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The Kalima or the Declaration of Faith is two short sentences and is the essence of Islam. It is given below:

This is a declaration that you are a Muslim and it is necessary for all new converts to recite this upon conversion to the new faith.

The first part of this declaration is that there is none worthy of worship except Allah. As we have previously mentioned, Allah is the personal name for the One God. In Arabic, Allah has no other meaning but One God! Anyone who believes in One God, whatever name they give to that One God, are referring to the God we call Allah. Thus, if a person called God as ‘Father’, ‘Jehovah’ etc., and he is referring to the One God who created the universe, mankind, etc., then he is referring to the same God who we call Allah. We cannot say that we believe in One God, but there are ‘other gods’ in other religions; if we did, then we could not possibly believe in One God, as we would be believing that there were many gods! Therefore, we testify that we believe in One God and that God is the only thing worthy of worship. Any other gods that others believe in, then we would regard them as false gods.

The second part of this declaration is that we believe that the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, is the Messenger of Allah. Since he has come for the final, universal religion of Islam and thus the only Messenger sent for all mankind, then we testify that we accept him. Furthermore, we believe that he is the final law-given prophet and that no more law-giving prophets can now come. We further believe that he is the Khataman Nabiyyeen which is a title bestowed on him by Allah and means that he is the ‘Best of all Prophets’. Whilst as a Muslim we believe in all the prophets sent by Allah to mankind, we also believe that each prophet has a certain mission and some have greater responsibilities than others. A law-giving prophet would thus be higher in the sight of Allah than a prophet who is a follower of that law. The Holy Prophet being the final law-giving prophet who has come for not just one religion, but for all mankind, would therefore be the best prophet in the sight of Allah. This is what we testify to.