أركان شهادتين: the pillars of the shahaadah are two: and they are nafee[negation] and ithbaat [affirmation] the first is nafee [negation] and it your saying laa ilaaha and it nullifies shirk in all of its different categories and manifestations and it necessitates disbelief in everything that is worshipped besides Allah.[who is worshipped besides Allah except that they are taken as a god besides Allah?] And the second pillar is Ithbaat [affirmation] and it is your saying illa Allah and it is to affirm that verily nothing is worthy of worship except Allah and it is mandatory to have all your actions in accordance with that[meaning singling out Allah alone for all acts of worship] there are many verses in the Quraan that evidence this point like Allah says, "whoever disbelieves in false deities and believes in Allah." [2:256] so you say for example, "man yakfur bit-taaghut" whoever disbelieves in Taaghut" this is indicated in the first pillar laa ilaaha [negation] and Allah says, "wa yu'min billah" and believes in Allah and this indicates the second pillar of the shahadah which is illa Allah [except Allah] and this is also found in the statement of Ibraheem [alayhi salam] in the Quran where Allah says, "Innanee baraa'un mimmaa ta'budoon" Indeed I am free of you and that which you worship [zukhroof:26] "innanee baraa'un" "indeed I am free" which takes the meaning of and this is ithbaat [affirmation]negation. and "illa alladhe fataranee" "except for He who created me" is the affirmation. So for our shahaadah to be correct is that we must disbelieve in all false deities and believe in Allah, reject worshipping all false deities and worship Allah alone. Direct all ibaadah to Allah alone and not devote any aspect or part of worship to other than Allah. I remember Shaykh Ubayd Bin Jaabiree mentioned a principle, "al-amiru bi shay'in nahaa an dhidhdhihi wa nahaa bi shayin amir bi dhidhidhi" being commanded with something [whether in the Quran or the Authentic Sunnah] is also a prohibition of doing its opposite and being prohibitted from something is a command to do its opposite" I hope this is clear.
