The Takbīr or Tekbir () is the Arabic name for the phrase (). Usually translated "God is [the] Greatest," or "God is Great", it is a common Islamic Arabic expression, used as both an informal expression of faith and as a formal declaration. It has been used in prayer, in times of distress, and in Islamist protests, Islamic extremism, and Islamic terrorism.
The form is the nominative of Allah "[the one] God". The form is the elative of the adjective "great", from the root . As used in the it is usually translated as "greatest", but some authors prefer "greater". The term itself is the stem II verbal noun () of the triliteral root "great".
This phrase is also used in times of distress.
Just before a Garuda Airbus A300B-4 crashed into the jungle near Medan, Indonesia, the pilot screamed "Aaaaaah! Allahu Akhbar!" into his radio. According to a radio communication transcript, the pilot's conversation with the air controller had been in English, but his last words were this Arabic phrase as the plane crashed on September 26, 1997, killing all 235 people aboard in Indonesia's deadliest crash. It was suspected that the crash may have been due to either disorientation or engine failure caused by local dense smog resulting from forest fires.
After a failed attempt to climb the world's second highest peak, a mountain in Pakistan called K2, the emaciated Greg Mortenson was greeted by his porter with the phrase, "Allah Akbhar! Blessings to Allah you're alive!"
After 9/11, the FBI released a letter reportedly handwritten by the hijackers and found in three separate copies on 9/11—at Dulles, at the Pennsylvania crash site, and in Mohamed Atta's suitcase. It included a checklist of final reminders for the 9/11 hijackers. An excerpt reads: "When the confrontation begins, strike like champions who do not want to go back to this world. Shout, 'Allahu Akbar,' because this strikes fear in the hearts of the non-believers." Also, in the cockpit voice recorders found at the crash site of Flight 93, the hijackers are heard to be reciting the Takbir as the plane plummeted toward the ground.
When in March 2002 Maryam Mohammad Yousif Farhat of Hamas, popularized as "Umm Nidal" (and subsequently elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council), learned that her 17-year-old son had been killed on a suicide mission in which he killed five teenagers, she celebrated by proclaiming "Allahu Akbar!" and giving out boxes of halva and chocolates. In 2003, when Imam Samudra became the second Bali bomber from a violent Islamist group to be sentenced to death for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, Samudra greeted his sentence with chants of "Allahu Akbar".
In 2004, in an execution video of Nick Berg being beheaded in Iraq, as one man sawed off Berg's head the other captors shouted: "Allahu Akbar!". And in the 2007 Fort Dix attack plot, a group of radical Islamists who were convicted of plotting an attack on the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey had videotaped themselves shooting weapons and shouting Allahu Akbar. In 2008, Aafia Siddiqui yelled "Allah Akbar" as she fired at U.S. interrogators.
During the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, witnesses reported that gunman Nidal Malik Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire, killing 13 people and wounding 30 others. And Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad smiled and said "Allahu Akbar" after receiving a life sentence in 2010 for his attempted bombing.
During the incident aboard American Airlines Flight 1561, the person attempting to bash his way into the cockpit was heard shouting "Allahu Akbar".
;Iraq During the Persian Gulf war in January 1991, Saddam Hussein held a meeting with top military commanders, where it was decided to add the words Allahu Akbar (described as the Islamic battle cry) to Iraq's flag to boost his secular regime's religious credentials, casting himself as the leader of an Islamic army. Henceforth, he said, the flag would literally be "the banner of jihad and monotheism".
In 2004, Iraq's U.S.-picked Governing Council approved a new flag for Iraq that abandoned symbols of Hussein's regime, such as the words Allahu Akbar. In January 2008, however, Iraq's parliament passed a law to change the flag by leaving in the phrase, but changing the calligraphy of the words Allahu Akbar, which had been a copy of Saddam's handwriting, to a Kufic script.
;Iran The phrase Allahu Akbar is written on the Iranian flag, as called for by Article 18 of Iran's constitution. The phrase appears 22 times on the flag.
;Afghanistan The Afghan constitution that came into force on January 4, 2004, required that Allahu Akbar be inscribed on Afghanistan's national flag.
;1930s Waziristan (Pakistan) resistance movement A resistance movement in Waziristan, Pakistan, that fought the British during the 1930s had a red flag, with Allahu Akbar written on it in white letters.
Category:Islamic terms Category:Arabic words and phrases
ar:تكبير (إسلام) bs:Tekbir bg:Аллах Акбар ca:Al·lahu-àkbar cv:Такбир cs:Takbir de:Takbīr fa:تکبیر fr:Allah akbar ko:알라후 아크바르 hi:तकबीर id:Takbir it:Takbīr jv:Takbir lt:Alach akbar hu:Takbír ms:Takbir nl:Allahoe akbar (islam) no:Takbīr nn:Allahu akbar pl:Takbir pt:Takbir ru:Такбир simple:Allahu Akbar sk:Takbír sr:Tekbir sh:Tekbir fi:Allahu Akbar sv:Takbīr ta:அல்லாஹு அக்பர் th:ตักบีร์ tr:Tekbir ur:تکبیر (مذہب) zh:大赞辞This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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