Part 8

himself and defeated, when life closes in around him, he knows that those whom

Allah takes into His protection will not be neglected or abandoned so long as

they depend upon Allah and trust in Him. The disbelievers prefer to depend

upon their own feeble resources, yet how quickly despair overtakes them,

plunging them into desperation, and even driving them to suicide.

Sixthly, belief in this ʹaqeedah develops in the individual great

determination, fortitude, patience, confidence and trust, since you are engaged in

the greatest of enterprises, the quest for the pleasure of Allah. Indeed you feel

that what supports you is the power of He who possesses the heavens and the

earth. In this way the strength and determination of the believer, his resolute will

inspired by this confidence, becomes like a mountain that no human force may

move. Could there ever be such a strength and confidence as this to inspire a

Seventh, the believer derives both strength and support from the

declaration of faith, since it puts you out of reach of the two things that can

undermine your strength, love of the world and fear of it. Love of the world is to

place love of yourself, your spouse or your money before love of Allah. Fear of

the world is fear of an unknown force, not under the power of God, waiting to

destroy you. The believer knows that there is no god but Allah, and so neither of

these things can gain any power over the heart, because it is reassured by the fact

that Allah is the Sole Possessor of both life and property. Once you dedicate

yourself to the pleasure of your Lord regardless of the cost, you suddenly realise

that no one can deprive you of your life, neither man nor beast: the gun, the

sword and the stone do not kill; it is God alone who brings death. There is no

stronger determination than that of someone who believes in Allah. No man can

intimidate him and no army frightens him, neither flashing swords nor bullets

falling like rain. Whenever a believer presents himself for battle in the path of

Allah, his strength is multiplied tenfold. So where does this leave the Christians

and the Jews, the disbelievers and the atheists?

Eighth, by believing in the declaration of faith you can take command

over your own life, take pride in yourself, in your confidence and determination,

and in this way purify your heart from the influence of avarice, jealousy,

cowardice, spite, and all other vices.

Ninth, and by far the most important of these effects on the heart, is the

knowledge that the declaration of faith guides you to understand the law of

Allah, and helps you to keep carefully to it. Thus you are awakened to the fact

that Allah is totally aware of every thing, and that He is nearer to you than your

jugular vein; and although you may be able to escape from most kinds of danger,

there is no escaping from Allah.

The degree to which faith pervades the human mind determines in turn

the extent of the believerʹs obedience to the laws of Allah, his keeping to Allahʹs

limits and not coming near to what Allah has forbidden, and his hastening to do

good works and to fulfill Allahʹs commands.

The declaration of faith is the first of the five essential pillars of Islam. It is

also the most important of these when it comes to ascertaining the extent of a

personʹs faith. The Muslim is the obedient servant who keeps near to Allah. We

can not do this until we believe from the depths of our hearts that there is no god

but Allah. The declaration of faith is the source of Islam and the basis of its

strength. Regardless of the details of our belief or the different shades of legal

opinion, everything ultimately rests upon this one statement: the power of Islam

relies upon nothing else. If this should ever be lost, then nothing at all would be

left of our deen. 61

Ibn Rajab, when commenting on the declaration of faith, quotes Sufyian

"Allah did not bestow upon His servants a greater blessing than the

knowledge that there is no god but Allah. For the people of Paradise these

words are the same as fresh rain is to a people who live on the parched

Earth. By it the scales of Heaven and Hell are set. Because of it the

Messengers were sent into battle. Whoever declares it to be so, his wealth

and his life are protected, but whoever denies it shall find himself

destroyed. It is the key to paradise, and the single call of all the

61 Abu Aʹla al‐Mawdudi, Mabadiʹ al‐Islam, p. 87

62 Ibn Rajab, Kalimat al‐Ikhlas, p. 53

What Negates the Declaration of Faith

We have now discussed the meaning of the declaration of faith, the

obligations that it places upon the believer, its proof and its effects upon those

who proclaim it. In order provide a more complete picture of the precise

meaning of the words, ʹThere is no god but Allahʹ, we will now turn our

attention to what contradicts it.

