Takbir
Arabic phrase "ʾAllāhu ʾakbar", meaning "God is the greatest"
The takbīr (Arabic: تَكْبِير [tak.biːr], lit. 'magnification [of God]') is the name for the Arabic phrase Allāhu ʾAkbar (Arabic: اللّٰهُ أَكْبَر [ʔaɫ.ɫaː.hu ʔak.bar] , lit. 'God is the greatest [of everything]').
It is a common Arabic expression, used in various contexts by Muslims around the world: in formal salah (prayer), in the adhan (Islamic call to prayer), in Hajj, as an informal expression of faith, in times of distress or joy, or to express resolute determination or defiance. The phrase is the official motto of Iran and Iraq. It is also used by Orthodox Arab Christians as an expression of faith.
Etymology
The Arabic word كَبِير (kabīr) means big from the Semitic root k-b-r. A cognate word for this root exists in Hebrew as כביר (kabir). The Arabic word أَكْبَر (ʾakbar) is the elative form ("bigger, biggest") of the adjective kabīr ("big"). When used in the takbīr it is usually translated as "biggest", but some authors translate it as "bigger". The term takbīr itself is the stem II verbal noun of the root k-b-r, meaning "big", from which akbar "bigger" is derived. The form Allāhu is a nominative of Allah, meaning "God".
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Takbir” is arabic phrase "ʾAllāhu ʾakbar", meaning "God is the greatest". The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Takbir, Arabic and phrase, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q191811. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Takbir” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.