Tawheed - Part three of four-series

From Rational Arguments to Practical Faith

Alhamdulillah. So in our last session, we talked about the rational empirical arguments for Tawheed. We said these are part and parcel of the Qur'anic worldview and argument for why God is one and that the Islamic worldview presents an order and a purpose to the universe as evidence for a single transcendent creator.

Now we want to move away from the why to the what. So if we accept those propositions, we accept them as true, if we're convinced of this evidence, then how do we formally enter that covenant that we talked about? How do we take the innate belief of what we ought to do, the sense that we have a purpose, and the belief that we've recognized our creator? How do we turn that into something which is actionable? How does one formally enter into Islam? Precisely what are we affirming when we do so?

The Simplicity of Entry into Islam

Well, it's deceptively simple actually, and I think sometimes this is lost on many people, is that the expectation and the first obligation, as we said, for us as Muslims and for anyone to become Muslim, is to simply believe in the truth that you know. It's to simply state there is no one worthy of worship but God alone.

You don't have to go to the mosque on Friday to say it in front of the congregation. It doesn't have to be done in front of two witnesses. It doesn't have to be said in the Arabic language.

It is the verbal and heartfelt recognition of the belief that you have. And Imam Nawawi mentions this as a point of consensus, in fact. Sometimes we, even we as Muslims, we put up roadblocks in front of people becoming Muslim because we try to create formalities that aren't there.

I met a man who accepted Islam while he was driving cross-country in his RV. He saw Muslims praying at a rest stop. He said, oh, that looks cool. Sat and he talked with them. They gave him some pamphlets. He asked if he could pray with them. He said, I went back to my RV. I read the pamphlets, said this is the truth. I'm going to be a Muslim from now on. He's been, he was a Muslim until the day he died. SubhanAllah.

So the formalities many times we place, but they're not necessary. It's a very basic proposition. I would, and I tell people many times, Islam as a faith is deceptively simple to many people. It's deceptively simple because we've become so accustomed to anything that is called religion, anything that is called faith. We've become so accustomed to anything that is considered to be faith-based or religion-based or devotional, to be difficult, to take us out of the world. Islam doesn't want that. Islam wants us in the world.

But as we said, the world is our canvas. The world is our stage that we use the good that we know to make life better for ourselves and others with the ultimate purpose of what? Returning to our creator. So there's no one worthy of worship except God. This is the key to Islam. And through stating this phrase, one becomes a Muslim.

The Revolutionary Nature of La Ilaha Illa Allah

Now, if you want lots of texts and lots of ayat and lots of hadith, I recommend everyone to go and listen to the khutbah that I gave yesterday. So if you'll notice, anytime we do one of these Saturday programs, the khutbah on Friday before always feeds into that. So I want you always to go back to watch those on YouTube or Facebook, because it's a supplement to what we study in these classes.

So on the surface, saying لا إله إلا الله, saying there's no one worthy of worship but God, it might seem like just a simple declaration of monotheism. But it can be considered to be one of the most revolutionary statements in the history of human thought.

Now with Farooqi, in talking about the implications of the shahadah, of the testimony of faith, he says what is distinctly Islamic when we talk about monotheism, because monotheism is just the idea that you believe in one God. It doesn't mean that that God that you believe in monotheistically is the same God that I believe in.

Like for example, in ancient Egypt, there was a pharaoh who was monotheistic. His name was Amun-Ra, and he called everyone to worship Ra, the sun god, who he believed the sun was a god. But even though that's monotheism, it's not the monotheism that we think of when we talk about Islam or Christianity or Judaism.

So Farooqi says what is distinctly Islamic, and hence novel, in the concept of tawheed, the concept of Allah's oneness, is the negative aspect of its statement. So the affirmation is not in affirming the existence of the creator of Allah, of God, but in the radical negation of everything else being owed any form of devotion, adoration, or worship.

Understanding the Shahada

So we're going to dissect that in this section, try to unpack the meanings of the shahada, and show that not only is it, you know, like a key to enter the faith, a password to get into the religion, but it's a core principle that's meant to liberate human consciousness and provide a foundation for righteous actions.

