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:

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

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. 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.