Shurut La Ilaha Illa Allah
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
Shurut La Ilaha Illa Allah ("The Conditions of 'There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah'") is a theological treatise by the Saudi scholar Awwad ibn Abd Allah al-Mutiq examining the essential conditions, pillars, and meaning of the Islamic testimony of faith.
Background and Purpose
The treatise was published as an academic study in the journal of the Islamic University of Madinah (Majallat al-Jami'ah al-Islamiyyah) in its 26th year, issues 101–102 (1414–1415 AH). The author was motivated to write the study after observing that some Muslims mistakenly believe that merely verbalizing the testimony of faith or acknowledging it without acting upon its requirements suffices for true faith, or that falling short in fulfilling its conditions does not impair its validity. Al-Mutiq later followed this study with a complementary research paper titled Nawaqid Kalimat al-Tawhid ("Nullifiers of the Word of Monotheism").
Contents and Structure
The book opens with an introduction and a preparatory overview (tamhid) before discussing the conditions in detail, concluding with a summary of findings:
- Meaning and Implementation: The author defines the statement as "there is no deity worshiped in truth except Allah alone without partner" (لا معبود بحق إلا الله وحده لا شريك له). He emphasizes that it entails singling out Allah in worship and abandoning the worship of graves, saints, or idols, rejecting interpretations that reduce its meaning merely to affirming Allah's existence, creative ability, or divine sovereignty alone.
- Conditions of Benefit: The treatise explains that a person only benefits from the testimony if its pillars and conditions are fulfilled and one dies upon it without committing any act that nullifies it.
- Pillars: Following linguistic and technical definitions, al-Mutiq identifies the two constitutive pillars of the phrase: negation (nafy), represented by La ilaha (negating true deity from all creation), and affirmation (ithbat), represented by illa Allah (affirming true deity to Allah alone).
- The Seven Conditions: After defining a legal condition (shart), the treatise details the seven conditions derived from the Quran and Sunnah upon which the validity of the testimony rests: knowledge (al-ilm), certainty (al-yaqin), sincerity (al-ikhlas), truthfulness (al-sidq), love (al-mahabbah), submission (al-inqiyad), and acceptance (al-qabul). The author cites mnemonic verses summarizing them, including lines from Hafiz al-Hakami's didactic poem.
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