La Ilaha Ill Allah Muhammadur Rasool Allah (There is no god only Allah, Muhammad is the Rasool (Messenger) of Allah) is also known as Kalima Tayyab. Kalima Tayyab is the testification of faith in Islam. A person cannot be considered to be a Muslim if he/she does not believe in the words of this Kalima. To become a Muslim, a person must say this Kalima with total belief. Another point about this Kalima is the name given to it, which is Tayyab. Tayyab means Purity. By uttering this Kalima a person is purified from disbelief. An impure person becomes pure. This purification is spiritual.
Most of the Muslims even today substitute the word GOD for the Name ALLAH. They go so far as translating the words LA ILAHA ILL ALLAH to mean There is no god but God. This latter translation is incorrect. IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! Is Allah a God? No! Is the short and simple answer. Allah is not a God with a capital G or little g . The first Kalima (Testification) says clearly LA ILAHA (NO GOD!) ILL ALLAH (Only ALLAH). The biggest misunderstanding has started from the Translations of the Holy Quran. The translators freely substituted the word GOD where ever the name ALLAH is mentioned. It is, as if they are apologising on Allah's behalf and, in their minds, correcting the words of the Holy Quran. To compound the problem, the translators use outdated English which is neither spoken nor read by the majority of the population. It is this misrepresentation that has caused the confusion. Today so many Muslims who do not understand Arabic believe Allah and God is one and the same because they can only understand the (incorrect) English translation. This is a major downfall. Have you ever really considered why the Kalima started with a Negative word NO followed by GOD? It was to stop the people worshipping gods in the form of statues or in the form of pictures, or in the form of mental images. It was to stop people worshipping a god or gods sitting on a throne. If Allah is a god then the Kalima might have started with YES there is a God, or Allah is the only God, but it does not. The Kalima starts with NO god.
The name Allah cannot be converted to the English word God. Allah is infinite, which means Allah has no boundaries. Allah has no centre. Allah has no inside and no outside. If Allah had boundaries then that would limit Allah. We are told in the Quran:
If Allah was a god then we would not see his face everywhere. He would be limited by form or shape. He would be limited by time and place. Allah has no form or shape because with form and shape there is an outline that forms the shape or boundary. We are informed about this in the Holy Quran:
Which means Allah is not limited by time, place or circumstance. Some readers may say that Allah is referred to as God in the Holy Quran. This is true. An example of this is given here:
In verse 163, the word God (ILAHA) is used to describe Allah (Your God is One God), but notice the context in which it is used. Allah is addressing the NON-MUSLIMS. After telling the disbelievers of the fate that awaits them, Allah informs them that their God is one God WA ILAHUKUM ILAHUN WAHID because they are only familiar with the concept of god. Allah tells the non-Muslims using the terminology that the non-Muslims are familiar with, which is god. Immediately following that in the same verse we are told LA ILAHA ILLA HU. There is no god only He the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful which is addressed to the Muslims. So the last part of verse 163 is addressed to the Muslims who should not interchange the Name Allah with the word god. You will find the word ILAHA 'God' is used throughout the Holy Quran whenever the verses are addressed to the Non-Muslims.
Again we are told in
the Holy Quran that there is no god with little 'g' or capital
'G'. So who is Allah? Muhammad the Messenger of Allah
and all the great Muslim saints
(ra) from the past to present have said no one should contemplate
on the essence of Allah because in doing that, a person
will fall into error. But we must reflect on Allah's
attributes or qualities in order to attain nearness to Him.
His Name is Allah, and his attributes or qualities are Ar Rahman (The Most Gracious), Ar Raheem (The Most Merciful), Al Malik (The Sovereign), Al Quddus (The Holy One), As Salaam (The Source of Peace), