Part 3

The reality of worship as a vast matter encompassing the life of this world

and the Hereafter has thus been altered to include only the ritual acts of

devotion: the prayer and fasting, zakah and the hajj. But where is the complete

way of life? Whom shall we choose as friends? Who are our enemies? Whom

shall we love? Whom shall we hate? The answers to these questions are very far

from their grasp. This deen does not stop at simply saying that God is One, but

continues by asserting that there is no other divinity than He; the totality of His

Divine Names and Attributes alone befit His Grandeur and Majesty.

As Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab has pointed out,

"When the Prophet went to the People of the Book to warn them about

associating other things with Allah, and to urge them to accept that this

practice stood in contradiction to the Divine Unity of God, they were not

opposed to him. They started to mend their ways and to encourage one

another to accept his call. But when their religion and the foolishness of

their scholars were denounced, they turned away and declared their

enmity towards him and his companions, complaining, ʺHe questions our

intelligence, defames our religion, and insults our faith.ʺ Of course, it is

well known that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace,

never cursed Jesus nor his mother, peace be on them, nor the angels nor

the pious dead. But when he explained that these could not help them and

could not hurt them, they claimed it was an insult.

ʹOnce we understand this point we will realize that no one has the right to

say he is a Muslim, even if he says there is only One God, unless he also

declares his enmity for the disbelievers and makes plain his anger with

them and opposition to them:

"You will not find people who believe in Allah and the Last Day

loving those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, even though

they are their fathers or their sons or their brothers or their clan.

As for such, He has written faith upon their hearts." (58:22).

ʹIf we understand this then we must also recognize that many of those

who claim to be Muslims today really have no idea about the meaning of

the words ʺThere is no god but Allahʺ. Were we to accept their

understanding, then we could not explain the first Muslimsʹ perseverance

when under torture and in slavery, nor their patience during persecution

and exile. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was the

most merciful of men; had he been able to spare his Companions these

hardships then surely he would have done so." 8

Bearing in mind the misunderstanding over the true meaning of the

words ʹThere is no god but Allah,ʹ it is perhaps relevant to discuss this point

further. In the following chapter we will consider the things which contradict the

declaration of faith, and the obligations that its acceptance implies. We rely upon

Allah for help and inspiration in this task.

8 Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab, Majmuʹat at‐Tawhid, p.19. Also Ibn Taimiyah and others.

What the Declaration of Faith Confirms and What it Denies

The meaning of the first part of the declaration of faith, ʹThere is no god

but Allahʹ, is that nothing other than Allah is worthy of worship. This denies the

attribution of divinity to all other things, and affirms it as a quality which

belongs to Allah alone. 9 Ibn Taymiyah said:

"The heart will not find complete happiness except by loving Allah and by

striving towards what is dear to Him. It is not possible to achieve this love

except by rejecting all things that compete with it. This is what the words,

ʺThere is no god but Allahʺ, mean; this is the spirit of the deen of Ibrahim

and of that of every other prophet." 10

When someone says, ʹThere is no god but Allahʹ, he has denied one thing

and affirmed another. With these words the believer first denies all those who

reject faith, worship created things, obey the tyrant, rule by injustice or remain

content under oppression; and then he affirms his allegiance to Allah, to His

deen, to His Book, to His righteous servants, and to the Sunnah of His Prophet,

may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

"Whoever rejects false deities and believes in Allah has grasped a firm

handhold which will never break." (2:256). 11

As for the second part of the declaration, ʹMuhammad is the Messenger

of Allahʹ, this means that we do what the Prophet, may Allah bless him and

grant him peace, has told us to do, and stop doing what he has told us not to do.

According to Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab

"No one truly believes until he rejects the forces of disbelief 12 ."

9 Sheikh Abar‐Rahman ibn Hassan, Path al Majid, p. 36.

10 Ibn Taimiya, Majmuʹ al‐Fatawaa, vol 28, p.32. Riyadh.

11 Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab, Fath al‐Majid, p.16.

