Testifying

Now you may remember from Level 2

that we talked about the meaning of the Shahada,

not only what the words mean,

no God if not the One God,

but also what saying those words should mean

to the life of any person who says them.

They are about the way that we choose to live our lives,

and about the way that we understand everything.

So of course,

the Shahada being about everything that we think and do

means we will always find more to it

whenever we choose to look at it more closely.

And the first thing you notice

is that it splits neatly into two.

And in fact some people like to say more than the simplest Shahada,

saying

"I bear witness that there is no god except God,

and I bear witness that Muhammad is God's Messenger and servant".

And some people add even more to it.

So in the Shahada, it's possible

to use the words for witnessing twice

once for each half,

and that's because

the two halves are about quite different things.

First there is God,

and then there is the Messenger.

And the first witnessing deals with how

God is the One and only One.

But how is it possible that God is the only One?

If there's one god isn't it possible that there are others?

Well, the Arabic words that we use deal with this in a very clever way.

The word that we use for those gods that there are none of is the Arabic word "ilaha",

which means a god of any sort that people think there can be more than one of.

But then we use a different word for the kind of God

like Whom there can only be One.

"Allah" is not a word for a type of thing,

but the Name of The One

like Whom there is no other.

Now Jews and Christians will also happily say that first part of the Shahada,

as they both agree on the Oneness of God,

and "Allah" is the name that Arabic speaking Christians use for God.

But obviously they wouldn't say the second part of the Shahada,

because they don't usually recognise Muhammad as a Messenger.

When we witness that Muhammad is

the Messenger of God,

it means that we recognise

that the words he spoke

that we know of as the Qur'an

are the words of God,

the words that God chose

to pass down to the Messenger

to guide humankind.

And with witnessing

that Muhammad is God's Messenger,

we choose to follow his example.

Other religions may believe in One God,

but muslims have the blessings that come from following the Messenger's example,

praying and fasting as he did,

and trying to live a good life,

the muslim way of life,

the Deen.