The Meaning of the Testimony of Faith
1. What Is the Testimony of Faith?
The testimony of faith is the statement that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger.
A person makes this testimony with his or her tongue, heart, and behavior – that worshipping anything other than the True God is invalid, and that he disbelieves in worship of anything else because they did not, cannot, and will not create, give life, and cause death.
Furthermore, only Allah and nothing else has the power to resurrect and judge His creations.
2. Allah Alone Controls the Laws of Nature
Likewise, no one can break or change the laws of nature that Allah has made a part of this universe; the sun rises from the east, and no one besides Allah can make it rise from the west.
The cycles of day and night and summer and winter are fixed and no one can prevent the night from coming so that the day will be eternal, nor the opposite.
Plants, animals, and humankind regularly alternate in their life-cycles of birth, growth, adulthood, reproduction and death.
Winds blow in every direction on Earth and no one besides Allah, the Creator, can stop them at any time or control their directions.
3. Worship and Devotion Belong to Allah Alone
Since everything in the universe is regulated by God as He has determined and nothing can do anything without His permission, then it follows that nothing else is worthy of our complete worship and devotion and whoever does acts of worship for anything other than Allah by praying, sacrificing, supplicating, and so forth is described in the Qur’an as ignorant, erroneous, slanderous, astray, unjust, an oppressor, a loser, a criminal and a heretic.
4. Allah Knows Everything About His Creation
Since God is the Creator of all creatures, He knows everything about them down to the most minute and hidden details of their existences.
He knows what they do when they are alone and what is in their hearts, even if they never act on it.
It follows that the Only One who knows each person’s secrets is also the Only One deserving of all of their complete devotion.
5. Allah’s Blessings and the Duty to Worship Him
Since God is the one who provided all creatures with countless blessings, especially the children of Adam, whom He favored over much of His creations by subjecting everything in the heavens and earth to be controlled by them, these creations are obliged to worship their Lord, who raised them in honor with His grace.
6. Allah Is the True Ruler of the Universe
And since God is the True Ruler who has always and will always manage things how he wills and manifest destiny as he wishes; this necessitates that people should worship their Lord – the Ruler, the Great, the Mighty, the Powerful, the Omnipotent, and the Dominant because it is only He who manages the universe and proportions everything perfectly.
7. The Universe Has One True God
Consider that if there was anything worthy of worship other than God, then all of the perfect systems of the universe would be corrupted in the heavens and the earth due to the conflicting wills of these separate gods and chaos would prevail.
8. Worship Allah Alone
Therefore, no sun nor star, nor moon, nor planet, nor stone, nor tree, nor cow, nor angel, nor human – dead or alive, nor prophet – neither Jesus nor Muhammad, should be worshipped alongside or instead of Allah, the One True God, who commanded all people to worship Him alone, and direct all of their acts of worship to Him, such as:
➢ prayer,
➢ prostration,
➢ bowing,
➢ supplication,
➢ circumambulation,
➢ fasting,
➢ sacrifice,
➢ vows,
➢ fear and hope.
9. The True Muslim
A true Muslim is a person who testifies that there is no true god to be worshipped except the One True God and follows this testimony with righteous deeds according to what is in the Quran and the example of the Last Prophet, Muhammad, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him and his family.