Understanding the Shahada: La Ilaha Illallah

The Key to Paradise

Explanation of Shaykh Ubaid al-Jabiree
By Abu Muaadh Taqweem Aslam
Notes from Lesson 1

In this series of lessons, we will be discussing the shahada. The shahada of the
Muslim, the highest pillar of Al-Islaam. That is evidenced by the hadeeth of Jibril
(alaihi sallam) because when Jibril (alaihi sallam) came to the Prophet (sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam) in the famous narration known as The Hadeeth of Jibril, he said
to the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), Tell me about Islaam. The Prophet
(sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) replied that Islaam is that you bear testification that
there is none worthy of worship in truth except Allah and that Muhammad is the
final Messenger of Allah. This testification, this shahada, is the greatest pillar of alIslaam. All the other pillars follow behind this pillar. All the other pillars are based
upon this pillar, meaning that if a person does not have this pillar intact, a person
does not testify to the shahada, a person does not believe in the shahada, a person
does not accept it, instead he rejects it, then even if he fasts, even if he prays, even
if he gives the zakaat, even if he performs the Hajj, then all those other actions will
not be accepted. They will not be accepted if the shahada is not intact.
The first affair that everyone must give importance to is the shahada. We see the
importance of that from some other narrations of the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam) and how the shahada is the foundation, the basis, the principle affair in this
religion. One of those hadeeth is the hadeeth of ibn Abbas (raiallahu anhumma)
who mentions that the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) send Muadh ibn Jabal
(raiallahu anhu) to go and give dawah in Yemen. When the Prophet (sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam) sent him, he advised him, That you will come to the Jews and the
Christians, Ahlul-Kitaab, and the first thing you need to call them to is the shahada.
He advised him to explain to them la ilaha illallah, tawheed, the foundation and
principle of this religion.
Then the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said, If they accept that, then tell
them that Allah has prescribed upon them five prayers in every day and every
night. Only after they accept the shahadah can you move on and tell them about
the other obligations because if the shahadah is not established and accepted, then
the other affairs will not be accepted.
There is another example from the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam) that indicates the importance of beginning with tawheed, with the shahada.
In the hadeeth of Sahl ibn Sad (raiallahu anhumma), he mentions that the Prophet
(sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) and the Companions went towards Khaybar. At that
time, Khaybar was known for its agriculture and greenery and it was the residence
of the Jews. When they arrived, the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) told the

Companions, Tomorrow, I am going to give the flag of the army to a man from
amongst you, a person who loves Allah and His Messenger and Allah loves him. In
the end, it was Ali ibn Abi Talib (raiallahu anhu) who was given the flag, but before
he was given the flag to take and lead the army, the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam) said to him, When you go there, go calmly and peacefully. Then when you
arrive at the boundary of the land, first, tell them about al-Islaam. Tell them about
the shahada. Tell them about the obligations and the rights of Allah upon them. And
the greatest right of Allah upon His servants is tawheed (which is the essence of the
shahada).
So those are a couple examples that highlight the importance of the shahada, the
fact that the shahada is the basis of the religion, the foundation of the religion, that
it is of extreme importance that every Muslim understands it, not to be like, as
Shaykh al-Fawzaan (hafidhahullah) mentions, not to be like those people who simply
say they are Muslims by name, but in reality, if you were to question them about the
shahada, about what tawheed is, about what the basics of the religion regarding
tawheed and the conditions and the principles of the shahada are, they would be
unable to give it to you. Everybody should know what the meaning behind La ilaha
illa Allah is. They should not be like those who claim to be Muslim but dont know
anything about the shahada.
So, this series will cover the various conditions that are applicable to this shahada,
the conditions that every Muslim needs to be aware of in the implementation and
the practice of the shahada. Before going into the actual conditions, we should
briefly remind ourselves of two things. One of those is that we are here seeking
knowledge sincerely for the sake of Allah, to remove ignorance from ourselves and
then to remove ignorance from others, such as our family members, friends and
neighbors, particularly if you see they are upon a methodology or way which is not
the correct understanding of tawheed.
The one who is sincere to Allah is the one who will truly benefit as opposed to the
one who comes with other intentions. This is the purpose Allah gave you. He said in
the Quran, I did not create the jinn or mankind except for them to worship me.
That is the purposed Allah has placed us upon the earth for. Therefore, it is upon
every person to seek the knowledge of his religion in order that he can then fulfill
his purpose upon this earth which is to worship Allah upon tawheed. You can only
worship Allah upon tawheed through knowledge of how to worship Allah upon
tawheed. So, let it be known that this religion you are seeking knowledge of is the
greatest of the affairs. And thats why the scholars say that from the greatest acts
of worship is seeking knowledge of the religion of Allah, knowledge of tawheed,
knowledge of aqeedah, knowledge of the Quran and the Sunnah. A person needs to
remember this and make his intention sincerely for the sake of Allah. Just as Allah
mentioned in the Quran, that they were not commanded except to worship Allah
sincerely upon tawheed.
And that is why the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) mentioned in the famous
hadeeth, That indeed all your actions are in accordance to your intention. For the
one who has the righteous intention, he will be recompensed with the according

