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This article contains Arabic text, written from right to left in a cursive style with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined Arabic letters written left-to-right instead of right-to-left or other symbols instead of Arabic script.

Silver coin of the Mughal Emperor Akbar with inscriptions of the Islamic declaration of faith, the declaration reads: “There is none worthy of worship but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.”

The shahada (Arabic: الشهادة‎ aš-šahādah  audio (help·info)) (from the verb شهد šahida, “he witnessed”), means “to know and believe without suspicion, as if witnessed, testification”; it is the name of the Islamic creed. The shahada is the Muslim declaration of belief in the oneness of God (tawhid) and acceptance of Muhammad as God’s prophet. The declaration in its shortest form reads:

لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله (lā ʾilāha ʾillà l-Lāh, Muḥammadun rasūlu l-Lāh) (in Arabic)

There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God. (in English)

In Shia Islam, the creed is expanded with the addition of a phrase concerning Ali at the end:

"وعليٌ وليُّ الله", wa ʿAliyyun waliyyu l-Lāh [“and Ali is the wali (friend; viceregent) of God”].^[1]

Overview[link]

The word shahādah is a noun stemming from the verb shahida, meaning “to observe, witness, or testify”; when used in legal terms, shahādah is a testimony to the occurrence of events, such as debt, adultery, or divorce.^[2] The shahādah can also be expressed in the dual form shahādatān (= "two testifyings"), which refers to dual act of observing or seeing and then the declaration of the observation. The two acts in Islam are observing or perceiving that there is no god but God and testifying or witnessing that Muhammad is the messenger of God. In a third meaning, shahādah can mean “martyrdom”, the shahid (“martyr”) demonstrating the ultimate expression of faith.^[3]

A single honest recitation of the shahadah in Arabic is all that is required for a person to become a Muslim. This declaration, or statement of faith, is called the Kalima, literally “word”. Recitation of the shahadah, the “oath” or “testimony”, is the most important article of faith for Muslims. Non-Muslims wishing to convert to Islam do so by a public recitation of this creed.^[4] Sunni Muslims count it as the first of the Five Pillars of Islam, while the Twelver and Ismaili Shi'a connect it to their respective lists of Pillars of the faith.^[5] The complete shahadah cannot be found in the Quran, but comes from hadiths.^[6]

Recitation[link]

 audio (help·info)

A single honest recitation of the shahadah in Arabic is all that is required for a person to convert to Islam according to most traditional schools (madhab). In usage, the two occurrences of ašhadu ʾanna (or similar) = “I testify that” or “I bear witness that …” are very often omitted.

History[link]

A mancus / gold dinar of the king Offa of Mercia, copied from the dinars of the Abbasid Caliphate (774); probably unintentionally, it still includes the Arabic text Muhammad is the Apostle of God.		Qiblah of Imam Mustansir in the Mosque of Ibn Tulun of Cairo showing the Shi'i Kalima

Another of the earliest surviving translations of the shahadah into a foreign language is in Greek, from the reign of al-Walid I (86–96 AH, 705–715 CE): Ούκ Έστι[ν θεός εἰ μὴ ὁ θεὸς μόνος·] Μααμὲ[τ ἀπόστολος θεοῦ] (Ouk esti[n theos ei mē ho theos monos;] Maame[t apostolos theou]).^[7] "There is no god except for the God alone; Muhammad is the Apostle of God."; i.e., "Allah", the Arabic word for "the God", is translated as "ὁ Θεός" and Muhammad is transliterated as "Μωάμεθ".

Photo of the Kalima at Bab al-Futuh/Bab al-Nasr Fatimid Cairo with phrase ʿAliyyun waliyyu l-Lāh.

The Kalimah in its complete Shi'i form also exists at the gate Bab al-Futuh built by the Fatimid minister Al-Afdal Shahanshah (952-975 A.D.), northern wall of Fatimid Cairo.

Conditions[link]

Muslims believe that the shahadah is without value unless it is earnest. Islamic scholars have therefore developed, based on the data of the Quran and hadith, essential criteria for an expression of the shahadah to be earnest. These criteria are generally divided into seven to nine individual criteria; the varying numbers and orderings are not due to disagreements about what the criteria actually are, but rather different ways of dividing them.^[8]

One such list of seven critical conditions of the shahadah, without which it is considered to be meaningless, are as follows:^{[citation needed]}.

• Al-ʿIlm (العلم): Knowledge of the meaning of the Shahadah, its negation and affirmation.
• Al-Yaqeen (اليقين): Certainty – perfect knowledge of it that counteracts suspicion and doubt.
• Al-Ikhlaas (الإخلاص): Sincerity which negates shirk.
• Al-Sidq (الصدق): Truthfulness that permits neither falsehood nor hypocrisy.
• Al-Mahabbah (المحبة): Love of the Shahadah and its meaning, and being happy with it.
• Al-Inqiyad (الانقياد): Submission to its rightful requirements, which are the duties that must be performed with sincerity to God (alone) seeking His pleasure.
• Al-Qubool (القبول): Acceptance that contradicts rejection.