It is common knowledge that disbelief, shirk, hypocrisy and apostasy all

stand in complete contradiction to Islam. Before discussing this point, however,

we should perhaps mention the necessity of supporting our arguments from

both primary as well as secondary sources. It is in comparing the sources that a

cogent reply to the claims of the Murjiʹa and other sects may be found. This

method will expose both the distortion inherent in the beliefs of such groups as

the Murjiʹa, and the extremism of the Kharijites, both of whom have departed

from the straight path. Islam steers a course of moderation between neglect and

This topic has been much discussed, both in the past and in the present,

and every opinion has its partisans. Ibn Qayim spoke about it at length. He says:

ʹDisbelief and faith are mutually exclusive: when one of them disappears the

ʹFaith is fundamental and consists of many branches, each of which may

be known as ʹimanʹ: its branches are the prayer, zakah, hajj and fasting, as well as

actions of the inner self such as modesty, reliance upon Allah, fear of Allah and

drawing near to Him. The least of its branches is to remove an obstacle from the

road as an act of faith.

ʹThere are branches of iman which are vital to the very existence of belief;

one of these is the declaration of faith. But there are others that are not vital to

belief; the removal of an obstacle from the road is an example of this. Between

these two extremes there are branches of iman that are associated more closely

with the declaration of faith, and others that are associated more closely with the

ʹDisbelief too is fundamental and has its branches. As a branch of iman is

related to faith, so a branch of disbelief is related to kufr. If modesty is a

characteristic of faith, immodesty is one of disbelief. If honesty comes from faith,

dishonesty comes from faithlessness. The prayer, zakah, hajj and fasting are

branches of faith, while abandoning any one of them is a kind of disbelief. To

rule by what Allah has revealed is a quality of those who have faith, but to rule

by another law is a quality of those who are without belief. All disobedience

comes from disbelief and all obedience is due to belief.

ʹThe branches of faith are of two types: the first is speech, and the other is

action. In the same way, the branches of disbelief may take the form of a word

spoken or a deed performed.

ʹOf the branches of faith connected to speech, there are those whose

disappearance results in the disappearance of faith itself. This is also true of those

branches of faith that are connected to action. When such a deed is left

unperformed, the result is an eclipse of iman.

ʹLikewise the branches of disbelief are of two types, both speech and

action. Thus it follows that deliberately saying a word of disbelief will, in fact,

result in disbelief, since this is one of the branches of kufr. It is the same for the

performance of any act of disbelief, like prostrating to a graven image, or making

fun of the Qurʹan, since kufr is at its root.

'Therefore, we should realise that faith is a matter of both word and deed.

Words include both the private statement to oneself, which is inner conviction,

and the public statement to the world, which is the declaration of faith. As for

deeds, the private act is the inner resolve, sincerity and intention known to the

heart and known to Allah. Public acts are the outward actions of each one of us

in the world. If these four things disappear then faith too, has gone.

ʹIf the heart knows no sincerity, then whatever else you have of faith can

not benefit you, since sincerity must precede belief. Sincerity makes belief

worthwhile and without it actions of the heart are nothing. This is the root of the

disagreement between the ahlʹul‐Sunnah waʹl‐jamaʹaand the Murjiʹa sect. The

ahlʹul‐Sunnah waʹl‐jamaʹa maintain that faith would be destroyed, and that

sincerity would be useless in the absence of the inner action of the heart, that is,

love for and submission to the message. The faith of Iblis (shay‐tan) and of

Pharaoh and his people, and of the Jews and the pagan Arabs, and of all others

who apparently acknowledged the sincerity and truth of the Prophetʹs message,

may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was destroyed in this way. Though

they agreed with it both inwardly and outwardly, and even protested that they

had not denied it, they neither followed him nor put their trust in him.

ʹIf it is true that faith diminishes as the inner actions of the heart wane,

then it is also true that faith has a direct connection to the most significant of

your outward actions. This is especially true if your actions are liable to inhibit

the love in your heart and the desire to follow it; this in turn undermines any

sincere commitment you may have had, as in the examples given above. If your

heart does not know inward obedience, you will not be able to obey outwardly

either. But if your heart had followed and obeyed, then you too would have done

the same. Whoever is unable to obey lacks the sincerity to motivate him to do so;

this is the nature of faith.

ʹFaith is not a matter of simple sincerity of belief, as some have claimed.