reward. The one who has the evil or corrupt intention, even though he is doing the
same actions as everyone else, will be recompensed upon the corrupt or evil
intention. So, be sure that your intentions are pure, sincerely for the sake of Allah,
to practice this religion in the manner that Allah revealed in the Quran and the
Sunnah. As we said previously, through learning that knowledge, you should be able
to nurture others upon that way, your children, the greatest of them. You can
nurture your children upon Islaam properly, upon the understanding of tawheed.
They should begin learning so that they know la ilaha illallah and the conditions of it
by the age of 4,5 or 6. So the first thing is that one seeks the knowledge sincerely
for the sake of Allah. The intention must be pure and sincere.
The second thing a person must keep in mind is the effort required. For a person to
gain knowledge, it requires effort. It requires that a person strives. It requires that a
person puts himself out in the seeking of knowledge. Thats why Ibn Kathir
mentioned, Knowledge cannot be achieved through the relaxation of the body. For
the one who wants to give his body ease, then that type of person is not the one
who will seek knowledge. That is not the type of person who will gain the
understanding of his religion. The one who will gain the understanding of his religion
is the one who strives in seeking knowledge. As time goes by, the Shaytaan comes
and visits the people and whispers to the people and discourages them from
seeking knowledge and you see the zeal and enthusiasm of the people decrease.
And that should not be the case. The one who is sincere in seeking knowledge, the
one who is genuinely striving to gain knowledge of the religion, then he is the one
who is consistent and persistent upon that. The lack of knowledge causes problems
to the heart and that is a greater problem than not eating and drinking which just
causes the loss of some weight. Thats why the scholars say the need for knowledge
is even greater than the need for food and drink.
Knowledge isnt something which is a secondary priority. That is a mistake the
people make. Something else takes priority over the circle of knowledge. The
priority should be the knowledge. That is the way a student should think. Take the
example of Umar ibn al-Khattab (raiallahu anhu) that he used to look after some
sheep and his neighbor also used to look after some sheep. It wasnt possible for
both to go every single day to sit with the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) to
seek knowledge because someone had to take care of the sheep. But they made
knowledge a priority. They made an agreement between themselves that while one
was sitting with the sheep, the other would go and sit with the Prophet (sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam) and at the end of the day the one sitting with the Prophet
(sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) would return and share what he learned with the one
who stayed behind with the sheep. Then the next day, they would switch places. In
this manner, the sheep were taken care of and one of them was always with the
Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) and neither missed any benefit from the
lessons.
The ummah will be rectified when the people return to their religion. And turning
back to the religion only comes through seeking this knowledge. How do the people
expect the ummah to have strength when they themselves use the smallest of
excuses to avoid seeking knowledge?