The second part of the Shahada carries several conditions as well:

• To believe in the Prophet and in whatever he said and conveyed in his message as the seal of the prophets.
• To obey him in whatever he commanded.
• To stay away from or avoid whatever he commanded Muslims not to do.
• To follow or emulate him in our ʿibādah (عبادة; worship), ʾaḫlāq (أخلاق; manners), and way of life.

• To understand, practice, and promote his sunnah (“habits”) in the best way possible, without creating any chaos, enmity or harm.

Flags[link]

National flag[link]

The flag of Saudi Arabia, displaying the shahadah.

The flag of Somaliland, featuring the shahadah

The flag of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, featuring the shahadah

The flag of Saudi Arabia is the only flag of an internationally recognized sovereign state which displays the shahada. The design from the Saudi flag has been used in the flag of the unrecognized state of Somaliland (1996).

The 2004 draft constitution of Afghanistan proposed a flag with the shahada in white script centered on a red background.

An analysis of the calligraphy used in the flag of Saudi Arabia and derived designs is presented below:

It can be seen in the second flag that the name of Allah (الله) is written in a higher position. The name for Allah is written twice in each flag, but the first ʾalif (ا) is written after the second lām (ل) only once in the first instance of Allah in the second flag (pink), and only once in the second appearance in the flag of Saudi Arabia (green). This overwriting is also visible for the lam of rasul(u) (light blue), but only in the Saudi Arabian flag. The ligature lām + ʾalif (لا) is always written the same way in the Saudi Arabian flag, but calligraphy is changed in the case of the second لا (red) of the second flag at the left.

Jihadist flags[link]

The jihadist black flag, with the shahada inscribed in white (in use since ca. 2000)

Iraqi insurgents in Ramadi displaying a makeshift flag with the shahada (2005).

Flags reported as in use in jihadism have been frequently displaying the shahada, usually on a black background, since ca. 2000. The Taliban used a white flag with the shahada inscribed in black from 1997, until 2001 as the flag of their Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Flags showing the shahadaa, often written on a green background, have also been displayed by supporters of Hamas in rallies during the 2000s.

Turkish national anthem[link]

The shahadah is referenced in the eighth stanza of the Turkish national anthem, which can be translated as:

Oh glorious God, the sole wish of my pain-stricken heart is that,

No heathen’s hand should ever touch the bosom of my sacred Temples.
These ʾaḏāns, whose shahadahs are the foundations of my religion,

May their noble sound last loud and wide over my eternal homeland.

See also[link]

• (Not to be confused with) shahid
• Profession (religious)
• Takfir
• Takbir
• Basmala (or Bismillah)
• Kalima
• Six Kalimas
• List of Islamic terms in Arabic
• List of Christian terms in Arabic

References[link]

External links[link]

• “The First Pillar of Islam”
• “The Shahadah as Truth and as Way”

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shahada

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

Hamza Yusuf
Hamza Yusuf at Doha Academy Education Conference in Qatar, 2010.
Born	Mark Hanson 1958 (age 53–54) Walla Walla, Washington, United States
Residence	Northern California, United States
Occupation	Islamic scholar
Religion	Sunni Islam[1][2]
Spouse	Liliana (Umm Yahya) Hanson
Website
Sandala.org

Hamza Yusuf Hanson is an American Islamic scholar^[3][4], and (with Zaid Shakir and Hatem Bazian) is co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, United States. He is a convert to Islam, and is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding. He has described the 9/11 attacks as "an act of 'mass murder, pure and simple'". Condemning the attacks, he has also stated "Islam was hijacked ... on that plane as an innocent victim".^[5] The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom reported that he "is arguably the west's most influential Islamic scholar" and added that "many Muslims find his views hard to stomach."^[6]

Biography[link]

Hamza Yusuf was born to two academics^[7] in Washington State and raised in Northern California. In 1977, he became Muslim and subsequently traveled to the Muslim world and studied for ten years in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, as well as North and West Africa.^[8] Hamza Yusuf spent four years studying in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Middle East. Later he traveled to West Africa and studied in Mauritania, Medina, Algeria, and Morocco under such scholars as Murabit al Haaj; Baya bin Salik, head of the Islamic court in Al-'Ain, United Arab Emirates; Muhammad Shaybani, Mufti of Abu Dhabi; Hamad al-Wali; and Muhammad al-Fatrati of Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.^{[citation needed]} After more than a decade abroad, he returned to the United States and earned degrees in nursing from Imperial Valley College and religious studies at San José State University.^{[citation needed]}

