The Core of Faith

"La-ilaha illa-Allah wa-ashadu-anna Muhammad-a Rasoolo-Allah"

Translation - There is no God But Allah and Muhammed is the messenger of Allah.


What i've mentioned above is the Shahada - the confession of a muslim or the core of faith of muslim, and anyone who accepts Islam has to believe (and for those who convert to Islam have to recite it once just once to convert to Islam) in this whole heartedly. This is the ticket for a believer to be a muslim, and the only thing for one to be a muslim.

Now let me get down to explaining the Shahada in detail, bringing out the finer details of this ticket. This confession is devided into two parts :

1. No God but Allah.
2. Muhammed(pbuh) is the messenger of Allah.

We'll begin with the first part, the oneness of Allah. This in the very surface level states that one has to believe that God is one, and none other than Allah. And that we are not to take anyone else in worship along with him and he alone has the right to it. And violation of this very basic principle would lead to betrayal of ones testimonial.

On a deeper context, it also means that we are to obey all rules and regulations laid down by him without question, without any hesitation or thought. We dont have the right to choose whatever we like or the shiny ones from the lot and discarding the rules that are hard on us or difficult, all rules laid down by him shoud be accepted unconditionally. An example would be something like - I will not drink alchohol, but i deal in usury. Intentionaly breaking or ignoring rules is also a way of questioning Allah's authority.

Once a person agrees to Allah's authority, he will accept anything and everything Allah commands his servants or believers, and thats the reason why we agree that Muhammed is the messenger of Allah, which is the second part of a muslims confession.

The secon part has quite few meanings to it alone :

1. He is the messenger sent down by Allah.
2. All the powers of the messenger were gifted by Allah and none of these powers were possesed by the messenger otherwise.
3. You have obey the messenger.
4. Rules laid down by the messenger are only due to Allah's orders, and he (Muhammed) does not speak on his own will.
5. He is only a messenger, and not god, and the right to worship only belong to Allah and none else.

On accepting that Allah is the sole worshipper, one automatically agrees on all his rules and regulations, and only until one accepts this fact can one become a true believer.

(I shall try to discuss the rules set down by Allah in further upcoming posts, insha-Allah(if Allah wills))