Part 12

In addition, He has given the opportunity to humans to become His devoted servants, martyrs for His cause and scholars of His religion, giving them special nobility and honor. These great achievements are equally open to the males and females of this species. Thus, Allah says, for example, "Never will I allow to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female. You are (members) one of another, so those who emigrated and were driven out from their homes, and suffered harm in My Cause, and who fought, and were killed (in My Cause), verily, I will remit from them their evil deeds and admit them into Gardens under which rivers flow (in Paradise); a reward from Allah, and with Allah is the best of rewards" (3:195). Allah also says, "Whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, while he (or she) is a true believer verily, to him We will give a good life (in this world with respect, contentment and lawful provision), and We shall pay them certainly a reward in proportion to the best of what they used to do" (16:97).

In fact, the only real difference between people has nothing to do with their gender, their ethnicity, their race, their wealth, their sex appeal or their class. All of those are false ways of considering humans. Such standards, in fact, do nothing but denigrate humans. The only real standard for the worth of 60

a human is his relationship with his Lord. Thus, Allah says, "O humankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honorable of you with Allah is that (believer) who has piety. Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware" (49:13).

One hears a lot of talk about human rights nowadays. This seems to be an attempt to treat humans in the most dignified and respectable manner. However, the biggest problem with human rights is that God is not given His proper role with respect to humans. Instead, humans virtually become the ultimate object of worship-and the "rights" of humans are given dominance over anything else, even the rights of God. In fact, much talk about human rights is not much more than freeing humans from the worship of Allah.72

This is not a proper way of honoring humans. Indeed, this is a type of extremism. Whenever anything is magnified out of proportion and giving rights or responsibilities above what it can bear, the result will be harm and suffering. Humans cannot be put into a role where they are given the choice to decide everything for themselves, including what rights they must have upon one another. These kinds of issues can only be decided by their Creator who knows the innermost details of their creation and the interactions with the rest of creation.

In the law of Allah, by the mercy of Allah, Allah has given humans all of the rights that they need and deserve, as only He could possibly determine for them based on His knowledge and justice. They receive from God the rights that they need to live a prosperous and happy life. At the same time, though, they are also given responsibilities. Both rights and responsibilities have to go hand and hand for humans to interact with each other properly in this creation.

72 In fact, if a society decides it wishes to worship Allah completely, both as individuals and as a society, and thereby forbids certain practices, such as homosexuality, that society would definitely be accused of violating human rights today. In fact, if an individual submits to God and thereby avoids homosexuals in his life, he would be accused of not honoring human rights. In other words, as part of human rights, a human has virtually every right except the right to truly worship and submit oneself to God. 61

The greatest drawback, though, of the human rights proponents is that they can only touch upon rights related to this world. In this way, they are forgetting the most important right because it is beyond the realm of human experience. This is the right that Islam brings them-their special right upon Allah. This right is described in the following hadith:

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, "O Muaadh!" Muaadh replied, "At your beck and call, O Messenger of Allah." The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) then asked him, "Do you know what Allah's right is over His servants?" Muaadh replied, "Allah and His Messenger know best." The Prophet then told him, "Allah's right upon His servants is that they worship Him [alone] and do not ascribe any partners to Him." Then after a while, the Prophet said, "O Muaadh ibn Jabal!" He replied, "At your beck and call, O Messenger of Allah." The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) then asked him, "Do you know what the right of the servants upon Allah is if they do that?" He replied, "Allah and His Messenger know best." The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) then told him, "The right of the servants upon Allah is that He will not punish them."73

73 Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim. 62

By Allah's grace, He has made His religion open to anyone who wishes to enter it. There are virtually no obstacles to becoming a Muslim. In order to embrace Islam, there is no need for clergy, baptisms or special ceremonies. In fact, the act that makes one a Muslim is a simple declaration of one's faith. Thus, one only need state, "I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." Upon stating these sentences, one enters into the beautiful brotherhood/sisterhood of Islam, a brotherhood/sisterhood that stretches from the time of Adam until the last days of this earth.

In this chapter, there shall be a discussion of some of the details concerning the testimony of faith. In addition, there shall be a discussion of other actions that are mentioned in connection with the act of becoming a Muslim. This shall be followed by some laws related to one's state before becoming a Muslim.