This book that explains the conditions of la ilaha illallah, the conditions that are
required of you in your understanding of la ilaha illallah. They are typically
mentioned as seven conditions. What do we mean by condition? What does it mean
when we say that the shahada has conditions? What is a condition? Shaykh Ubayd
al-Jabiree (hafidhahullah) mentions shuroot, which is the plural of shart
(condition), linguistically means signs which indicate something. Islamically, it
means those things (affairs) which are an absolute necessity upon an individual
who has the burden of responsibility upon him to know and to act upon. Those who
dont have the burden of responsibility upon them are the children who have not yet
reached the age of puberty, the one who is asleep until he wakes up, the one who
has lost his mental faculties. Besides these people, every Muslim individual who has
reached the age of puberty is a person who has the burden of responsibility upon
him to practice the religion. These are the affairs that are an absolute necessity
upon every individual who has the burden of responsibility upon them to know, to
understand and to act upon until they can then be a person of tawheed outwardly in
the way they behave in their actions and inwardly in their hearts, in their aqeedah.
These are the affairs that are a must to know and understand regarding the
shahada.
The first condition of the shahada is knowledge. The opposite of knowledge is
ignorance. You cannot be upon ignorance regarding the shahada. It is an obligation
that you are upon knowledge and understanding of what the shahada is in terms of
affirmation and negation. The first condition is to have knowledge of the shahada in
terms of affirmation and negation.
There are several evidences that can be mentioned for this condition. The first of
those is the statement of Allah, So know la ilaha illallah (there is no deity worthy of
worship in truth except Allah) [Muhammad 47:19] Fa alam means have
knowledge, know. Allah very clears says know the shahada. In another ayah,
Except for those who testify to the truth and they have knowledge of it. [AzZukhruf 43:86] And one more is the hadeeth in Sahih Muslim, the hadeeth of
Uthman (raiallahu anhu) who said that the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam)
said, Whomsoever dies and he knows (he has the knowledge regarding) la ilaha
illaha (there is no deity worthy of worship in truth except Allah), then he will enter
Paradise.
So, the first condition says that a person must understand the shahada in terms of
the negation and affirmation because the shahada is based upon these two pillars.
Shaykh Ubayd (hafidhahullah) explains this affirmation and negation aspect. What
does it mean that the shahada has an affirmation and a negation and that the
shahada can only be properly understood and implemented with these two
conditions? If one of these two are missing, then the shahada is incorrect.
We will give an example like that given by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih alUthaymeen (rahimahullah). Say, for example, there is a room with no windows and
the door is closed and you cant see inside of the room. And I tell you there are four
people inside the room. Then I tell you the names of each of the four people and all
have different names, Muhammad, Uthman, Ali and Khalid. Then I tell you

Muhammad is standing up. And then I ask you how many people are standing up.
And you say one. What if I were to say that there are actually four people standing
up? Could you claim that I am being untruthful or tricking you? Why not? What did I
tell you about the other three people? Nothing. You didnt know if the other three
were standing or not. I didnt tell you anything about the them. I only gave you an
affirmation that Muhammad was standing up. Did I give you a negation that the
other three werent standing up? Therefore, by giving just the affirmation that
Muhammad is standing up, is it possible that the other three are standing up? It is,
because I didnt negate it. For me to make Muhammad the only one standing up, I
must add the negation to my statement.
I now give you the same scenario. Room with no windows and the door is closed.
There are four people in the room. Their names are Muhammad, Uthman, Ali and
Khalid. I say, Muhammad is standing up. I have given you an affirmation that
Muhammad is standing up. Then I say, And the other three are not standing up.
Now you can say definitively that only standing up. That is because I affirmed that
Muhammad was standing up and I negated that anyone else was standing up.
This is the basis of tawheed. When we say tawheed, it is affirmation and negation.
Now look at the shahada. La ilaha, there is no deity worthy in worship. That is a
negation. Illallah, except Allah. That is an affirmation. So, I am saying Allah has the
right to be worshiped alone, without any partners and no one else has any right to
be worshiped at all. This gives affirmation that Allah has the right to be worshiped
alone and negates the fact that anything else has the right to be worshiped. That is
tawhid. If I only give the affirmation that it is not sufficient. To establish tawhid, you
must have the affirmation and negation. Only through affirmation and negation can
you bring about the Oneness of Allah. Tawheed requires affirmation and negation.
Thats why the condition requires knowledge of the shahada in terms of the
negation and the affirmation. If one of them is missing, then there is no tawheed. In
Arabic, tawheed means to make something one and unique. To make something
one and unique you need those two pillars, of affirmation and negation.
Now look at the examples from the Quran. First, the shahada itself, la ilaha (there
is no deity worthy of worship in truth) negation; illallah (except Allah)
affirmation. In the shahada, there is a negation of all other deities. Whatever it
might be that they are worshiping besides Allah is negated. Except Allah, only the
affirmation to Allah is given. When you put those two together, you have the basis
for the shahada, tawheed.
Look at more examples from the Quran. One of those examples is when Allah said,
We sent to all of the nations a Messenger saying, Worship Allah and avoid taghut
(false deities). [An-Nahl 16:36] Another example, and all of the Prophets used to
tell their people this, was when Salih (salatu wa salam) said to his people, O
people! Worship Allah. You have no other deity other than Him. [Al-Araf 7:73]
A person cannot claim to be upon tawheed and only affirm that Allah has the right
to be worshiped and still go to the graves and make duaa to them. Where is the
negation? A person cannot claim to be a pure person of tawheed and then go to the
graves of the Prophet or the righteous people (the auliya, as they say) and then

