What is the Shahada in Islam?

It will help at the outset to make my story plain, if at this stage I say what Mohammedanism stands for. The terms Mohammedanism and Islam are interchangeable terms. The former is the name given to the followers of Mohammed; the latter the name given to the movement by Mohammed himself. The word, Islam, is an Arabic word, denoting resignation to the will of God. The Creed of Islam is summed up in the well-known statement, "La ilaha Allah, Mohammed resul Allah," which translated into English means, "There is no God but one, and Mohammed is his prophet." This is the great rallying cry of the armies of Islam. Their propaganda is carried on with fanatical zeal. Islam is a great system based on monotheism. It is the religion of one-sixteenth of the world's population. Within eighty years of its inception, it spread over a great part of Asia with phenomenal rapidity, and later to Africa, largely through the persuasion of the sword. It is based on two cardinal points, Iman, the Faith or Creed; Din, its Practice. The Mohammedan boasts of the simplicity of his religion, and that all we need to do to obtain salvation is to know and believe its teaching, and so an abundant entrance into paradise is assured. On these two words hang all the laws and morals of Islam. The God of Islam is almighty and all powerful, but not a God of love, nor even of justice. Much stress is laid on the intellectual and metaphysical attributes of God.

The new religion thus announced was Islam — a word which means submission or resignation to the will of God. His doctrine was summed up in his own aphorism, "There is no God but the true God, and Mahomet is his prophet." The six main articles in the theoretical faith of Islam were: 1, belief in God, 2, in His angels, 3, in His scriptures; 4, in His prophets; 5 in the resurrection and day of judgment; 6, in predestination. The practical part of the prophet's creed was equally unobjectionable, according to the prevalent thoughts of religious observance at the time. It embraces four great precepts: 1, prayers and purification; 2, alms; 3, fasting; 4, the pilgrimage to Mecca, which was held to be so essential that any one who died without performing it might as well have died a Jew or a Christian.

Early in life he showed signs of a markedly religious disposition. He was given to dreams, practised fasting, retired betimes to caves in Mount Hira near Mecca for seclusion and meditation. It is said that he was subject to fits of epilepsy. He claimed to receive many revelations from God through the agency of the Angel Gabriel. The polytheism, that is the worship of hundreds of thousands of gods, which he saw all around him, he rejected, and emphasised that there is only one God. He refused the Christian faith of three Persons in the one Godhead — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — and denied the truth of the Scripture which says: "The LORD (Jehovah, singular) our God (Elohim, plural) is one LORD (Jehovah, singular)." (Deut. 6:4).

As to his creed, if it can be said that he had any, it was copied partly from the Old and New Testaments and from various other sources. Of the Lord Jesus he says, "The Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, is only an apostle of God . . . . God is only one God. Far be it from His glory that He should have a son." "Infidels now are they who say, God is the Messiah, son of Mary." "God is one; God the eternal; he begetteth not, neither is He begotten; neither is there any One like Him." He may have learnt this from the Arianism of the professing Christians he had met with.

Next we have the counterpart. "And every spirit that confesseth not Jesus"; such is the shorter and, as I believe, the true reading, in which the best critics agree. The acceptance of this text confirms the genuine sense of what precedes, and makes it perfectly plain that it is the confession, not of a mere fact, but of the person. For in the detection of the evil spirit there is nothing expressed as to Christ's coming in the flesh, though implied of course. It is simply "Jesus," while here the article appears, "the" Jesus of whom more had just been said. "Every spirit that confesseth not (the) Jesus is not of God." He is adequate to detect every evil spirit. It is not only that He came, was truly man, and will come again. The Mahomedans believe all this; yet they themselves are, what they call others, unbelievers. For they do not believe in the glory of His person. Their unbelief makes them hate Christians, and join with the Jews in a measure against Christians. They only look at Him as a prophet, a wonderful man, excellent beyond all the sons of men, and the appointed Judge of the world when he comes to reign for seven years! But they do not believe in His divine nature, or that He put aside His divine glory to manifest God's grace.

This, however, is not all. He has believed in his heart; now he confesses with his mouth, "There is no God in all the earth, but in Israel." Not only is he cleansed, but he is brought to know God." "I know" he can say. The gospel that meets our need, reveals God to our souls.

"The true God is confessed — the false god is denied."

"Deny the lie, believe the truth, affirm the word of God Himself. God is the Highest. God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

After asserting the truth that "God is One" the writer proceeds:—

God is One