ABSTRACT

The shahada is the first pillar of Islam. By pronouncing it in Arabic, and in the presence of witnesses, a person becomes a Muslim. However, this simple act of testifying that ‘there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God’ has far-reaching implications. We saw in the previous chapter that a ‘messenger’ (Arabic rasul) is a special type of prophet who is sent to promulgate the divine law. Hence, it has traditionally been held that anyone who publically acknowledges Muhammad as the Messenger of God implicitly undertakes to observe the Sharia, beginning with the performance of the ritual prayer which is regarded as the second of the five pillars.