Is Mustapha complete mumbo jumbo or does it really mean something?
First of all ‘Mustapha’ isn’t actually sung in one language, but in multiple languages. Some of it is Arabic, but it’s mostly another language. Things like ‘Salaam aleikum’ are not that hard to understand, but it’s the rest of the song that’s worth looking at. The software product Bijou has the translation of this song as far as possible. It says that there are three different languages in the song; Arabic, English and an unidentified language, possibly Parsi. The following is copied directly from the Bijou program: ‘The English bits are obvious. “hey!”, “yeah!” and “will pray for you”. The Arabic is as follows… Mustapha Ibrahim is an Arabic/Islamic name. Allah – Islamic title of God, literally means (the) God. Allah-i – I think this is an exclamation like English “gosh!” or “good grief!” or “blimey!” Salaam Aleikum – an Arabic greeting, literally means “Peace be upon you”. Aleikum Salaam is the correct response, literally “upon you be peace”. “adhim” (in front of a person’s name) me
