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Among the most famous words spoken by our beloved Messenger, Muhammad ﷺ, are those he most aptly delivered in reply to the inquisitions made by the angel Jibrīl, in which the latter requested that Allah’s Chosen inform him on the concepts and contents of Islām (specifying the fundamental actions required of Muslims), Īmān (specifying articles of faith), and Iḥsān (spiritual excellence). 

The first of these three includes what are known as the Five Pillars of Islam: uttering the Testimony of Faith, upholding the ritual prayer, giving specified alms to poor Muslims, fasting Ramaḍān, and attending the Ḥajj pilgrimage if one is able do so. While each of these ‘pillars’ can be understood independently of the others, in reality the latter four are only achievable when preceded by the most important, the Testimony of Faith, or Shahādah. It is useful to imagine the metaphor of Islam not as a house constructed on five equal pillars, but one built on the four pillars of Ṣalāh, Zakāh, Ṣawm, and Ḥajj, all of which are atop a singular, mighty foundation: the Shahādah. 

This phrase, as one the ḥadīth’s many commentators Sa’d ad-Dīn Taftāzānī expounds, consists of two parts. The first, “I testify that there is no god but Allah”, expresses the utterer’s belief in the Oneness of Allah Most High: absolute exclusivity from all others in His Essence, Attributes, and Actions. The second, “and, [I testify that] Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah”, expresses one’s belief in Prophethood. 

Imam Taftāzānī says, “[Testimony towards the Oneness of Allah and in Prophethood] are two inseparable foundations in upholding the religion, by necessity of Islām being dependent on the two halves of the testimony.” Inseparable here can correctly mean that both parts are required to validate one’s belief; one alone does not suffice. But if we are to analyze this word further, in the language of the scholars of logic, it may further import that belief in each singular half of the Testimony leads one by necessity to the belief in the other. Thus, a thinking person’s belief in God should necessarily lead them to belief in Prophethood, and specifically to that of Muḥammad ﷺ. Likewise, one’s belief in Muḥammad ﷺ as a Messenger would lead them to believe in the Oneness of Allah Most High.

This latter half of this claim is clear: How could someone truly recognize the Messengership of Muḥammad and still claim divinity for other than Allah, with a fundamental, in fact the most fundamental component of the Message he preached and recited being the likes of, “So, be assured there is no god but Allah” (Qur’an, 47:19) and “Say, [the truth is] that Allah is One. Allah is Besought of all, needing none. He neither begot anyone, nor was He begotten. And never has there been an equal to Him” (Qur’an, 112:1-4).

However, it remains obscure, to many, how belief in Allah’s Oneness should lead us to accepting the prophethood of Muḥammad ﷺ, or any others among His noble Prophets, Allah grant mercy and peace to them and to our beloved Messenger, āmīn. Thus, the relation between the two concepts, God’s Oneness, and Prophethood, is worthy of further exploration.

Thankfully for us, authors of our illustrious Islamic inheritance, like Imam Taftāzānī, have authored an entire genre of works expounding their thoughts on this very subject, known as Uṣūl ad-Dīn, the Foundations of the Religion. While the scrupulous details of the science may be saved for a formal study of ‘aqīdah, which every Muslim is encouraged to embark on to know the beliefs fundamental to their religion, we hope here to take the holistic route of reflecting on the Qur’an as a guide to making our intended connection. Let us, then, turn our attention to the beginning verses of Sūrah al-Insān:

“There has come unto mankind a moment of time in which he was nothing worth mentioning.” (Qur’an, 76:1)

With this verse, we are instantly alerted to the most fundamental rule of not only our own existence, but the universe as a whole: change. Human beings, like all things, only came to exist through a process of continuous change and transformation. Reaching far back into the depths of time, we know that not only did humans not exist, but the universe itself cannot possibly have developed to what it is now via an infinite chain of similarly contingent events. To believe the opposite leads to a logical absurdity. It must thus have a beginning, and there must be a pre-existing actor capable of initiating that beginning. That actor, existing independently and eternally with no beginning nor end, is what we designate with the word God, Allah in the Arabic language.

This argument is summarized succinctly with the following assertions and conclusion:

The universe changes. Everything that changes is in need of an unchanging Creator. Thus, the universe is in need of an unchanging Creator.

