What is the meaning of the Arabic word أَخْلِفْ?

Question

It is in the dua: اللَّهُمَّ أْجُرْنِي فِي مُصِيبَتِي وَأَخْلِفْ لِي خَيْرًا مِنْهَا

Answer 1

This du'a is part of a sahih hadith that was compiled by imam Muslim in his Sahih here and here with the wording:

اللَّهُمَّ أْجُرْنِي فِي مُصِيبَتِي وَأَخْلِفْ لِي خَيْرًا مِنْهَا

It was translated on sunnah.com as:

O Allah, reward me for my affliction and give me something better than it in exchange for it,

Imam Malik compiled it in his al-Muwatta' with a sligtly different wording:

اللَّهُمَّ أْجُرْنِي فِي مُصِيبَتِي وَأَعْقِبْنِي خَيْرًا مِنْهَا

The translation on sunnah.com is as follows:

O Allah, reward me in my misfortune and give me better than it afterwards

You may find other variations of this du'a in other hadith sources.

The verbs:

خَلَفَ

and

عَقَّبَ

are synonyms -in Arabic- for the case when they are used to express a chronological order and are used the refer to something that comes after another and may take its position or replaces it. Note that this thing usually is diffeernt than the first!

The corresponding nouns in Arabic are:

الخَلَف

Which may mean a replacement and in best case a good (pious) offspring. Or

الخَلْف

which may mean a successor or simply the back, behind or reverse.

And:

العَقِبُ or العُقُبُ

which both refer to the last (ending) part of something (see for example 18:44). And in the context above:

العَقَبَة

which comes with different meanings among them the last or ending (part) of everything and the replacement ...

Answer 2

اخلف drives from the word خلف which means behind. In the case of this duaa it means that god help me with my tragedy and after it give me something better then in it in rough translation

Answer 3

اخلف لي خيرا منها

O Allah! Give something better than what I missed.

Answer 4

peace be upon those who follow guidance,

from hadiths who part of it defines other in this case the one from Umm Salama:

ثم إني قلتها فأخلف الله لي رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم