WELCOME TO ISLAM: Syahadah ( The Declaration of Faith)

بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ١

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

The Most Precious Kalimah in the entire universe, and you must recite this kalimah in Arabic followed by the meaning in your own language if wish.

Ashhadu al la ilaha illa llah
wa ash hadu anna muhammada Ro sulu llah

Meaning: "I bear witness that there is no God to be worshiped but Allah and I bear witness that Prophet Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."

A short continuation from the previous post, after discussing about the second pillar of iman during the English for da'wah class, we then started going into the 5 pillars of Islam. Assume that all 6 pillars of iman were already introduced to the Muslim you are trying to give da'wah to, then it's time to slowly talk about the 5 pillars of iman. The first pillar which is Kalimah syahadah is the confession of a muslim by pledging "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah".

From here we talk about what it means to believe in Allah. We trust Allah as He has created us, thus He knows what's best for us. Then we take them into Asma' Allah which is the 99 names of Allah. Take one name, As-Sami (The Hearer of All). Allah listens and He responds, not like us, we can listen but not all the time do we respond. Allah can hear everything, whether we express it or not, He can hear what is in our thoughts, our hearts, and our minds, but we are very limited in listening.

Allah LOVES to listen, He wants us to ask from Him, and He never gets angry or fed up, unlike us, we sometimes get irritated when people ask too much, or we sometimes feel reluctant when people ask for our help. We as humans tend to listen only to people we like, but Allah listens indiscriminately, He listens to each and every being, even to a person with sins as high as a mountain. The purpose of introducing them to the names of Allah is to let them recognize Allah more. Allah Ar-Rahman, Allah the most Bountiful, He gives Bounty to every person, whether a Muslim or a Kafir. Allah Ar- --Rahim, Allah is the Most Merciful to the believers, He gives calmness, peace, and serenity through his blessings.

Allah Al-Ghafur, Allah the all Forgiving. Always remember that no matter how big our sins are, Allah will forgive us if we repent (taubah). The taubah will be accepted if we do it immediately and have the determination not to repeat the sin again. Allah said in the Holy Qur'an :

وَٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَدْعُونَ مَعَ ٱللَّهِ إِلَـٰهًا ءَاخَرَ وَلَا يَقْتُلُونَ ٱلنَّفْسَ ٱلَّتِى حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُ إِلَّا بِٱلْحَقِّ وَلَا يَزْنُونَ ۚ وَمَن يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ يَلْقَ أَثَامًۭا ٦٨

يُضَـٰعَفْ لَهُ ٱلْعَذَابُ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ وَيَخْلُدْ فِيهِۦ مُهَانًا ٦٩

إِلَّا مَن تَابَ وَءَامَنَ وَعَمِلَ عَمَلًۭا صَـٰلِحًۭا فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ يُبَدِّلُ ٱللَّهُ سَيِّـَٔاتِهِمْ حَسَنَـٰتٍۢ ۗ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ غَفُورًۭا رَّحِيمًۭا ٧٠

وَمَن تَابَ وَعَمِلَ صَـٰلِحًۭا فَإِنَّهُۥ يَتُوبُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ مَتَابًۭا ٧١

"And those who invoke not any other Ilah (god) along with Allah (shirk), nor kill such life as Allah has forbidden, except for just cause, nor commit illegal sexual intercourse and whoever does this shall receive the punishment. The torment will be doubled to him on the Day of Resurrection, and he will abide therein in disgrace; except those who repent and believe (in Islamic Monotheism), and do righteous deeds, for those, Allah will change their sins into good deeds, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. And whosoever repents and does righteous good deeds, and then verily, he repents towards Allah with true repentance."

(Surah Al-Furqan. 68-71)

We have to keep in mind that sometimes we do commit small syirik, for example, whilst watching the TV, and we hear the call for prayer, but we keep on watching the TV without responding immediately to Allah, that is we are putting something or someone equal to Him. Another example is Riya (showing off). We think that everything belongs to us. But do bear in mind that our intelligence, our wealth, our body, everything belongs to Allah. We are just borrowers, we have nothing and Allah can take them back anytime He wants. So always remember to istighfar (an act of seeking forgiveness from Allah) by saying "astaghfirullah" (I seek forgiveness from Allah). Always renew our intention(niat)to do everything for the sake of Allah. Even in doing actions as small as combing our hair, we have to remember that we do it because Allah likes us to be beautiful and neat. We take medicine in an effort to be healthy, but only Allah can cure it.

One last thing to remind especially to this person who is writing, we are all mirrors of Islam, we reflect Islam in everything we do. So let us make sure that we are able to look our best in this mirror of life..