بسم الله مجراها ومرساها
Bismi Allāh majrāhā wa mursāhā
Topic
“In the name of Allah be its course and its mooring”: said when boarding a ship, aeroplane or other vehicle.
What it means
The phrase means “In the name of Allah be its course and its mooring.” Faruqi gives it as the words said when boarding a ship, an aeroplane or another vehicle. Majrāhā is the moving and mursāhā the coming to rest. The traveller asks that the whole journey, from departure to arrival, be under God’s name and care. The words come from the Quranic story of Noah. He told his people to board the ark, saying that in God’s name be its course and its mooring (11:41). Muslims have taken the phrase as a general prayer for safe travel, whatever the means of transport.
Often misunderstood as
That it applies only to ships, when Muslims say it for any vehicle.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 62, listed as BISMI ALLAH MAJRĀHĀ WA MURSĀHĀ.. The definition is restated here.