Know, may Allah have mercy on you, that “la ilaha illallah” is the supreme, most honorable, and most valuable statement. Whoever holds onto it shall be safe and protected. The Messenger of Allah said, “Whoever says ‘la ilaha illallah,’ and disbelieves in what is worshiped besides Allah, his property and blood shall be protected, and his account shall be upon Allah” (Reported by Muslim from Tariq ibn Ashyam). This hadith reveals that “la ilaha illallah” is a word to be pronounced and that it has a meaning.

Regarding this, people are divided into three categories. The first category consists of those who pronounced it and accomplished it in both meaning and application, avoiding its nullifiers. The second category is of those who pronounced it, outwardly acting according to it, thereby decorating themselves with its words, yet they inwardly succumbed to kufr and doubt. The third category is of those who spoke it but acted against its meaning, openly falling into its nullifiers. They are “those whose effort is lost in the Dunya, while they think that they are doing well in work” (al-Kahf, 104). The first category is safe, that of those of the true believers, while the second is of the munafiqin and the third is of the mushrikin. “La ilaha illallah” is a fortress. But they erected against it the catapult of denial, casting the stones of ruin. So when the enemy entered, they took away its meaning and left its mere image. The hadith also says, “Indeed, Allah does not look to your images and bodies, but rather, He looks to your hearts and deeds” (Reported by Muslim from Abu Hurayrah). They seized the meaning of “la ilaha illallah,” such that all they had left was a movement of the tongue and the uttering of words. They speak of the fortress, but they are not protected thereby. Just as the mention of fire does not burn, the mention of water does not drown, the mention of bread does not satisfy one’s hunger, and the mention of a sword does not cut. Likewise, the mention of the fortress does not protect. Words are the rind and the meaning is the core. Words are the shell and the meaning is the pearl. What then comes of a rind without a core or a shell without a pearl?

“La ilaha illallah” is to its meaning as the soul is to its body. The body is useless without the soul. Likewise, this statement is useless without its meaning. The people of merit took this statement with both its image and its significance. They adorned their exteriors with its image – its words – and their inner selves with the meaning. As such, they were witnessed as preceding with truthfulness. “Allah witnesses that there is no deity except Him, and so do the angels and those of knowledge, maintained with justice. There is no deity except Him, the Exalted in Might, the Wise” (Al ‘Imran, 18).

The people who equate things with Allah, i.e. those who commit shirk, have taken this image without its meaning. They have adorned their exteriors with words and their inner selves with kufr, believing in what neither benefits nor causes harm. Their hearts are dark and blackened. Allah provided no criterion for them to differentiate between right and wrong. On Yawm al-Qiyamah, they will remain in the darkness of their kufr. “Allah took away their light and leftthem in darkness, so they cannot see” (al-Baqarah, 17).

So as for he who says “la ilaha illallah,” while still worshiping his desires, money, and other worldly things, what would his answer on Yawm al-Qiyamah be to his Lord? “Have you seen he who has taken as his god his desire” (al-Jathiyah, 23)? “Woe to the slave of the dinar. Woe to the slave of the dirham. Woe to the slave of the cloth. Whenever he is given, he is pleased, and whenever he is not given, he is displeased, unhappy and set back. And whenever he is faced with an ordeal, he knows not how to fix it” (Reported by al-Bukhari from Abu Hurayrah)

When you say “la ilaha illallah,” and it lives only on your tongue instead of in your heart, then you are a munafiq. And if it lives in your heart, and you physically commit yourself to it, then you are a believer. Beware of “having faith” with the tongue and not the heart, lest this statement expose you when you are resurrected, saying, “My Lord, I have been with him this many years. He did not recognize my right, nor did he guard my sanctity as he should have!” Indeed, this word shall testify for or against you. It bears witness to the respect of the people of merit until it takes them into Jannah. And it bears witness against the criminality of the people of shirk until it takes them into Hellfire. “A party will be in Jannah and a party in the blaze” (ash-Shura, 7).

“La ilaha illallah” is the tree of happiness. If you plant it in the nursery of approval, water it from the waters of sincerity, and oversee it with good deeds, its roots will be strong, its stems will be firm, its leaves will turn green, its fruits will ripen, and its produce will double. “It produces its fruit all the time, by the permission of its Lord” (Ibrahim, 25). But if this tree is planted in the nursery of falsehood and dissent, and you watered it with showing off and hypocrisy, making it accustomed to evil actions and bad statements, flooding it with the stream of betrayal, and exposing it to the burning midday sun, its fruits will scatter, its leaves will fall, its stems will be exposed, its veins will cease, and the storms of fate will blow on it and tear it to pieces. “We will come to what they have done of deeds and make them as dust dispersed” (al-Furqan, 23).

If the Muslim fulfills this, it is an obligation that he fulfills the other pillars of Islam as in the authentic hadith, “Islam was founded on five pillars: the testimony that la ilaha illallah and Muhammad is the Rasul of Allah, to establish the prayer, to pay the zakah, to fast Ramadan, and to perform the Hajj when one finds a way” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim from ibn ‘Umar). “But whoever disbelieves, then indeed, Allah is free of needing the creation” (Al ‘Imran, 97).

Source: Ad-Durar as-Saniyyah, vol 2, pp. 112-3