Learn Hardcore Hausa: Bayan salla ta Juma’a, muna jin murna mu ci abinci tare. - After the Friday prayer, we feel happy and eat together.

Bayan salla ta Juma’a – After Friday prayer
- This is a time expression; it tells when something happens.
muna jin murna mu ci abinci tare – we feel happy to eat food together
- muna jin murna – we feel happy
- mu ci abinci tare – for us to eat food together / that we eat food together

So the structure is basically:

After Friday prayer, [we feel happy to eat food together].

What does Bayan mean and where does it usually go in a sentence?

Bayan means after (in a temporal sense: after some event/time).

In this sentence: Bayan salla ta Juma’a = After Friday prayer.
It usually comes before the noun or event it refers to, like:
- Bayan karatu – after (the) study / after reading
- Bayan aiki – after work

You can place the Bayan… phrase at the beginning of the sentence (as here) or at the end:

Bayan salla ta Juma’a, muna jin murna mu ci abinci tare.
Muna jin murna mu ci abinci tare bayan salla ta Juma’a.

Both are correct; starting with Bayan… is very common for setting the time.

What exactly does salla ta Juma’a mean? Is it just “Friday prayer”?

Yes, salla ta Juma’a means the Friday prayer (the special congregational prayer).

Breakdown:

salla – prayer (Muslim ritual prayer); grammatically feminine.
ta – a linker that here effectively means “of” because it agrees with a feminine noun.
Juma’a – Friday.

So literally: “prayer of Friday” → Friday prayer.

You may also hear sallar Juma’a, which is a slightly more compact form. Both salla ta Juma’a and sallar Juma’a are understood as “Friday prayer.”

What is the function of ta in salla ta Juma’a? Is it a possessive word like “my/your”?

In salla ta Juma’a, ta is not “my/your/her” in the normal possessive sense. Here it is a linking word (often called a “linker” or “genitive marker”) that roughly corresponds to “of” in English and agrees with a feminine singular noun.

Head noun: salla (feminine)
Feminine linker: ta
Modifier: Juma’a

So: salla ta Juma’a = prayer (fem) of Friday.

Compare:

littafi na Ali – book of Ali (masculine head noun, so na)
mota ta Audu – car of Audu (feminine head noun, so ta)

So here ta is a grammatical agreement marker linking salla and Juma’a, not a normal possessive pronoun like “her.”

What does muna mean, and what tense/aspect is it?

muna is the 1st person plural (we) with the continuous / progressive aspect:

mu – “we”
na – continuous/progressive marker
Combined: muna – we are (doing) / we do (habitually)

In muna jin murna, it suggests:

we are feeling happy (right now / after the prayer), or
we (usually) feel happy (whenever this happens, depending on context).

Contrast with:

mun ji murna – we felt happy (completed, past-like).
za mu ji murna – we will feel happy (future).

What does muna jin murna literally mean, and how does it differ from simply saying “we are happy”?

Literally:

muna – we are (in the sense of doing something)
jin – the verbal noun of ji “to hear, feel, sense” → “feeling”
murna – happiness, joy

So muna jin murna = we are feeling happiness → we feel happy / we are happy.

Native speakers also say:

muna farin ciki – literally “we are in whiteness of belly” (idiomatic) = “we are happy.”

Both muna jin murna and muna farin ciki mean “we are happy,” but:

muna jin murna emphasizes the feeling of joy (emotion felt).
muna farin ciki is a very common idiom for “we are happy / pleased.”

In everyday conversation, either is fine; muna jin murna sounds slightly more like “we feel happy / we experience joy.”

Why is jin used here instead of just ji?

ji is the verb “to hear / feel / sense,” and jin is its verbal noun (like “hearing/feeling”).

In many Hausa constructions, when a noun follows a verbal noun, you get an -n linker attached:

ji
- -n → jin
jin murna – the feeling of happiness / to feel happiness

So:

muna jin murna – literally: we are (in the state of) feeling happiness.

You wouldn’t say muna ji murna in this sense; the natural form is muna jin murna.

What does mu ci abinci mean, and why is there another mu after we already have muna?

mu ci abinci means “for us to eat food” / “that we eat food.”

Breakdown:

mu – we
ci – eat (bare verb stem)
abinci – food

Here mu ci is in the subjunctive/jussive form: subject pronoun + bare verb stem, without an aspect marker like na, ke, za.

This pattern is often used:

after expressions of wanting, wishing, feeling, etc., to express purpose or intended action:
- Ina so mu tafi. – I want us to go.
- Muna fatan mu yi nasara. – We hope that we succeed.

So in muna jin murna mu ci abinci, the second mu starts a new verb phrase in the subjunctive:

muna jin murna – we feel happy
mu ci abinci – (for) us to eat food

That’s why English often translates it as “we feel happy to eat food” or “we’re happy that we can eat food.”

The second mu is needed because it is the subject of the new (subjunctive) verb ci.

Is anything like “to” or “so that” missing before mu ci? Could we say domin mu ci?

In English you’d expect something like:

“we feel happy to eat food together,” or
“we feel happy that we eat food together,” or
“we feel happy so that we can eat food together.”

In Hausa, it’s very common to go straight from the main clause to the subjunctive clause without a linking word:

muna jin murna mu ci abinci tare
≈ we are happy (for) us to eat food together

You can add a purpose word like don or domin:

muna jin murna domin mu ci abinci tare – we feel happy in order for us to eat / to eat food together.

Adding don/domin makes the purpose more explicit, but it’s not required; the bare subjunctive mu ci already carries that idea of “for us to eat / to eat.”

Does ci abinci literally mean “eat food”? Isn’t saying “eat food” redundant?

Yes, ci abinci literally means “eat food.”

ci – eat
abinci – food

In English, “eat food” can sound redundant, but in Hausa it is completely normal and very common:

Na ci abinci. – I ate (some) food.
Mu je mu ci abinci. – Let’s go eat.

You can sometimes drop abinci if the context is very clear, but ci abinci is the most neutral way to say “to eat (a meal).” It naturally implies eating a proper meal, not just any random thing.

What does tare mean, and why is it at the end?

tare means “together.” It’s used as an adverb, often placed after the verb phrase:

mu ci abinci tare – (for) us to eat food together
Muna aiki tare. – We work together.

Putting tare at the end is the normal position. You may see tare da + pronoun/noun when specifying with whom:

mu ci abinci tare da su – for us to eat food together with them.

In the sentence you gave, tare simply modifies the whole eating action: all of “us” are eating together.

Can I move the time phrase Bayan salla ta Juma’a to another position in the sentence?

Yes. Both of these are acceptable:

Bayan salla ta Juma’a, muna jin murna mu ci abinci tare.
Muna jin murna mu ci abinci tare bayan salla ta Juma’a.

The meaning is basically the same:

(1) puts more emphasis on the time first (“After Friday prayer…”), then tells what happens.
(2) starts with what you feel/do, then adds when at the end.

Both word orders are natural in Hausa.

Is this sentence formal, religious, or everyday language?

The vocabulary is normal, everyday Hausa, but the content is naturally religious-context because of salla ta Juma’a (Friday prayer).

Bayan salla ta Juma’a – a very common real-life setting in Muslim communities.
muna jin murna mu ci abinci tare – totally ordinary, conversational language.

So you could easily hear this in casual conversation among friends or family who go to Friday prayer together. It’s not especially formal or literary; it sounds natural and spoken.