Questions on dhikr

X. QUESTIONS ON WHAT CONSTITUTES ISLAM AND THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE KALIMAT AL-SHAHADA

Is it better to delay the aspiring Muslim’s utterance of the kalima al-shahada (Phrase of Witnessing) on the grounds, as some claim, that its utterance is null and void or at best insufficient and incomplete unless one first achieves knowledge of its meaning and implications, and acts upon it?

FORTY HADITHS ON

“WHOEVER SAYS LA ILAHA ILLALLAH

ENTERS PARADISE”

It is our obligation to make things easy in matters of religion and not to turn away those whom Allah causes to knock at our door in search of the acts that lead to salvation. Allah said that He did not create the jinn and humankind except to worship Him, and Ibn ‘Abbas explained that “worship” in this context meant knowledge. And the beginning, middle, and end of knowledge in Allah’s sight is to know that there is no god except Him, and He said: “Know that there is no god but Allah” (47:19). Therefore, any non-Muslim in whom Allah has placed the desire to say the kalima tayyiba of Shahada must be encouraged to say it on the spot and without further delay. As for its perfect understanding, even several lifetimes might not suffice to reach it, nor have any of the Imams of Shari‘a predicated one’s Islam upon it. This is because true understanding of tawhid—oneness of Allah—is not the province of actions but of belief, which lies hidden in the heart.

This is our method by which thousands and thousands have entered and continue to enter Islam in the Americas and Europe, and praise for it belongs to Allah who brings whomever He will, and no one can stop it nor delay it in the least. We therefore disown and denounce the method of those mosques and their leaders whereby non-Muslims are made to linger in their state and ordered to read and study before they can say shahada. Let them say it right away! For who knows if they or we will see the next second: did they not hear that the Prophet said “Your breaths are counted”?

As for knowledge of the meanings and implications of the shahada, as we have said, it comes later, as it does even for older or native Muslims. Perhaps it is some of the latter that had better look whether their own shahada is “null and void or at best insufficient,” and we pray that Allah corrects and guides them. They want to see a tree bearing fruit before they even plant the seed, and Allah said: “Do you not see how Allah gave as the parable of a good word (the kalima tayyiba) a good tree that is firmly rooted and its branches reach the sky. It bears fruit at all times, under orders from its Lord. So does Allah explain parables for men that they may take heed” (14:24-25). Thus the utterance of la ilaha illallah is the seed, the tree, and the fruit all at once depending on the context of its utterance in life.
More importantly, it is established in countless hadiths that the mere utterance of the shahada carries immense blessing, namely the Prophet’s promise that he who utters such a tremendous phrase shall enter Paradise. We have collected forty authentic hadiths on this topic and have mentioned the Arabic wording of some of them:

1. The Prophet said: “Whoever says: there is no god but Allah enters Paradise.” Tabarani narrated it from Abu Dharr in the Kabir (7:55), Ibn Hibban in his Sahih (31), al-Hakim in his Mustadrak (4:251), al-Mundhiri in al-Targhib (2:422), al-Haythami in Majma‘ al-zawa’id (1:18), Ibn ‘Adi (7:2639), Abu Nu‘aym in the Hilya (7:174), and al-Bazzar from ‘Umar.

2. The Prophet said: “Whoever says there is no god but Allah enters Paradise even if he commits adultery and even if he steals (i.e. even if he commits great sins).” (Nasa’i, Tabarani and others from Abu al-Darda’—sahih)
3. The Prophet said: “Whoever witnesses that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger, Allah forbids the Fire from touching him.” Narrated by Bukhari and Muslim from ‘Ubada ibn al-Samit.

Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari, book of riqaq ch. 14 (1989 ed. 11:324) says that the hadiths of “Allah forbids the Fire from touching him” are even more explicit than those of “Allah will enter him into Paradise” in establishing that the one who declares Allah’s oneness is saved even if he does not heed the orders and the prohibitions.

4. The Companions were talking about Malik ibn Dukhshum, and they wished that the Prophet would curse him so that he should die or meet some calamity. The Prophet said: “Does Malik ibn Dukhshum not testify to the fact that there is no god but Allah and that I am the messenger of Allah?” They said: “Yes, he no doubt says this but it is not in his heart.” The Prophet replied: “No-one ever witnesses that there is no god but Allah and that I am Allah’s Messenger and then enters the Fire nor is consumed by it.” Anas said: “This hadith impressed me so much that I ordered my son to write it down and he did.” Muslim narrates it.
5. The Prophet said that Allah will save a man of his community the record of whose sins fills 99 books, each book extending as far as the eye can see. Against all this will be weighed the one good deed that he has, which is his witnessing that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger, and it will outweigh all the rest. The Prophet then said: “Nothing is of any weight with Allah’s Name.”
[The hadith begins: innallaha sayukhallisu rajulan min ummati...] Narrated from ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Asi by Ahmad, Tirmidhi (Iman 17 - hasan gharib), al-Hakim, and Bayhaqi in Shu‘ab al-iman.

These are among the hadiths that the Wahhabi and “Salafis” are bent on destroying through the manipulation of their meanings, like the Mu‘tazila did with the hadiths of intercession, because these hadiths do not fit their views. They assert therefore that whoever “only” witnesses to Allah’s oneness is still not safe from the Fire—contrary to the very words of the Prophet—until he meets the following conditions added by them:

a) he must first acquire the full knowledge of the meanings of the kalima tayyiba (!)

b) his actions must first verifiably fulfill all the demands of the kalima tayyiba both inwardly and outwardly (!)

One example of these false views of the “Salafi” propagandists is given in the commentary on Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab’s Kitab al-tawhid by his grandson ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab in the latter’s book Fath al-majid sharh kitab al-tawhid (7^th ed. Muhammad al-Fiqqi, 1377/1957), a notorious Wahhabi reference-book, a kind of anthology of errors replete with heresies. In the following excerpts, observe how the Wahhabi/Salafis twist the meanings of these foundational hadiths about the sufficiency of the kalima tayyiba in order to make them say the exact opposite of their explicit meanings by interpolating the condition that one must necessarily act, and that, contrary to what the Prophet said, saying the kalima tayyiba is not enough for one to enter Paradise! A gross lie committed against the Prophet, and the Prophet said: “Whoever lies about me (i.e. about what I said) intentionally, let him prepare himself for the Fire.”

In the excerpt, the author pretends to address the hadith of the Prophet: “Whoever witnesses that there is no god but Allah alone, without partner, and that Muhammad is his servant and messenger, and that ‘Isa (Jesus) is Allah’s servant and his messenger and His word (i.e. His direct order) which He cast upon Mary and a spirit which came from Him, and that the Paradise is real, and the Fire is real: Allah will enter him into Paradise regardless of his deeds” (Bukhari and Muslim from ‘Ubada ibn al-Samit).