While there, I kept hearing locals use the Arabic phrase "inshallah," meaning "if God wills it so." Spend any amount of time in the Middle East and you will become familiar with the Arabic phrase "inshallah." Prior to my trip to the UAE in November, I'd had little contact with the Arab world and as such, I had never heard the phrase. It could mean "hopefully," "I hope so," "maybe," "who knows," or "It's not my problem," among a dozen other meanings. But the phrase's durability only became apparent to me after I started using it as those in the Arab world do.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 12, 2019 17:15 UTC