الحمد لله
al-Ḥamdu li-llāh
“All praise and thanksgiving be to Allah”: said after finishing eating, drinking or any other activity.
What it means
The words mean that praise and thanks belong to God. They open the Fatiha, “Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds” (1:2), and they come to the lips of a Muslim after a meal, after a drink, after sneezing, on good news, on safe arrival and at the close of any task. A hadith in Sahih Muslim, reported by Anas, says that God is pleased with the servant who eats a morsel or drinks a draught and praises Him for it. The phrase is also the ordinary answer to the question “How are you?”, and it keeps the thought of God close in daily speech.
Often misunderstood as
Rendered “thank God”, it captures the gratitude but leaves out the praise that ḥamd includes.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 61, listed as AL ḤAMDU LILLAH.. The definition is restated here.