So a few points about the shahada. The shahada in Arabic just means testimony. Okay, shahada can be used as testimony of faith, can be used in context as a testimony in front of court, right? It can mean somebody who's, you know, giving you information or bearing witness to something. Here we mean it as the testimony of faith, which allows one to enter into Islam.

So it's the first pillar and the non-negotiable entry point. And the call to لا إله إلا الله was a call that was made by all prophets and messengers.

We have never sent before you messengers amongst men except that they would teach the people there's no one worthy of worship but me. Therefore, worship me. So all the prophets and messengers called to the worship of God alone and to obey the teachings that they were given in their respective place in time to guide people to that worship.

And worship God alone and avoid false deities. So the key that distinguishes the believer from the non-believer in Islam is the fact that they have the shahada.

So you might say to yourself, well, what about all of the other actions in Islam? Yes, they are important and they are expected of the person. But they become that person's personal responsibility after accepting the truth. Meaning that do not obsess, yes, advise and encourage people to do the best that they can. But do not obsess over whether somebody is still in Islam or not in Islam. As long as they have the basic beliefs of Islam and their beliefs have not contradicted that belief, then we will treat them as Muslims. Because that's the basis of the faith.

Beyond the Gateway

So as we said, this is the gateway to Islam. It's a unifying call of all of the prophets. And the Quran was clear or is clear that the message of Islam is not a new message. It didn't begin with the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. It is a message that was sent and given to all prophets and messengers from Adam all the way to the last prophet, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

That the essence of this testimony is the rejection of all that is false and the affirmation of what is true. And that this is the decisive factor in our salvation.

(Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "Whoever testifies that there is no one worthy of worship but God alone, alone without partner, that Allah will admit him into paradise according to his deeds."

So our statement of our belief, it's not just a rhetorical statement. It's just not a declarative statement, but it's a contract. It's a commitment. It's the foundation of our identity as Muslims and our ultimate fate as believers.

So to truly understand its power, we have to look past its role as just the gateway. So a lot of times there's this focus like this incessant focus on the idea of Islam as the gateway to Islam. The idea of the shahada, the testimony of faith as the gateway to Islam. Yes, we all agree on that. But you know what that does? By only focusing on the fact that did the person say the shahada or not? It makes us devalue that person's position in the Muslim community and think that their only value is did they say the shahada and can they tell us their new Muslim story.

And so we only think of them in terms as being new. Brother, mashallah, you're a new Muslim? People say that to me all the time. Mashallah, you're a new Muslim? Yes. Alhamdulillah. When did you accept Islam? 35 years ago. You get a little upset. You're not new.

Okay, then why are you asking me? Like there wasn't this sense of, you know, this idea of like this infatuation, you became Muslim, then you became responsible for the actions and the character, the rights and the responsibilities of a Muslim. So we only focus on that moment of entry. And we only make people's connection with the community and involvement with the community on whether they can impress us with their conversion story.

It actually stunts their growth as Muslim. And they live for years, if not decades, never actually taking responsibility for their own faith. And that's on us.

The Power of Negation

So it means that we have to learn what the implications of the shahada are, what's expected of us, what's expected of them, and then teach that so that people can grow organically in their faith and not simply be made to feel that their only contribution is telling their story.

So as we said, the power of the shahada, لا إله إلا الله, there is no God, there is no one worthy of worship, except for God alone, is in its negative grammar. So this radical and potent statement strikes at the root of nearly every other worldview other than Islam.

Why? Because before it affirms anything, it first performs a radical act of demolition. It's a declaration of independence from every other possible object of worship, or object of ultimate loyalty.

So what are these other gods? There is no God, but God. There's no one worthy of worship, but God alone. They're not just the ancient idols of stone and wood. But in the modern world, we face a lot of other false deities, ideologies, nationalism, materialism, political parties, social status, sports teams, pop stars, even the worship of ourself, our desires and our egos can become a false god.

