La ilaha illallah Meaning in Hindi & English (Kalma Tayyab)

Lā ilāha illa llāh means "There is no god but Allah." In Roman Urdu: "Allah ke siwa koi maabood nahin." In Hindi you'll often hear it explained as "Allah ke alawa koi ibaadat ke laayak nahin."

It's the first kalma (Kalma Tayyab), the words of the shahada, a line of the adhan, and part of Attahiyat in every namaz. It's also one of the easiest sentences in the whole Quran to understand word by word — because every single word in it is among the most common words of the Quran.

La ilaha illallah word by word

Four words: no — god — except — Allah.

Think of it in two halves:

1. Lā ilāha — "there is no god". First, everything else is cleared away: no idol, no person, no wealth, no fear, no desire deserves worship.
2. illa llāh — "except Allah". Then the one true exception is affirmed.

That's why scholars often describe it as nafi (negation) and ithbāt (affirmation). You say "no" to everything else before you say "yes" to Allah.

Ilāh vs Allah. Ilāh is a general word — "a god, something worshipped". Allāh is the proper name. Both share the root that the book lists under Allah and ilāh. The sentence uses the general word first ("no ilāh") and then the name ("except Allāh").

Kalma Tayyab meaning in Hindi and Roman Urdu

The full first kalma adds the testimony about the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ:

Lā ilāha illallāhu Muḥammadur rasūlullāh Allah ke siwa koi maabood nahin, Muhammad (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) Allah ke Rasool hain. There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

The second half also comes straight from the Quran — it is how Surah Al-Fath 48:29 begins:

A beautiful detail: the name Muḥammad comes from the same root as ḥamd (praise, word #218) — the ḥamd of Alhamdulillah.

Where La ilaha illallah appears in the Quran

The exact four words appear in Surah Muhammad, as a command to know it:

Two things to notice here.

"Fa-ʿlam" — so know. The verse begins with iʿlam, from ʿalima (word #103, "he knew"). The kalma isn't only something to say — it's something to know and be sure of.

Pickthall's wording. Pickthall translates ilāh as "Allah" here, so his English reads "no Allah save Allah". Most translators write "no god but Allah". Junagarhi's Urdu says "Allah ke siwa koi maabood nahin" — maabood means "one who is worshipped", which is exactly the sense of ilāh.

The same four words appear again in Surah As-Saffat:

And with small changes — illā huwa (except Him) or illā anta (except You) — the same sentence appears many more times. Ayat al-Kursi begins Allāhu lā ilāha illā huwa. Prophet Yunus's dua from inside the darkness (21:87) is lā ilāha illā anta subḥānaka — "There is no god save You, glory be to You." Once you know the four words, you'll recognise it every time. (See Ayatul Kursi meaning.)

You say it in every namaz

If you pray, you say this sentence at least in every sitting of every namaz — inside Attahiyat:

Ashhadu means "I bear witness" — from shahida, word #313 in the book (44 times in the Quran). That's why this form is called the shahada: the testimony. ʿAbd (servant, word #221) and rasūl (messenger, word #64) come right after. For the whole of Attahiyat, see Attahiyat meaning.

Different kalmas, same core

People in India and Pakistan learn "six kalmas" as children. The first one, Kalma Tayyab ("the pure word"), is the sentence above. The second, Kalma Shahadat, is the ashhadu an lā ilāha illa llāh… form — the same testimony with "I bear witness" added. Whichever you learned, the core four words are identical: lā ilāha illa llāh.

Spelling variants people search

La ilaha illallah, La ilaha illa Allah, La ilaha il Allah, Laa ilaaha illallaah, La ilaha illallahu — all the same. "La ilaha illa Allah" shows the four words best. In Hindi, it's usually written ला इलाहा इल्लल्लाह.

A one-minute reflection

Say lā ilāha slowly and pause. Ask: what do I give too much importance to — money, people's opinion, my phone? That's what the "lā" clears away. Then say illa llāh and let it settle.

The four words of this kalma — lā, ilāh, illā, Allāh — are all in the book 600 Words of the Quran, along with rasūl, ʿabd and shahida. The 600 words are the main word in about 8 out of every 10 words of the Quran (79.8% of its 77,429 words — counting the core word, not small attached letters like wa-, bi- or pronoun endings). You can also read Astaghfirullah meaning — 47:19 above pairs the kalma with istighfar.