The usage of the term MasyaAllah vs Astaghfirullah

I need a quick break peeps...hence, I need to write something here *happy*.

As a Muslim, it is our responsibility to share what little knowledge we have with each other. I'd like to do my bit today by sharing the correct use of the phrase “MasyaAllah”. I can't help but notice that some of us, Malay Muslims especially, are using the phrase in a wrong context. MasyaAllah by definition means “Allah Maha Agung”.

More than a decade ago an Arab woman said this to me upon seeing my wedding ring “MasyaAllah, what a beautiful ring” (she was just trying to being nice of course. My ring is an ordinary ring by the way, but that’s not the issue here lol!). That was when I realised that I was using the term incorrectly more than half of my life. The correct instance to use the phrase is when we see something nice or beautiful, like the nice Arab lady did. For example, we say “MasyaAllah she is such a beautiful baby”, or “MasyaAllah! what a nice home you have”, and NOT when we see something bad or unfortunate.

Instead, “Astaghfirullahal’azim” is to be used when we see something of a bad nature, met with an unfortunate incident or see something awful. By definition it means “Aku memohon ampun kepadamu Ya Allah”. For example, when we see an individual did something very bad, we should say “Astagfirullahal’azim” and not “MasyaAllah”.

JazakAllah.