I seem to remember that in the original syllabus the Kalimah was put together with the first talk on prayer. Someone obviously thought that there wasn't enough about the Shahada to talk about for an hour - which I found quite incredible. Anyway, what follows may not take an hour to read, but it can easily take an hour to talk about.
 

ISLAMIC OUTREACH - Lesson Nine 

Profession of Faith


Kalimah Shahada and its significance

We talked of our religion being one of Truth and Tolerance.
And Ihsan - Goodness

We talked of belief in God being necessary for True understanding.

We talked about the Nature of God, the Oneness of He - Hu, the Variety of the Names.

We spoke about other things we need for True understanding, the articles of Islamic Faith - Iman - God, Angels, Books, Messengers, Afterlife, Divine Destiny.

We briefly mentioned the Five Pillars of Islam - now we come to the first of those Pillars

Just as the first and most important aspect of Faith concerns God, the first and most important Pillar does the same.

The Prophet said "I have brought nothing more important than the Shahada"

The Shahada is what makes you a muslim.

So what does this word mean? Observe, witness, testify.

It has a double meaning - seeing and making sense of something - speaking about it.

Speaking out converts the internal experience into the external, an act. You incorporate the Truth of what you have seen into your way of life. You live out the Truth of what you have seen, and if necessary die for it.

Shaheed from Shahada means 'martyr'

The understanding of God that you need for Iman does not require Arabic. What you have to witness to be considered a muslim can be translated into English, but the subtleties of meaning and beauty in the Arabic are way beyond translation, so as with the prayer the Arabic is invariably used.

Anyway, it's very short, so why not?

Ashhaduan la ilaha illa Allah, washhaduana Muhammadu rasul Allah!

Two witnessings in there did you hear?

Let us deal with the first part, the witnessing of God's existence in the Arabic language - "La ilaha illa Allah" - This also splits into two parts.

The first part is called the 'nafy' - the negation, the second half is called the 'ithbat' - the affirmation.

The Negation - La ilaha

This witnessing for us to speak doesn't say "God is". La - No. In the initial negative it is made clear that nothing you can think or imagine can encompass God. All our concepts are limited in scope - the Infinite is a mathematical concept, the Universe is a space-time concept.

Ilaha - God. No God? We talked before of ilaha being one god of many, like the Greek gods, the Hindu gods, Bali's gods of field and stream. There are no 'gods', these are not truly existing. They may be useful expressions of natural truths, or the human condition, but they do not truly exist. At his lowest level, man can make idols and come to see them as gods. Then they worship them.

But no one in the modern west does that surely? What is the most important thing in your life except your god. Some people shape their lives around some very strange idols. Pop or movie stars - footballers or TV programmes. Michael Jackson - is he human or man-made? Are these idols really gods or just Neighbours (everybody needs good neighbours with a little understanding they can brighten up your day). People shape their lives around cats or highly polished cars. Where can we see the modern equivalent of cathedrals? Natwest? The Stock Exchange?

La ilaha - no gods - you will not find the Truth in these idols.

La ilaha illa Allah

Illa is a combination word - 'in-la' - 'if-not', a bridge between the negation and the affirmation of God, the conditional facing  the negation and the negative facing the affirmation. The juxtaposition of "if" and two negatives is a miraculous magical paradoxical way out of our world toward that which can not not be - Allah.

Allah, the Name of God - The One God of which we have spoken. This phrase which muslims use so frequently appears only once in the Qur'an to my knowledge. Surah Muhammad (47.19)

Know thou therefore that there is no god but God,
and ask for forgiveness for thy sin, and for the believers, men and women.
God knows your going to and fro, and your lodging.

Qur'an usually uses the phrase "Allahu la ilaha illahu".

The Shahada is specifically created to suit the nature of humankind. The first shahada casts man into endlessness, the Eternal, the Tremendous. The second witnessing is a lifeline to keep us anchored to humanity.

Washhaduana Muhammadu rasul Allah

This translates as 'I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God'

It took me three months to say this second half of the Shahada after having said the first - because I didn't know who the man was enough to make such a statement with any sense of belief. I had to learn about him first. God we have talked about quite a lot, but who was Muhammad the man? For that you have to read the Seerah, his life story, and that we will deal with later in the series.