12 The word translated here as ʹforces of disbelief' is ʹTaghutʹ in the original Arabic. Ibn al‐Qayyim

says that this means anything which exceeds Allahʹs limits, something that is served, obeyed or

followed. Taghut includes everyone who rules by other than the revelation of Allah and the

example of His Messenger; or which is worshipped instead of, or in addition to, Allah; or which

This is supported by ayah 2:256 just cited. The declaration of faith is a declaration

of complete loyalty to the Shariʹah:

"Follow that which is sent down to you from your Lord, and follow no

protecting friends beside Him. Little do you recollect!" (7:3)

"So set your purpose (O Muhammad) for the deen as a man by nature

upright ‐ the natural way of Allah, in which He has created man." (30:30)

You must also denounce the rule of Ignorance:

Is it a judgement of the time of ignorance that they seek? And who is

better than Allah for judgment for a people who have certainty (in their

Indeed you must deny all other religions:

"And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted

from him, and he will be one of the losers in the Hereafter." (3:85) 13

The declaration of faith is thus a denial and an affirmation. In fact, it

denies four things and affirms four others. It denies false deities, the tyrant,

intermediaries, and ordained authorities, who are bogus. If you think a thing can

help you or protect you from harm then you have taken it as a god. A tyrant

demands that you worship and adore him. An intermediary, whether family,

community or property, distracts you from faith:

"And from among mankind are some who take for themselves (objects

of worship as) rivals to Allah, loving them as they should only love

Bogus authority advises you to act against truth and to disobey Allah:

is followed in opposition to the command of Allah. Quoted from Abd ar‐Rahman ibn Hassan,

13 Pickthall: ʹ...whoso seeketh as religion other than the Surrender (to Allah).ʹ

"They have taken as lords beside Allah their rabbis and their monks."

It also affirms four things: that the object of your worship is Allah; that

glorification and love are for Allah alone; that hope and fear are due only to

Allah; and that you are aware of Allahʹs power and might, this awareness is

Taqwa. The single and unique goal of the believer is to worship Allah and none

other than Him. Thus, the believerʹs love is for Allah alone:

"And those who believe are stronger in their love for Allah." (2:165)

Hope too, is placed exclusively in Allah and one fears nothing but Him:

'If Allah afflicts you with some hurt, there is no one who can remove it

except Him; and if He desires good for you, there is no one who can

repel His bounty. He strikes with it whom He wishes of his servants. He

is the Forgiving, the Compassionate." (10:107) 14

Lastly, the believer is conscious of Allah and aware of the danger of His

displeasure and of His wrath. It is taqwa that causes a person to abandon

disbelief and disobedience, to devote himself entirely to Allah and to obey His

law and His command. Ibn Masʹood said:

"When you act in obedience to Allah, in the light of Allah, you hope for

Allahʹs reward. When you abandon disobedience of Allah, in the light of

Allah, you fear Allahʹs punishment." 15

Whoever recognizes these things must sever all links to anything other

than Allah and free his heart from falsehood. Thus Allah tells us that Ibrahim, as

well as our own Prophet, may the blessings and peace of Allah be on them,

smashed the idols that their people took as gods and rejected all who

"There is a good example for you in Ibrahim and those with him, when

they told their people: Surely we disassociate ourselves from you and

all that you worship beside Allah. We have done with you. And there

14 Pickthall: ʹ...the Forgiving, the Merciful.ʹ

15 Majmuʹat ar‐Rasaʹil waʹ1‐Masaʹil al‐Najdiyya, Muhammad Rashid Rida, eds. vol.4, p.99.

has arisen between us and you enmity and hate for ever until you

believe in Allah only." (60:4) 16

From beginning to end the Qurʹan is a clarification of the meaning of the

words, ʹThere is no god but Allahʹ. This statement is both a denial of shirk and

of those who commit it, and an approval of sincerity and of those who strive for

it. Every word and every deed that is dear to Allah is in some way connected to

this declaration. It is the source of all noble action, its definition and its guide. 17

This is why Allah has called it, the ʹdeclaration of fear.ʹ 18

The Prophetʹs Companions and the Declaration of Faith

The following account illustrates the Companionsʹ understanding and

experience of the kalima. In 170 AH someone asked Imam Sufiyan ibn ʹUyaynah

al‐Hillali 19 about faith. He said:

ʺIt is in both speech and action.ʺ

ʺBut does it increase and decrease?ʺ asked the man.

ʺIt increases as Allah wishes, and it decreases as He wishes until no more

of it than this remains,ʺ and he held out his hand.

The man said, ʺSo what should be our attitude towards those among us

who assert that it is speech and not action?ʺ

ʺThis is what people used to say before the nature and limits of faith had

been made clear. Of course Allah, Glorious and Mighty is He, sent his

Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to all of humanity to