by Siraj Islam
This article was originally published on the Lamp of Islam blog, and it is a collection of 22 deep investigations into the shahadah (Testimony of Faith). Click on the title of each reason to read the detailed study on the respective areas.
Here are 22 SERIOUS REASONS shahada should contain no name except God’s:
1. The first commandment of Islam has no name in it except God’s
While human idols are a root cause of all conflicts and divisions – the true shahada, devoted to one God alone, helps all humanity to unify under the banner of their one Creator.
2. ‘La ilaha illa Allah’ is the only shahada found in the Quran
The awareness of God’s oneness is depicted in the Quran as a testimony that ‘There is no god but God’, which, by definition, cannot have any name in it except God’s.
3. The Quran doesn’t authorize any added name in the shahada
God has never authorized names of ‘others’ to be associated with His name. And so God was not unmindful when He persistently excluded all others’ names from shahada.
4. Islam revolves around Oneness and so should shahada
Since the whole system of Islam is for God alone, and because shahada, or witnessing the Oneness, is the core of Islam, it also should be devoted to God alone.
5. In all service we should remember only the ever-living One who never dies
In the extended shahada, a dead human is constantly named and remembered along with the ever-living God as God’s human counterpart.
6. We are not allowed to make distinctions between the messengers
Accepting all messengers as equal without making any distinction is one of the fundamentals of Islam. We should never favour one messenger over another.
7. God is enough as a witness that Muhammad was God’s messenger
We are asked not to bear witness about Muhammad or any other messenger. God is enough as a witness about them.
8. The Quran relates the testimony ‘Muhammadur Rasulullah’ to hypocrisy
The only instance in the Quran where Muhammad appears in ‘shahada’ is, ironically, a speech uttered by the hypocrites. The Quran relates this additional testimony to hypocrisy.
9. The Quran links the added shahada to rejection
The Quran describes associating ‘others’ with God, such as adding Muhammad to the shahada, as rejection, i.e., a deviation from the acknowledgement of God’s absolute oneness.
10. Pairing God with Muhammad violates holistic logic
By associating Muhammad with God in shahada, Muhammadans somehow perceive God + Muhammad as two reciprocal halves of a divine pair and so violate the holistic awareness about God.
11. The Quran condemns those who mention ‘others’ with God
Quran 39:45 presents as a CRITERION for distinguishing true Muslims from idolaters as it identifies the mentioning of ‘OTHERS’ alongside God as a sign of idolatry.
12. Associating sanctified creatures with God is idolatry, the gravest offense in Islam
Associating other authorities with God creates a polytheistic splitting of thoughts. This disjointed mindset or shirk is the toxic root of all evil acts and so the gravest offense in Islam.
13. Extended shahada is not a requirement to be or become a Muslim
The traditional understanding that the so-called full shahada is a requirement to be or become a Muslim, seriously contradicts the central messages of the Quran.
14. Extended shahada is not a requirement for salvation
Extended shahada is not essential for salvation. Rather, as an act of potential association with God, it may itself become a serious obstacle to salvation.
15. Islam is not about any particular messenger
Islam is peace-seeking through a continuous journeying along the path of knowledge and justice. Its faith system is not centred on the highlighting or glorification of a human.
16. The Quran presaged the extended shahada as deviation
Associating Muhammad with God in shahada, a deviation from original Islam, was something that the Quran recurrently presaged and warned against.
17. Extended shahada creates false religions by inventing secondary authorities
The extended shahada, with ongoing repetitions, turns Muhammad the human into a divine associate and so into a second author in divine legislation.
18. Sectarian shahada is based on baseless hadiths
The extended shahada, not found in the Quran, has its sole basis only in baseless hadiths, or lahwaal hadeeth (31:6), as the Quran calls them.
19. ‘Shahada hadiths’ are contradictory and confused
We need to decide whether we should accept the Quranic shahada of one God or the extended shahada/s of contradictory hadiths that set up idols besides God.
20. Sectarian shahada was a later invention
The Quran doesn’t authorize any name in shahada except God’s. Then the extended shahada evolved as a violation to this monotheistic concept.
21. Earliest ‘dated Muslim texts’ constantly remember God but never Muhammad
Muhammad’s name, and so the sectarian shahada, did not appear in any of these physical records any earlier than the time of 5th Umayyad Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik.
22. The dual shahada evolved in line with an increasing idolization of Muhammad
Dated Muslim texts and coins from the earlier Islamic decades expose the devolution of the original shahada of Unity into the present-day shahadatan of Duality.
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