The Testimony of Faith: There is None Worthy of Worship except Allah

A person becomes a Muslim by testifying to the truth of the statements: There is none worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Since this is a testimony or bearing witness to the truth of something, it must be a "public proclamation" (or, in other words, not something hidden within oneself but, instead, conveyed to others74). Ibn Abu al-Izz wrote,

[The Prophet (peace be upon him)] has made it absolutely clear that a person is definitely not a believer if it is claimed that he believes in the Prophet (peace be on him) but he does not profess it with his tongue, even though he can...75

74 A possible exception to this would be when one fears immediate death upon displaying one's Islam. Otherwise, one is expected to openly profess Islam even if he may face some opposition or hardship along the way. Such was the example of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and his Companions. 75 Ibn Abu al-Izz, vol. 2, pp. 471. The transla on used here is a pre-publication copy of Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari, trans., Commentary on the Creed of at-Tahawi by ibn Abi al-Izz (Riyadh: Ministry 63

This profession of the tongue plays a three-fold role. It is first a statement of a fact. One is testifying that he recognizes the truthfulness of that statement of faith. This would be analogous to a person giving testimony in a court of law. All he is really stating is that those are the facts that he believes to be true.

Second, though, it is statement of commitment to that fact. It is an admission by the person that he intends to adhere to the requirements and guidance of what he has testified to.

Third, it is a public proclamation that the individual has now joined the fold of Muslims, accepting all of the rights and responsibilities that such implies.

Muslims know that the key to Paradise is the statement, "There is none worthy of worship except Allah." Yet many Muslims simply rely upon this statement and believe that as long as they have said it, nothing will harm them. Because of this mere verbal statement of the testimony of faith, they think they will be granted Paradise However, the mere saying of the statement is not sufficient for salvation. In fact, the hypocrites used to say, "I testify that none is worthy of worship except Allah and…," yet Allah describes them as liars and says that they shall abide in the lowest abyss of the Hell-fire. Obviously, there are some conditions for any testimony but in particular for this testimony to be accepted by Allah there are some particular conditions76-and everyone should be extremely concerned over whether his testimony of faith is acceptable to Allah or not.

The famous Follower Wahb ibn Munabbih was once asked, "Isn't the statement of, 'There is none worthy of worship except Allah,' the key to Para-

of Higher Educa on, 2000). For the sake of the page numbering, the published version from Mu'assasat al-Risaalah will be the work referred to. 76 The conditions of the testimony of faith are well-known and discussed in numerous works. See, for example, Haafidh ibn Ahmad Hakimi, Ma'arij al-Qubool bi-Sharh Sullim al-Wusool ila Ilm alUsool fi al-Tauheed (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyah, 1983), vol. 1, pp. 307-315; Abdullah ibn Jibreen, al-Shahadataan (no city or publisher given, 1990), pp. 77-86; this author also presented most of this material on the two parts of the shahaadah in his The Friday Prayer: Part II: Khutbahs (I) (Aurora, CO: IANA, 1994), pp. 4-19; The Friday Prayer: Part III: Khutbahs (II) (Ann Arbor, MI: IANA, 1995), pp. 35-42. 64

dise?" He answered, "Yes, but every key has ridges. If you come with the key that has the right ridges, the door will open for you. Yet if you do not have the right ridges, the door will not open for you." These ridges are conditions that differentiate Muslims who will benefit from that statement from those who will not benefit from that statement, no matter how many times a day they may have made that statement.

A study of the verses of the Quran and the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) will show that there are a number of conditions for the soundness of one's testimony of faith. Again, it is important that every Muslim verify that he is meeting these conditions in his own life with respect to his own testimony of faith. The new convert should consider these conditions concerning his testimony of faith. Preferably (but not necessarily), these would have been explained to him before he undertook the declaration of faith.

The first condition is knowledge. One must have the necessary basic understanding of what is meant by the declaration of faith. One must understand what he is affirming and what he is denying in the declaration. This is true for any kind of testimony. When one testifies to something, one must know what it is that he is testifying concerning. Obviously, a testimony about something that one does not have any knowledge of is unacceptable. Allah says in the Quran, "Save him who bears witness unto the truth knowingly" (43:86).

Therefore, the basics of the testimony must be understood by the person testifying to it. If he does not understand, for example, that Allah is the only one worthy of worship and that all other gods are false gods, then he does not even have the most elementary understanding of what it is he claims to be testifying to. Such a testimony cannot be considered a proper one that is acceptable to Allah.