44. The “SHAHADAH” or Declaration of Faith (Declaration de la Foi)

 

Besides the purely spiritual beliefs looked at in the preceding topics, a set of actions are an integral part of the fact of being a Moslem, of which the “Shahadah”, or declaration of faith constitutes the cornerstone of the religion.

The declaration of faith consists in “bearing witness” of our admission that we believe in Allah only, and that there is no other god except Him. Moslems need to see the meaning of certain words, such as “god”, in the sense and intent Allah gives them in Quran, because He is going to judge us according to His ways, not ours.

Despite its importance, the Declaration of faith is not clearly spelled out as such in Quran. The closest instance where we can find something in that regard is Allah Himself bearing witness to something that all Moslems should subscribe to, in 3:18 “Allah bore witness that there is no other god but Him, in charge of justice, there is no god but Him, the High, the Wise”. But it all meshes with what Quran is about: the recognition that Allah is the most important thing in the life of the believer, well above anything else.

Moslems generally claim that there is a dual declaration of faith, stating that:

• There is no other god but Allah, and that
• Mohammed is the messenger of Allah.

Although the second statement is true, mentioning it could contravene two of Allah’s crucial commandments to the validity of the faith:

• The situation of associating someone else with Allah ( When Allah alone is mentioned, you disbelieved, but when others are mentioned with Him, you believe), and
• The interdiction of making a distinction between messengers and between prophets. ( 4150:151 “Those who disbelieve in Allah and His messengers, and want to make a distinction between Allah and His messengers, and say ‘we believe in some and disbelieve in some’, and want to adopt a way in between, those are the real disbelievers, and We prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating suffering”).

Allah completes the two verses above with 4:153: “And those who believed in Allah and His messengers, and did not make a distinction among any of them, to those he will them their recompense…”