What is Islam
01- The Holly Kalimah
02- Salaah (The Prayer)
03- Zakaah
04- Soum (Fasting)
05- Hajj
06- Taqwaa (Piety)
07- Honesty in Dealing
08- Social Conduct & Mutual Relations
09- Good Manners & Nobel Qualities
10- Love of Allah, Nabi (SAWW)
11- Preaching & Propagation
12- Constancy
13- Jihad
14- Martyrdom
15- Life after Death
16- Heaven & Hell
17- Zikr
18- Dua
19- Durood Shareef
20- Taubah
THE HOLY KALIMAH
There is no God (No one is worthy of worship and obedience)
but Allah (Subhahnahu Wata'aalaa)
and Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam) is His Apostle.
Brothers! This confession is the gateway to Islam, the arch-stone of the faith. By affirming it and reciting it with sincerity and conviction even a life-long heathen or a polytheist can become a Muslim, a man of faith, and earn his title to salvation. The condition, however, is that he should have accepted conscientiously and with full understanding of the declaration of the Oneness of Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa) and the Apostleship of Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam) contained in it. Thus, any one who repeats the confession mechanically, without understanding it and without knowing what the concepts of Divine Unity and Apostleship and Prophethood means, will not gain recognition in the sight of Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa) as a Muslim. It is therefore, necessary, to study its meaning and implications carefully.
THE FIRST PART OF KALIMAH
The confession consists of two parts. The first part contains
the affirmation of the Oneness of Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa). It
means that no one except Allah Almighty is worthy of worship and
obedience. Worship and obedience should be offered to Him alone because
He and no one else is our Lord and Creator, Nourisher and Sustainer and
the Dispenser of life and death, sickness and health, poverty and
riches, in short, all manner of good and evil, gain or loss, lies
solely in His control. Apart from Him, whatever living things exist on
the earth, or in the heavens, be they men or angels, are all His
creatures and slaves. He is partnered by no one, no one has a share in
His Divinity nor can any one amend or alter His Will, or interfere with
His affairs. Hence, He and He alone is worthy of devotion and worship.
He alone is the Supreme Being, the Almighty, to whom all our prayers
and supplications should be addressed. He alone is the real Owner of
the heavens and the earth, the Monarch of all monarchs, the Lord
Sovereign. It is, therefore, necessary that all His commands and
injunctions are strictly obeyed and faithfully carried out. As against
His commands the commands of no one should be heeded to no matter
whether they are of our parents or rulers or of the head of the
community or a dear friend, or the biddings of our own heart. In a
nutshell, when once we have realized and confessed the truth that Allah
(Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa) alone, and no one besides Him, is worthy of
worship and obedience our conduct should also be in conformity with it,
so much so that any one who sees us should know by our behaviour that
we are the devoted servants of the Lord who carry out His commands
dutifully and live and die for His sake alone.
Brothers' This
is the keystone of Islam and the first and foremost item in the
teachings of all the Prophets. It occupies the highest and the most
important place in the religious scheme of teachings A famous Tradition
of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam) reads:
"There are
more than seventy departments of the faith and among them the most
superior and exalted is belief in the Kalimah of ".
For this reason among the Zikr (specific phrase for Remembrance of Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa) also it is the best.
States the Prophet:
"Of all the Zikr the best and most excellent is that of ".
In another Tradition, it is related that once Allah (Subhaanahu
Wata'aalaa) gave this reply to a question put to Him by Prophet Moses
(Alaihis Salaam):
"O Moses! If the seven heavens and the seven earths and all that is contained in them, are placed on one side of the balance and on the other, the side on which is placed will turnout to be heavier."
Brothers!
This unique virtue and excellence is due solely to the fact that it
contains the solemn affirmation of Divine Unity, the assertion, the
pledge and the declaration that we shall worship Him alone and, offer
our homage and obeisance to no one apart from Him, and shall make Him
the sole pivot of our existence. It, indeed, is the life-breath of
Islam.
That is why the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihe
Wasallam) has advised Muslims to refresh and to reinvigorate their
faith by repeating the Kalimah frequently.
It is narrated that
the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam) once said, "O men! Keep on
refreshing your faith". Upon this the Companion enquired, "O Prophet
(Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam) of Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa)! How are
we to do so?" The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallarn) replied, "By
reciting the Kalimah frequently."
