic is among the priorities. The Arabic vocabulary abounds in ways to express thanks, whose invocations are much more than a simple matter of courtesy for Muslims. So how to say thank you in Arabic? Are there other equivalent expressions? These are the kinds of questions we are going to answer, looking to see if this word exists in the Quran and in the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad.
How do you say thank you in Arabic?
The translation of thank you in Arabic is « chokran », and it is a word used in the majority of Arab-Muslim countries. The meaning of « chokran » is broader than the courtesy formula « thank you » in English, since it comes from the word « chokr » which literally designates gratitude.
Expressing one's gratitude towards someone for a favor or a service is translated by a very simple but meaningful surge of kindness: choukrane laka for a man (or laki for a woman) means word for word « gratitude to you », or, in other words, « I thank you » or « I am grateful to you », much stronger than mere thanks. It is to admit that this person or their gesture was beneficial and useful to us. It is also to show humility.
It is said in Arabic of the one who gratifies his fellow with a thank you in Arabic « chokran » while showing kindness that he is « chaakiran » (grateful). The opposite of chakiran is nakiran, in the sense that he is ungrateful towards the good that has been done to him.
One of the Most Beautiful Names and Attributes of Allah is The Grateful » Ash Shakor or Al Chakor.
What other expressions to say thank you in Arabic?
The way to show the extent of one's gratitude and thankfulness is done by saying « chokran » in various ways, because each people has its dialect in the Arab-Muslim world with its particular vocabulary. Some ways of thanking someone are similar despite the thousands of kilometers that separate the countries from one another.
« Chokran jazilan » as well as « chokran kathiran » to say thank you very much is, for example, heard in a good number of Arab countries.
One can also use other formulas of thanks with much stronger values, such as the following invocations:
Jazak Allaho kheiran is an Islamic invocation that means May Allah reward you with good, or may Allah recompense you in the best way. Or in Moroccan this invocatory phrase is said as follows: Allah ijezik bikheir or Allah ikhlef 3lik to express the wish that God replace for him with something better what has been given, for example.
Allah ibarek fik, or, BarakaLaho fik, means may Allah bless you. As we saw in another article, the blessings of the Lord are called upon the benefactor both by Allah and by the believers.
Allah i3tek al 3afiyah, for its part, means may Allah grant you health. It is an invocation commonly pronounced by the Arabs of the Middle East and almost never used by the populations of the Maghreb.
Is thank you in Arabic cited in the Quran?
"So remember Me. I will reward you. Thank Me and do not be ungrateful towards Me!
فَٱذْكُرُونِىٓ أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَٱشْكُرُوا۟ لِى وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ " (verse 152 in surah 2 THE COW / AL-BAQARA)
"O you who believe! Eat of the lawful (foods) that We have provided for you. And thank Allah, if it is Him that you worship.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ كُلُوا۟ مِن طَيِّبَٰتِ مَا رَزَقْنَٰكُمْ وَٱشْكُرُوا۟ لِلَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ إِيَّاهُ تَعْبُدُونَ " (verse 172 in surah 2 THE COW / AL-BAQARA)
The Quran enjoins the believers to thank Allah, to Whom belong the Greatness and the Glory, for all the blessings He has granted them.
There is no one who deserves more that we be grateful towards him than Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. Instead of a simple thank God in Arabic, bearing witness to one's gratitude and one's love towards Him, our Creator and the Creator of all things, is realized above all through obedience to His Precepts and Laws. To recognize that He is One, the Unique, and the Only One Worthy of being worshipped, and to devote to Him daily our acts of worship as best we can, is the first way to thank Him for the Graces He has granted us. To work for one's brothers and sisters in Allah, for example, with the tools and means that the Almighty has placed within us is also part of the ways of « saying thank you my God » each day.
Thanking Him is a duty, and imploring Him by His Name Ash Chakor draws us closer to Him, as servants of the Supreme Grateful One who sees the works of His Faithful, and from Whom nothing escapes.
Moreover, the Most High asks us in the Holy Quran to invoke Him by His Most Beautiful Names, and Ash Chakor is one of them.
May Allah grant us to worship Him as He has ordered us to, for the good of us all, and may He preserve us from being among those who do not respect Him at His Just Value.
Surah Az Zumar Verse 67
They have not esteemed Allah as He should be esteemed, while on the Day of Resurrection, He will make the whole earth a handful, and the heavens will be folded in His right [hand]. Glory be to Him! He is above what they associate with Him.
Conclusion
So many expressions in literary or dialectal Arabic reflect courtesy, decency and gratitude towards the people around us. Of all these beautiful words, the Muslim strives to favor those that the Lord of the Worlds has chosen for us, whether the invocations mentioned in the Quran or those from the hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad, salla Allah 'alayhi wa salam.