make duaa to them, asking them. Where is the negation? All your worship must be
for Allah alone and negated from everyone else. So how many people are upon
misguidance? A couple have tried and tried to have a child. They are told to go to
such-and-such imam and give him so much money and he will wipe over the body
and they will be able to have a child. Where has the negation gone? Their trust and
dependence should be in Allah alone. They should not be performing these types of
action which are not from the Quran and the Sunnah. They should not be
performing these acts which go against the very principle of the shahada, which is
that every type of worship, including having trust and dependence and reliance, be
done only for Allah. And they must understand that affirmation and negation, one of
them by themselves is enough.
What is the most accurate translation of la ilaha illallah into English? Based upon
what has just been explained, what is the most accurate translation of la ilaha
illallah? Is saying, There is no god but Allah an accurate translation? Thats the
widespread translation, but is it the most accurate meaning? The meaning of la
ilahi illallah is that you are affirming that your worship, every bit of it, is purely and
sincerely for Allah. That Allah is the only One in terms of rububbiyah, uluhiyyah and
Asmaa was-Sifaat. Allah is the One Who is the only Creator, the only Sustainer, the
only Provider. On top of that, Allah is the only One Whom you affirm all your worship
to. He is the only One Who you direct all your worship to, your duaa, your prayer,
your zakat, your fasting. Only to Allah do you direct all that worship. AND you
negate it from everybody else. If you say, There is no god but Allah, all that
indicates is that you understand what most believe and that is that God is the One
Who created us and gave us life and death. God is the One Who gives us food to eat
and air to breathe. That is limited because you require additional aspects that you
will affirm your worship to Him alone and negate it from all others. That is why it is
more accurate and correct and say that the meaning of la ilaha illallah is there is
no deity worthy of worship in truth except Allah. This is the more correct, the more
accurate meaning.
What about those worshiped not in truth? Do they exist? Of course! All these
statues and idols and cows and animals that people worship. The fire, the stars, the
sun, people worship all those things, but are they deities that deserve worship in
truth? No! They are deities who do not deserve worship in truth. They are false
deities. The shahada instantly negates all the false deities.
The final point to be mentioned in this lesson is some of the ayat mentioned in the
Quran that prove this affirmation and negation. We will give particular examples
where this affirmation and negation are mentioned. One we already gave. That was:
So know (O Muhammad SAW) that La ilaha ill-Allah (none has the right to be
worshipped but Allah), and ask forgiveness for your sin, and also for (the sin of)
believing men and believing women. And Allah knows well your moving about, and
your place of rest (in your homes). [Muhammad 47:19]
And We did not send any Messenger before you (O Muhammad (sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam)) but We inspired him (saying): La ilaha illa Ana [none has the right to be
worshipped but I (Allah)], so worship Me (Alone and none else). [Al-Anbya 21:25]

Indeed, We sent Nuh (Noah) to his people and he said: "O my people! Worship Allah!
You have no other Ilah (God) but Him. (La ilaha ill-Allah: none has the right to be
worshipped but Allah). Certainly, I fear for you the torment of a Great Day!" [Al-Araf
7:59]
And verily, We have sent among every Ummah (community, nation) a Messenger
(proclaiming): "Worship Allah (Alone), and avoid (or keep away from) Taghut (all
false deities, etc. i.e. do not worship Taghut besides Allah)." [An-Nahl 16:36]
Worship Allah and join none with Him in worship [An-Nisa 4:36]
And (remember) when Ibrahim (Abraham) said to his father and his people: "Verily, I
am innocent of what you worship, Except for He who created me; and indeed, He
will guide me." [Az-Zukhruf 43:26-27]
Shayan (referring to a word from AN-Nisa 4:36) is a word in Arabic that in this
context indicates that it encompasses everything. So when it says, Worship Allah
and do not commit shirk, do not associate any partners with Allah, it literally
means anything else. Whether it is a stone, a rock, a tree, the moon, the sun, the
angels, the Prophets nothing and no one is to be associated along with Allah.
And this is what you will find in the Quran. This is how the tawheed is explained
affirmation and negation. You cannot claim to be upon tawheed and be missing one
of these pillars. Rather, tawheed, as you will see, throughout the Quran is the
affirmation, worship is done purely for Allah alone, while negating it from everyone
and anyone else. Your worship and your heart is connected to Allah alone. And the
person who finds the strength, the tawheed in his heart, who finds the connection to
Allah to remove the grief from the affairs that concern and worry a person, if you fill
your heart with this tawheed, with the proper understanding of what the shahada is,
then this is what the objective is.