So the declaration of saying لا إله, there is no one worthy, is a conscious and deliberate act of purging the human consciousness from all of these loyalties. All of these false loyalties are discarded. So it's a profound liberation from servitude to that which is finite.

And this is a core concept of Islam. Ribi Ibn Amir was a companion of the Prophet ﷺ. He was ordered by the Prophet to take a letter to the Emperor of Persia. And when he went there, the Emperor of Persia said to him, he was told, one of the Arabs have come to you with a letter.

He thought they were coming, he was coming to request food as they would many times go and petition people of power to help them materially because the Arabian desert was a desolate place. He said, what brought you out of the desert this time? He said something which is not a statement of the Prophet. It's not a verse of the Quran. It's not a Hadith of the Prophet. But it's what he inherently understood the message of Islam to be.

He said, we've come to you to take you away from the worship of the servants to worship the Lord of the servants. From worshiping creation to worshiping the Lord of creation.

So by clearing the stage of all false idols, all false gods, all false ideologies and desires and egos, we allow two fundamental truths to emerge. This negation affirms the inherent goodness of creation and the innate capacity of man.

Modern Idols and False Loyalties

What does this mean? We said before, our view of the world, the created world that we live in, is not that it is inherently evil or bad or something to be rejected. So if the world is not the creation of a flawed or evil deity, it's not an illusion, then it must be the good and purposeful creation of the one true God. A canvas for us to work on, not a prison to escape from. This is number one.

Second, if we're not beholden to any created power, we're not born with inherent sin, then we are born free and capable agents, fully equipped to fulfill our divine purpose. So the Shahadah is not just a simple creed. It's an act of intellectual and spiritual liberation. You free yourself from the shackles of the people, places, things and thoughts that you had before coming to this realization. It's a continuous principle that clears the mind of falsehood so that the one ultimate truth can be established.

Okay, so here's a group brainstorm for you guys. Let's look at this negation in practice. We said, لا إله, there is no God. This liberates us from servitude to the finite. So what are some of the modern idols and false loyalties that people have ultimate servitude till today? The ones that we haven't mentioned. Take a moment and think amongst yourselves, and then I'll ask you for your answers.

Okay, what do you guys think? What are some of the modern idols, false loyalties, false deities, things that we devote ourselves to that come to mind? Beyonce? SubhanAllah. Definitely. Social media. Likes and subscribes. The desire of recognition by other people, right? What else? Money makes a good servant, but a horrible master. Okay, so Francis Bacon said, so the idea there is that money is one of those false gods, or it can be.

Right. Good point. Anyone else? Exclusive networks or connections? Yeah. A lot of times that focuses on, say, race, ethnicity, social economic status, right? We kind of put that above and beyond everything else. Yes. Donald Trump. Him saying, I am the chosen anointed one. Yeah. Yeah. You would think he was reciting a line from Dune or something when he said that. Frank River.

That's right. So as we can see, a lot of you had different perspectives on this, right? And let's not discount, saying this thing does not discount the false worship of idols, the false worship of deities, the false worship of other human beings, right? But it's very important for us to understand the implications of holding those same beliefs and applying them to different areas, right?

So somebody might have a shrine in their home to a saint or to Jesus or something like that, right? And you say, well, this is not acceptable. But if another person had a shrine in their home to a football quarterback or something, people say, oh, it's just his favorite quarterback. It's literally a picture with lights around it and veneration and the jersey and everything. Everything that's there, the relics and the veneration, everything is, all the components are there.

So we have to be very careful of falling into that, right? So the revolutionary power of the Shahada is that it challenges us to free ourselves from modern gods, dethrone them from our hearts, liberates us so that we can worship the only one who's truly worthy of worship.

Does this mean that, you know, that we can't be involved in politics or we can't, you know, we can't enjoy sports or we can't have, no, it doesn't mean that. It's taking those things and elevating them beyond their station.

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

Notice that the Prophet ﷺ warned his own companions. He said, "Do not flatter me and laud praise on me like the Christians do to Jesus, the son of Mary. I'm only the slave of God and his messenger. So say about me, slave of God and his messenger."