Hamza Yusuf is a co-founder of Zaytuna College, located in Berkeley, California. He is an advisor to Stanford University's Program in Islamic Studies and the Center for Islamic Studies at Berkeley's Graduate Theological Union.^{[citation needed]} He also serves as a member of the board of advisors of George Russell's One Nation, a national philanthropic initiative that promotes pluralism and inclusion in America. In addition, he serves as vice-president for the Global Center for Guidance and Renewal, which was founded and is currently presided over by Abdallah Bin Bayyah, one of the top jurists and masters of Islamic sciences in the world.^{[citation needed]}

Hamza Yusuf has promoted Islamic sciences and classical teaching methodologies throughout the world. He has also been an advocate for social justice, peace, and conviviality among peoples and places. For several years, he has argued that the "them versus us" problem is fundamentally flawed, and, in R. D. Laing’s term, a “knot” that will destroy people if they do not extricate themselves from it.^{[citation needed]}

Hamza Yusuf has served as an advisor to many organizations, leaders, and heads of state.^{[citation needed]} He has been an innovator in modern Islamic education^{[citation needed]}, founding the highly imitated Deen Intensives, and with Ibrahim Osi-Efa, he started the first Rihla program in England, which has been running for over fifteen years. Dozens of young Muslims who were influenced by his call to reviving traditional Islamic studies in the West went to the Muslim lands in the nineties and early part of the current decade to study, many of who are now teachers in their own right.^{[citation needed]}

With Eissa Bougari, Hamza Yusuf initiated a media challenge to the Arab world that resulted in a highly successful cultural religious program that he hosted for three years and was one of the most watched programs in the Arab world during Ramadan.^{[citation needed]} Cambridge Media Studies stated that this program had a profound influence on subsequent religious programming in the Arab world. He has also been interviewed on BBC several times and was the subject of a BBC documentary segment The Faces of Islam, ushering in the new millennium, as it aired at 11:30 pm on December 31, 1999. Hamza Yusuf has been an outspoken critic of American foreign policy as well as Islamic extremist responses to those policies.^{[citation needed]}

He has drawn criticism from both the extreme right in the West and Muslim extremists in the East.^[9] He told The Guardian: "Many people in the west do not realise how oppressive some Muslim states are – both for men and for women. This is a cultural issue, not an Islamic one. I would rather live as a Muslim in the west than in most of the Muslim countries, because I think the way Muslims are allowed to live in the west is closer to the Muslim way. A lot of Muslim immigrants feel the same way, which is why they are here."^[10]

He and colleagues founded the Zaytuna Institute in 1996, which has established an international reputation^{[citation needed]} for presenting a classical picture of Islam in the West and which is dedicated to the revival of traditional study methods and the sciences of Islam. Hamza Yusuf currently resides in Northern California with his wife and five children.^{[citation needed]}

Hamza Yusuf has also authored several encyclopedia articles and research papers. His published books include The Burda (2003), Purification of the Heart (2004), The Content of Character (2004), The Creed of Imam al-Tahawi (2007), Agenda to Change our Condition (2007), and Walking on Water (2010). Forthcoming are The Prayer of the Oppressed, and The Helpful Guide.^{[citation needed]}

Hamza Yusuf is the first American lecturer to teach in Morocco's prestigious and oldest university, the University of Al-Karaouine in Fes.^[11] He is married and has five children, all boys.

Critical reception[link]

Jordan's Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre placed him on its list of the top 50 most influential Muslims in the world.^{[citation needed]} The magazine Egypt Today described him as a kind of theological rock star, "the Elvis Presley of western Muslims."^[12] Recently, Hamza Yusuf was ranked as "the Western world's most influential Islamic scholar" by The 500 Most Influential Muslims, edited by John Esposito and Ibrahim Kalin, (2009).^[13]

Publications[link]

Books Authored[link]

• The Burda The Burda (2003)
• Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart (2004)
• The Content of Character (2004)
• The State We Are In: Identity, Terror, and the Law of Jihad (contributing Author) (2006)
• The Creed of Imam al-Tahawi The Creed of Imam Al-Tahawi (2007)
• Agenda to Change our Condition co-authored with Zaid Shakir (2007)
• Walk on Water: The wisdom of Jesus Walk on Water: The wisdom of Jesus (2010)
• Educating your Child in Modern Times

Books with Foreword or note[link]

• Instruction of the Student: The Method of Learning
• The Prophetic Invocations By Mostafa Al-Badawi

Book Edited with Zaid Shakir[link]

• Submission Faith and Beauty Submission Faith and Beauty, The Religion of Islam by Joseph Lumbard (2009)

Papers[link]

• Caesarean Moon Births Part 1
• Caesarean Moon Births Part 2
• Climbing Mount Purgatorio
• Religion, Violence, and the Modern World
• Generous Tolerance in Islam and its Effects on the Life of a Muslim
• Chess in the Light of the Jurist
• Who are the Disbelievers?

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hamza Yusuf

Websites[link]

• Sandala.org – Official website of Hamza Yusuf
• Zaytuna.org – Zaytuna College
• Sheikhhamza.com – Contains list of books recommended by Hamza Yusuf and a biography

See also[link]

• Zaytuna College
• Zaid Shakir