So far, we have established God’s existence alone. But what of His qualities that we know of from the Qur’an, like Life, Power, Will, Knowledge, etc.? If we have established that the universe has a Creator, it is thus fundamental that these attributes be ascribed to Him. Else, the act of creating the universe would not be possible were the Creator nonliving, powerless, unwilling, and unknowing of His creation. As for His Oneness, it is absurd to imagine that God’s absolute Will to do a particular thing be even potentially rivaled by the contrary absolute Will belonging to any other being posited as a ‘god’. Thus, the only being capable of possessing that said Will and similar qualities of perfection and eternality is the One God. 

Let us proceed to the next verse:

“We have created Mankind from a mixed sperm-drop to put him to test; then we made him able to hear, able to see.” (Qur’an, 76:2)

What, thus far, is still missing in the creation of the universe as we know it, with all its complexity, beauty, terror, and specifically in the creation of Mankind, furnished not only with the physical components of life, but beautified further with an intellect capable of investigating difficult questions about the universe, his own place therein, and innovating solutions to solve many of life’s material and philosophical challenges? For all this to be the outcome, the Creator must be attributed with a quality necessitating assignment of order and ultimate purpose in all His actions. This attribute can be called Wisdom, and its opposite, an impossibility for God, is called foolishness.

The verse above illustrates the physical process of human development. By what intent did God carve out for us a notch in this universe, carefully nurturing us through the various stages of conception, embryo development, then emerging from the womb a fully formed human being? “To put him to test.” That is the purpose of our creation, exemplified also in Qur’an 51:56: “I did not create the Jinn and Mankind except for the purpose that they should worship me.” 

Further, Allah Most High made Mankind “able to hear, able to see”; he gifted us not only with the physical senses by which we experience His creation, but with the potential for insight necessary to draw conclusions regarding the universe’s absolute dependance on God and the purposefulness behind our own creation. Our beloved Messenger ﷺ informed us that, “there is no man born except upon his primal nature (i.e., that of recognizing his Creator)”. We are all born with the inherent ability to reason many essential truths about God and our subservience to His Majesty. While that ability does not necessarily go away, those of us who were not born amongst the Muslims are led down a path of spiritual blindness until those guided few of us, ultimately, may find our way back to reunite with the warmth of God’s intent for us through Islam. All praise be to Allah!

We must, somehow, figure out a way back to God. Yet there are various realities that are imperceptible to us. What other qualities belong to God? What is our purpose? How do we fulfill it? How can we gain real, lasting peace and felicity? Allah the All-Wise answers thus:

“We have shown him the way to be either grateful or ungrateful.” (Qur’an, 76:3)

Following the same idea of Divine Wisdom explained earlier, we recognize there are matters of reality and morality which cannot be explained with intellect alone. Thus, if we are to discover and fulfill the purpose of our creation, we need more information. Anticipating this in His infinite Knowledge, God inspired certain individuals with the message requisite to attain human perfection and the eternal felicity sought by all. This message is called Revelation, as it is dispatched from the realm of the unseen to God’s chosen prophets (upon them and upon His Final Prophet be peace), who then pass it on to their people to steer them towards God’s intent for them. Revelation teaches us to fulfill our place in the universe by willingly showing gratefulness to God, and it also shows us the ugliness of its opposite.

Here, we may encounter a problem: how can one differentiate between true and false claimants of Prophethood? This was also anticipated, and thus God supported every prophet with miracles: occurrences defying the laws of nature tied to their claim towards Prophethood. These occurrences are aptly called mu’jizah in Arabic, meaning that they rendered anyone’s denial of the divine nature of these occurrences utterly impotent. Mūsā silenced the influential magicians of his time when his staff turned into a living snake, ‘Īsā effortlessly cured ailments even the skilled doctors of the Roman Empire were clueless to handle, and finally, our Beloved Messenger Muḥammad ﷺ came reciting a scripture that astounded the most eloquent poets of the most illustrious language, bringing ocean-depths of meaning, masterful rhetoric, impossible accuracy regarding past and future and subtle events, and upright guidance for every person who walks this Earth. Being the Seal of Prophethood and culmination of God’s dispatching revelation to the entirety of mankind, his miracle is the one prophetic miracle we can continue to bear witness to over a thousand years later, and thus do we recognize the magnitude of his noble station among all of Mankind.

It is due to the perfection of his sublime message and person that his blessed name will forever be next to that of God’s, in the phrase, “I testify that there is no god but Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.”