Testifying

Now we saw how the shahada has two parts,

the shahadatain,

with a division between God and the Messenger,

but that first part,

the primary shahada,

itself splits into two parts.

The first part is called the Nafy,

the saying of what is not,

the negation.

The first word of the shahada is a negation,

the Arabic word meaning not or no,

'La'.

And what is not or no is Ilaha, a god.

There is no such thing as a god.

Well,

we know how ilaha means a god,

ilah, something that is not us,

with powers beyond our understanding,

but still gods we can imagine in all sorts of different ways,

gods of fire and gods of ice,

gods of the seas and skies.

We can imagine some kind of god like this,

bringing the world, or us, into being,

one god of possibly more than one,

but with the Nafy we deny this possibility.

There is no god like that.

Except, maybe there could be a god of a different sort,

and sure enough we have that other word for a god,

the word Allah,

the One God,

and here is where the second part of the first shahada comes in,

when the Nafy is transformed into the Ithbat,

the saying of what is,

the affirmation,

what you understand to be.

This is not a denial,

this is saying 'Yes'.

But even here, the affirmation begins with a negation,

dismissing the negation of the Nafy with its own negation,

Illa, meaning except, other than, if not.

We approach an understanding of what is beyond our understanding

through a sequence of negatives leading to a Name.

It is possible for there to be a god

only if that god is The God,

Allah,

the One God.

Godness is One.

Godness is not divisible.

God is the only kind of Being

that can create and sustain us and the universe,

beyond our imagining,

yet we seem to think that we simple humans

have some kind of two way communication with God,

and that from God we can receive information

about the nature of both God and ourselves,

our relationship, and the meaning of our lives.

We believe that sometimes God gives humanity guidance

as to their nature and their purpose.

Occasionally God sees fit to send someone to pass on a message

of good news and warning.

A Book read by many Messengers,

pointing to the Truth of humankind's life experience.

In tracing our contact with the Divine

back to the Qur'an and the Messenger, in the second shahada

we look to Muhammad as a model for us all,

and pledge ourselves to do our best

to follow the guidance he left us,

and look to his life example, the Sunnah,

and try to model our lives on his.

How do we follow the Messenger's way of life?