Kalimah Tayyibah

The Fundamentals of Islam
Khutubah
by Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi

Laa ilaaha illa ‘llah Muhammadur Rasool-lullah

"There Is no God except Allah. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."


You become Muslims by reciting a few words called the Kalimah.

On pronouncing these words a man is supposed to have radically changed; he was a kafir, now he is a Muslim.

In social life, this Kalimah becomes the basis for differentiating one man from another. The power of the Kalimah is so strong that it takes precedence even over blood ties; it can join strangers together into a nation; it can severe members of the same family off from each other.

However, idol worshipers think they can open their mouth and utter a few holy words and mountain can then moved. This is not the Islam as espoused. The effectiveness of words lies in their meaning. The meaning must penetrate deep into the hearts and have such an impact powerful enough to effect a change in the thoughts, in the moral behaviors and actions and change a person's life.

As such, when reciting the Kalimah, the person must be conscious of what an important commitment he has made to Allah with the whole world as his witness, and what a great responsibility he was taking on as a result of his commitment.

After affirming this Kalimah a person is not at liberty to do as he like, behave as he like, and act as he like - he has to follow what is prescribed and renounce what Islam forbids.

Saying La ilaha illa 'llah means two things: First, you have acknowledged that the world has neither come into being without a God, and there is no other God except Allah; Second, you have accepted that Allah is your Lord and Master, and that you yourself and each and every thing you possess or desire to possess, belongs to Him alone. He is the Creator and the provide; life and death are under His command; both trouble and blessings come from Him and whatever you received or inflicted is given by Him or by His command. He alone should be feared and from Him alone should we ask any and everything.

Your duty is to obey Him and abide by His law and covenant and the Quran is his words which is already perfected by Him and given through his Messenger to you. Thus after reciting La ilaha illa 'llah, you recite 'Muhammadu 'r rasulu 'llah: this means that you accept Muhammad as the man through whom Allah has sent you His guidance. You thus pledged to follow the way and law given by Muhammad and to reject anything which runs counter to his teaching as recorded in the Quran.

Thus the obligations that result from reciting this Kalimah is that your life is no more your property; they belong to Allah. Each and everything belongs to Allah and has been given to you as a gift, not a right, not a privilege, not your own, other than to faithfully follow His command.

Tell me, for the sake of Allah, that if this be so, what justification have you Muslims for complaining that you are not prospering despite believing in the Kalimah Tayyibah? First you should become true believers in the Kalimah Tayyibah and model your lives on the pattern it lays down. For material prosperity is not real prosperity in Islam. There is no Kalimah except the Kalimah Tayyibah by following which man may achieve glory in this world and happiness in the world-to-come. Seek as you will, you will never be able to find any fault with it.

Is Islam a Birthright?

Can a person be a Muslim by virtue of his birth? Is a person a Muslim simply because he is the son or grandson of a Muslim? Do Muslims belong to the Muslim Ummah like Aryans belong to the Aryan race or the same of Japanese is a Japanese because he is born in Japan?

No. A Muslim does not. A Muslim is not a Muslim because he belongs to any particular race; he is a Muslim because he follows Islam. if he renounces Islam, he cease to be a Muslim. You agree to become Muslims only by accepting Islam. By accepting Islam it means that Muslims should consciously and deliberately accept what has been taught by prophet Muhammad and act accordingly.

Islam consists, firstly, of knowledge, and secondly, of putting that knowledge into practice and the whole world bears witness to his actions and behaviors. No man becomes truly a Muslim without knowing the meaning of Islam and there is no birth rights. Unless you come to know the basic and necessary teaching of Prophet Muhammad, how can you say you believe in him and say you have faith in him and how you can act in accordance to his teaching? Thus, it is impossible to become a true Muslim and remain a Muslim in a state of ignorance. True Muslims know what Islam stands for and believe in it with full consciousness.

The greatest danger of a Muslim lies in his ignorance of Islamic teachings and in his unawareness of what the Quran teaches and what guidance has been given by the Prophet.

Kafirs are as much the offsprings of Adam and Eve as Muslims and it is Allah who created them as much as it created you. The vital difference between a Kafir and a Muslim cannot be simply due to the fact that you have names like Abdullah or Ahmad or Ismail and they have names as Kapal Singh, Lim Kit Siang or Uttaya, or that you are circumcised and they are not, or that you do not eat pork and they do.

Where then does the real difference lie between a Muslim and Kafirs? The answer lies, simply, in the very nature of Islam: The meaning of Islam is submission to Allah and Kafir is denial and disobedience to Allah. As such, those who claim to be Muslims and are disobedient to Allah and do not comply to his teachings by virtue of their behaviors which are renounced in the Quran are also Kafirs.

The two things that separate the Muslims and the Kafirs are, therefore, knowledge and actions: the knowledge of the teachings of the prophet and the actions that conforms to the teachings as taught in the Quran. Man who calls themselves Muslims but whose knowledge and actions are the same as those of Kafirs are guilty of blatant hypocrisy. Kafirs do not read the Quran and do not know what is written in it. If the so-called Muslims themselves do not read the Quran and depends only on others to tell them how could they discover the words of Allah and how could Allah communicate with them and teach them? Kafirs follows their own desires instead of the commands of Allah. If Muslims are similarly willful and undisciplined, setting their own ideas and opinions on a pedestal, indifferent to Allah and a slave to lust and wealth, what rights have they to call themselves Muslims?

Put simply: if Muslims are as devoid of knowledge about Islam as Kafirs, and if a Muslim does all those things which a Kafir does, why should he be considered superior to a Kafir and why should his fate not be the same as that of a Kafir? This is a question on which we must all reflect very seriously.

The more I have reflected on the reason for the current trial and tribulations, the more I have become convinced that the only difference now left between the Muslims and Kafirs is that of mere name. We know that Allah has cursed liars and corruption and has declared hell as the abode for those who lied and take bribes, and has condemned slander as being as bad as eating a brother's flesh, and has warned that obscene behavior and debauchery will meet with the severest punishment. yet despite knowing all these, they freely indulged in all these vices as if they had absolutely no fear of Allah's displeasure.

The Quran was sent down to Muslims for them to read it, understand it, act upon it, and with its help, establish on Allah's earth the rule of His law and His virtue. The Quran came to grant them dignity and respect and make them true vicegerents of Allah on earth. And history shows that whenever they acted according to its guidance, it did make them the leaders of the world and the most respected leaders of mankind.

But the usefulness of the Book consists only in keeping it in the house to drive away Jinns and ghosts, in writing its verses on amulets to hang round their necks or washing those amulets with water and then drinking it, or in reading its contents without comprehending their intended meanings in the hope of receiving earthly rewards and positions of wealth and lordship over the others. No longer do they seek guidance from it for their lives, except to use it on others, to gain their support and membership and probably to masquerade as an Ummah to instill fear on others in order to frightened them from exposing their sins, and hence, to keep the loots.

A-oothu billah hi-minash shaytaanir rajeem

"I seek protection in Allah from the Syaitan, the cursed one."


Reference and acknowledgement:

Author Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi (1903-1979) is one of the chief architects and leaders of the contemporary Islamic resurgence and is noted as an outstanding Islamic thinker and writer of our time. he devoted his entire life to expounding the meaning and message of Islam.

Fundamentals of Islam is an English edition of the critically acclaimed Khutubah (originally written in Urdu). He has authored more than a hundred works on Islam and his writings have been translated into 40 languages around the world.