He wanted to cut off anybody from thinking, oh, you know, Muhammad, peace be upon him, is a messenger. He's, God spoke to him. He's more special than everyone else. Therefore, let's make him a deity as well. Someone said to him one time, you know, whatever God wills and you will. He said, have you made me an equal with God? Say whatever God wills, then Muhammad wills.

So all of our wills are subordinate to the will of God.

The Two Pillars of the Shahada

So let's talk about the meaning of the shahadah. It essentially has two pillars. Number one is the negation, nefi, لا إله. There is no deity. There is no one worthy of worship. There is no object of worship. There is no God. Different ways to translate the same implications.

This is a complete disavowal of every object of worship other than God. So it's not a partial denial. It's complete and categorical and absolute. It negates the legitimacy of every single object of worship, real or imagined, that has been worshipped or ever could be worshipped besides the one true God. This includes everything from ancient idols to natural forces to modern isms. It clears the slate entirely. It doesn't say that those things don't exist. It negates from them their right to any adoration, devotion or worship.

The second is affirmation. So إلا الله, except for Allah. So after denying the right to worship of all creation, this pillar affirms and confirms that this right belongs exclusively and solely to Allah. All acts of ultimate love, devotion, submission and service are due to Him alone.

So this two-part structure is crucial for understanding the shahadah. You can't have affirmation without first making the negation. You have to have an empty vessel of all false contents before it can be filled with the one truth. So this structure, negate then affirm, it's the intellectual and spiritual engine that drives the entire worldview of Islam.

Correct vs. Incorrect Interpretations

Now there is a correct meaning and there is an incorrect meaning. There's a correct implication of this phrase and there's an incorrect implication of this phrase. The correct meaning of this phrase is that there's no deity worthy of worship in truth except for Allah. Because we're not denying the reality that we live. We're not asking people to say that oh these things actually don't exist in some kind of esoteric way. They exist but they don't worship, they're not creator and they don't deserve to be worshiped.

So there's two main flawed interpretations that people will bring up when they will sometimes translate the shahadah. The first is there is no creator but Allah. Is this inherently wrong as a statement from an Islamic perspective? Is there any other creator other than God? No there's not. But is this what is meant by the negation and affirmation of the shahadah? No.

So the polytheists of Mecca they all affirmed that God was the creator.

If you were to ask them who created the heavens the earth and subjugated the sun and the moon they would say Allah. Therefore the crux of the matter with affirming Tawheed in the message of the prophet peace be upon him was not whether people recognized a creator. It was did their recognition of that creator take them to the next step which was worshiping him alone.

So their error, their shirk, their shirk was not in acknowledging other creators. Their error was in directing their worship and devotion to beings other than the creator. So the core dispute was never about creation. It's never about rubul biya. It was always about worship.

The second flawed interpretation is that there's no deity in existence but Allah. Right? This is also rejected because it implicitly brings about ideas of pantheism. The idea that God and the universe are one and the same. So would absurdly imply that every idol and every false god that has ever been worshiped in fact is a manifestation of God because God is creation. Everything in existence is God. There's nothing in existence except for God. This directly contradicts the core message of the Quran that makes a sharp distinction between creator and created.

The Quran affirms that other gods exist in the sense that they are objects of people's worship. For example it asks,

Have you not seen the person who takes their own desires as their God? So it acknowledges the presence of false deities but utterly denies the right that they have to be worshiped.

So the shahada, the testimony of faith, is not a statement about metaphysics alone like who creates. It's not a statement about ontology or what exists but it's a declaration of value and legitimacy. Who alone is worthy of your ultimate devotion, adoration, and worship.

The Ultimate Axiological Principle

So this brings us to the ultimate axiological principle. The ultimate meaning of the shahada, there's no one worthy of worship but God. So axiology is the philosophy of the philosophical study of value. So to say that Allah is the only one worthy of worship is to say that he's the sole source and ultimate standard of all value and all goodness.