The Kalimah of
holds the power to restore and revitalise the faith for the simple
reason that it embodies the affirmation of Divine Unity and the
covenant to worship Him alone, to do allegiance to none beside Him and
to hold Him dearer and nearer to the heart than anything or anybody
else in the world. As we have said earlier, it is the essence, the
sustaining principle of Islam. So, the more we will utter it
attentively, concentrating duly on what it stands for, the more will
our faith gain in vitality and our covenant in strength, and our whole
life will, InshaaAllah, get cast in the mould of .
THE SECOND PART OF KALIMAH:
The second part of the Kalimah consists of .
In it the affirmation is made of the Divine Apostleship of Prophet
Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam). Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu
Alaihe Wasallam) is the Apostle of Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa) means
that he was raised up by the Almighty for the guidance of the world and
whatever he taught, preached or revealed like the Divinity of the
origin of the Holy Quraan, the existence of angels, the certainty of
the Last Day the Resurrection, the Judgment, the award of heaven and
hell according to one's deeds on the earth was hundred percent true and
authentic. Indeed the Apostleship of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu
Alaihe Wasallam) denotes nothing more and nothing less than this that
all the things he taught to the world, all the truths he revealed to
mankind, were based on Divine inspiration, that they were based on
special and authoritative knowledge vouchsafe to him by Allah
(Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa) and so they were absolutely correct and beyond
doubt. There is not the least excuse or the slightest reason, for
doubting or questioning his word. The guidance he gave to men, the laws
he laid down, were Divine guidance and Divine laws which had been
inspired to him by the Almighty. You would have realised that the
acceptance of any one as a Divine Apostle automatically implies that
each and every precept and command of him should be whole-heartedly
believed in and obeyed, for Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa) raised up His
Apostles in the world solely to convey through them to mankind the
commands and precepts He wants to be followed. Allah (Subhaanahu
Wata'aalaa) says in the Holy Quraan.
We sent not an Apostle, but to be obeyed in accordance with the will of Allah (Subhahnahu Wata'aalaa) [IV:G-64]
To
believe in anyone as an Apostle and to accept him as such, thus, means
simply to hold every word of his as true, to regard his teachings and
guidance to be the teachings and guidance of Allah (Subhaanahu
Wata'aalaa), and to decide once for all, to lead one's life according
to the precepts he taught. So, if a person recites the Kalimah but does
not, as a logical consequence of it, resolve firmly to hold all the
teachings of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam) to be wholly true
and all that may run counter to them to be wholly false, and to abide
by his Shariah (holy law) and his commands faithfully, he, of course is
not a man of faith and a Muslim. He, probably, has not even understood
what it means to be a Muslim.
It is obvious that once we have
recited the Kalimah and accepted the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihe
Wasallam) as the true Apostle of Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa) it
becomes obligatory for us to believe in his guidance, to adhere his,
commands and to observe faithfully the Shariah he brought.
A Covenant:
From
the meaning and interpretation of the Holy Kalimah given above, you
will have realised that it is a covenant. It embodies the pledge and
the vow that we believe in Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa) as the One and
Only Lord, Sovereign, Master and Creator, and regard everything that
exists in this world and the Hereafter to be exclusively in His
control, and that, since we do so, we will worship Him alone and carry
out His commands the way a servant and a slave carries out the commands
of his master, and love Him and adore Him above all else, and further,
that we accept Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam) as the
true Apostle of Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa), and will abide by his
guidance as a loyal follower, and fashion our lives according to the
holy law laid down by him. In fact, faith denotes nothing except this
pledge and covenant and this is precisely what the affirmation of
Divine Unity and Apostleship means.
A Muslim should,
therefore, hold himself bound by this covenant and try his level best
to shape his conduct in its light so that he may earn recognition in
the eyes of Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa) as a genuine man of faith and
attain his salvation and place in the paradise.
Those who are
blessed enough to bear faith honestly in both the parts of the holy
Kalimah and to give proof of it by word as well as by deed are the
recipients of countless glad tidings like the one reproduced below:
It is related by Hadhrat Anas that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam) once said to Hadhrat Mo'aaz, "Allah (Subhaanahu Wata'aalaa) has declared as forbidden the fire of the hell for him who affirms the Kalimah of with a true heart."
Brothers! Affirm with a true heart and with a full knowledge and awareness of its implications and importance and resolve now and forever to lead your lives according to it in order that your attestation may not turn out to be false. On this very attestation depends your faith and your salvation.