The Kalima

The Word that Sent Shockwaves Throughout the World

The Kalima
  • Ashhadu an La Ilaha Ilallah Ashhadu Anna Muhammadur Rasulullah. When the Kalima that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad (saw) is the Messenger of God was revealed, it sent shockwaves through the entirety of the Arabian peninsula and beyond. It sent shockwaves throughout the entire world, up until today. It was simple, but profoundly weighty. This word encompases the entirety of the religion to which we have been commanded by Allah to bear witness.
  • We have to testify to this truth with our tongue, but our entire salvation lies in the extent to which it comes from our heart. This is why it is the first pillar of (lower case) islam, the first dimension of the Hadith of Jibreel. Allah is telling us that this word is not only a testimony of faith to be made with the tongue, it is an existential truth (Haqq) that must be internalized in the mind, in the heart, in the soul and must inform and motivate every aspect of our lives.
  • The Prophet (saw) teaches us that our entire salvation and wellness is directly an extension of the extent of our commitment to this truth. He (saw) said: There is no person who bears witness and testifies that there is no god but Allah and that the Messenger of God is Muhammad (saw) truthfully from their heart except that Allah (swt) will make them secure and safe from Hellfire.
  • We must ask ourselves: What does this word mean for us? What is it about this word that sent shockwaves around the world? Why is it a word that generates fear and anxiety in people up to today? Am I ready, willing and able to make this testimony of faith with certainty and confidence from our heart and soul and inner being, not just our tongue?
La Ilaha Ilallah
  • Allah says: Verily it is only Allah Who is the Truth and everything that is other than the Only Truth (Allah) is rejected and false and certainly Allah is the Most High and the Most Great. (22:62) Allah has given us these intellects, these hearts to arrive at certainty that Allah is the Truth (Allahu al-Haqq)
  • Allah Himself testifies and bears witness to the Truth that there is no god but Allah and this is exactly what we, as servants of Allah, are commanded to bear witness to and testify to with certainty. Ashhadu an La Ilaha Ilallah
  • Allah (swt) tells us: There is no god but He. That is the witness of Allah, His angels and those of knowledge standing firm on justice. There is no god but He, the Exalted in Praise, the Wise (3:18)
Muhammadur Rasulullah
  • The Message of Prophet Muhammad (saw) calls to exit people from the submission and worship of creation to the submission and worship of the Creator of all creation; from multiple pathways to the justice and mercy of Islam; from the constriction of this world (dunya) to the expansion of the Afterlife (Akhira).
  • Allah (swt) said: Obey Allah and obey His Messenger (4:59) and: What Muhammad (saw) has brought you-take it- and what he has told you to stay away from-stay away from it.(59:7)
  • Prophet Muhammad said, “Your iman is incomplete until you love me more than you love yourself”.
  • Prophet Muhammad (saw) said,“Everyone from my Ummah will enter Paradise (Jannah), except those who refuse.” The Companions asked him, “Who would refuse Paradise?” The Prophet (saw) said, “Those who listen to the commands of this Qur’an and the example of my Sunnah have obeyed guidance, but those who turn away from my Sunnah have refused.
  • Salvation, the Pleasure of Allah and attaining eternal bliss can only be attained through Muhammad (saw).
The Beginning of the Journey of Belief is Negation
  • The Kalima begins with a negation, wherein Allah (swt) says: La Ilaha Ilallah - there is no god.
  • The beginning of the journey of belief for a person is negation, rejection (kufr) of everything: myself, my nafs, my ego, whatever is telling me to steal and cheat, to be a liar, to be a bully.
  • Allah is telling us to say no to yourself, no to evil, no to any social trend or impulse and desire, no to changing the nature of how Allah created the human being.
  • Allah is telling us to be mindful of all the false idols, whether money, power, ego, people. Previously they had idols of stone, idols of clay, idols made of dates. Today our phones, computers, TVs, food and drink, pleasure and joy have become idols.
  • We have to be fearful and wary of the subtle shirk, the minor shirk of associating partners with Allah. We must ask ourselves whether we have become idolaters.
The Liberation Contained in La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah
  • The Kalima frees spiritually, emotionally and psychologically. Consider the lives of Saydina Bilal and Sayda Sumayya:
    • Saydina Bilal was a slave, abused by Abu Jahl, tortured, hurt, harmed and he heard the Kalima through people who were maligning the Prophet (SAW). He heard the words and said, “I commit to these words. This is the Kalima to which I commit myself. When Abu Jahl saw this, he beat and tortured Saydina Bilal, beat him bloody and had him mercilessly dragged through the streets to the desert and put hot stones on his chest, all because of fear of a Kalima and of what its truth may mean to the people who testified to it. When Saydina Bilal heard the words Muhammad (saw) was calling to the truth that is La Illaha Ilallah, he began to say, “Ahadu Ahad” - One, One, One - with certainty. The simple truth that was entrenched in his soul and he instantly became liberated in a moment by submitting to La Ilalha Ilallah.
    • Sayda Sumayya, the first martyr in Islam, never knew a day of pleasure or joy. Every single moment of her life was a life of enslavement, from the day she was born until the day she died. When she heard the Kalima La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah, it freed her. It may not have freed her from the tyrants of Quraish, but she was truly free. They could torture her body, but her spirit was free to roam the realm of the Afterlife. When they threatened her and ordered her to deny the Kalima, she said “La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rashulullah. You can’t take this away from me. This is the truth.”
  • This Kalima freed Saydina Abu Bakr, a chief, a wealthy merchant, who had everything to lose by uttering this word. And yet, Prophet Muhammad (saw) said that every single person who heard the Kalima hesitated, if for only a moment, except Saydina Abu Bakr.
  • What did this word that they were willing to mean to Saydina Umar, Sayda Khadijah, Saydina Abu Bakr, Saydina Ali, Sayda Sumaya and Saydina Bilal that they were ready to sacrifice everything? What did it free them from? It gave them true meaning in this life and freedom from the oppression of this world.
  • When the entire truth of the Kalima was entrenched in the hearts and souls of the Companions, the Kalima extended across the Arabian Peninsula, spread by the soul.
  • Free yourself from fear of creation through La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah. When you are harassed for wearing hijab, when you’re in the airport and it’s time to pray, don’t fear anything but Allah. Say, “La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah,” I obey Allah and His Messenger.
Reflecting on the Kalima in Ramadan
  • Let us use this blessed month of Ramadan, which is a miraculous month, to orient ourselves and to transition ourselves in the direction of La Ilahaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah.
  • In these days of Ramadan, when we are fasting, when we stop food, and drink and everything because Allah has commanded us to do so, let us also stop to achieve Taqwa because the Kalima of Taqwa is the Kalima of La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah.
  • In these days and nights of Ramadan, when the devils (shayateen) are shackled and the heavens are wide open and Allah’s (swt) Mercy descends on us like beautiful rain, utilize these days to fix your condition.
  • Prophet Muhammad (saw) said,” I have left you that which if you were to follow it you will never be led astray: The Book of Allah and my Sunnah” Let the month of Ramadan be a month in which the words of the Qur’an flow through your soul, where the guidance of Muhammad (saw) alters your state, and where the Kalima of La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasululllah motivates every single moment of your life.
  • In this month of reflection and self-assessment, before breaking fast, sit by yourself and ask yourself: What are the idols I worship? I say La Ilaha Ilallah, but am I truthfully someone who worships Allah? Am I truthfully someone who surrenders everything to Allah, or do I have plenty of idols that I am focusing on and worshiping?
  • In a Hadith Qudsi Allah says: Do you rush to something better than Me? What are you rushing to when you are so ready to flee salah? What is beyond your salaam alaikum that is better than Allah? Is it money? Don’t you know that your sustenance (risq) comes from Allah?
  • In this month of Ramadan, reflect on the Kalima and be resolved not to run away from Allah, not to turn you back on Allah, not to worship anything other than Allah.
Du’a