So to assert is to therefore hold God as ultimately good, as the highest good for the sake of whom every good thing is good. That's what Farooqi says. So from this single principle he derives what he calls three novel meanings. Three what he characterizes as revolutionary implications that define our human condition and stand in contrast to major world views.

The first of them is that creation is inherently good. The second is that man is not predicament bound. And the third is that all creatures are equal before God.

Three Revolutionary Implications

First: Creation is inherently good. Because the one true ultimate source of all value is good. His creation must also be good. So the world does not fall in, it's not corrupt, it's not a place that you must escape as some Christian or Hindu cosmologies might mention or suggest. It's also not a meaningless accident, but it's an innocent, valuable world, a monument to God as Farooqi calls it. This establishes the world the fundamental world affirming ethic. The world is a gift, a field of opportunity for us to cultivate it.

It is he who has placed everything in the earth for you. So everything in creation is there for us to do what? To use, to utilize, to benefit ourselves and others, to use as a signpost back to recognizing him and his guidance of us.

Secondly, man is not predicament bound, meaning this follows directly from the first point. If the world's good and man is born with an innate recognition of good, then he's not born hopeless. You as a human being are not hopeless. Man stands in no predicament out of which he cannot pull himself out of. He therefore needs no savior, no Messiah, no salvation from anyone other than the one who created him.

Man is born innocent and fully equipped and empowered to fulfill his cosmic duty through his own effort. He needs guidance, not redemption. He's not sinful and must be made whole. He's innocent and must be kept on the path to truth.

Guide us to the straight path. Why is this so important? Because if you live with the idea that your life is always problematic and you live in this predicament of always being not worthy enough, you inherently will have a very negative view of the world and you will not engage with the world as you should. But when you live with a sense of self-worth that I am good and I'm trying to be better, then you can always benefit yourself and others.

That's even if we just look at it from a simply selfish psychological aspect or perspective. When you take the theological perspective that I am good because God has God created me and he has created me for a purpose, then even when I falter, I know that I have more to do. I have more to achieve. I'm never slavishly bound to some destiny that I have no idea will happen.

Which is why in the famous Hadith of Adam and Musa arguing, Adam met Musa. Adam said, you are Musa who was sent to the children of Israel. He said, you're Adam that got us kicked out of Jannah. Adam said, are you going to blame me for something that Allah had written upon me 40 years before he created the heavens and the earth? Meaning Adam wasn't saying one fault didn't define me. One mistake that I made in life didn't set me on a course for living a life of wrong.

Compare that story, compare that reaction to the reaction of the story of Shaytan. Shaytan was displeased with one thing that Allah had decreed and therefore what did he do? He said, Lord because you led me astray, I'm going to live a life of bad actions. It's a lot to contemplate in the reactions of Adam and Iblis to the commands of Allah.

So man is born innocent and fully equipped and empowered to fulfill his cosmic duty.

Third, all creatures are equal before Allah's divine will. If the divine will is the ultimate standard of goodness, then it applies universally to all creation. So this establishes a radical universalism. It eliminates metaphysical grounds for racism, for ethnic chauvinism, for there being a chosen people ideology. Farooqi knows that this was a revolutionary idea that stood in contrast to the particularism of many other traditions.

So in Islam, when you are guided, that is what you're looking for. There is no chosen people. There is no person that is better than another simply for existing.

The Prophet ﷺ said in his last sermon, there's no virtue for an Arab over a non-Arab or a non-Arab over an Arab except by righteousness. Allah mentions this in the Qur'an.

We have made you tribes and nations so that you may get to know one another. The best of you in God's sight is the most righteous.

From Belief to Lived Reality

So this leads us to our next section, which is the lived reality. Now that we have recognized this innate nature in ourselves, we've contemplated creation, we've contemplated the world, we've contemplated our own souls, we've been guided to the worship of God alone, and we've realized that there are implications for recognizing Him and denying all other objects of worship. What are the implications of that for a lived reality, where we take that Tawheed and we make it a good life?