أجركم على الله
Ajrukum ʿalā Allāh
“Your reward rests with God”: said to a person who deserves compensation, as a prayer that God repay what the person gave or lost.
What it means
The words mean literally “your reward is upon God”. A Muslim says them to someone who has spent effort or money, or who has suffered a loss or inconvenience on another person’s behalf, and so deserves compensation. The speaker asks that God repay the person, since God repays far better than any human can. The thought behind it is stated in the Quran: “Whatever good you send ahead for yourselves, you will find it with God, better and greater in reward” (73:20). The phrase turns a debt of gratitude into a prayer.
Often misunderstood as
Often reduced to “thank you”, it is a prayer that places the reward with God.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 60, listed as AJRUKUM ‘ALĀ ALLAH.. The definition is restated here.