May Allah have mercy on us in this blessed month of Ramadan.
May Allah allow this month of Ramadan to alter our internal and external states.
May Allah purify us and uplift us and connect us to Him in this blessed month of Ramadan
May Allah make us among the people of the Qur’an
May Allah make us among the people of Muhammad.
May Allah make us among the people of Ruku
May Allah make us among the people of Sujud
May Allah make us among the people of loving surrender (Ubadiyyah) to Allah the Most High, the most Great.
O Allah! Bring relief in this blessed month of Ramadan to our brothers and sisters around the world who are suffering and struggling and are in need of help.
O Allah! Entrench the Kalima of La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah in our hearts.
May Allah make this Kalima the most beloved thing to our hearts
May Allah make La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah motivate every single one of our lives.
O Allah! Do not allow us to be relinquished to ourselves even for the blinking of an eye, or even less than that because O Allah without You we are lost, without You we are nothing, and so we ask you to free our hearts and our minds and our bodies, our masajid and our homes with La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah. Make it that our last words in this life (dunya) are La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadun Rasulullah.

O Allah! Do not take us from this world unless we are in the state of the Prophet (saw) and his Righteous Companions who internalized every meaning of La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah.

O Allah! We are deluded by ourselves and our egos and our nafus and by money and power and wellbeing and safety. O Allah! Remove all these delusions and make it that You are the only Truth that we affirm in our hearts.

May Allah illuminate our hearts and our minds with the Qur’an, illuminate our hearts and our minds with the Sunnah of the Prophet (saw)

O Allah! Help us on the path of La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah.

O Allah! Purify us of all the sins we have accummulated.

May Allah help us to attain salvation in the month of Ramadan. May Allah save our necks from Hellfire and may He gift us with the highest levels of Paradise (Jannah) in the company of Muhammad(saw). We ask you by Your Mercy, Your Grace and Your Generosity.

Questions
  • When I say La Ilaha Ilallah Muhamadur Rasulullah do I feel it in my heart?
  • What things in this world have I elevated to idol status?
  • What am I willing to do make the Kalima of La Ilaha Ilallah Muhammadur Rasulullah inform and motivate every aspect of my life?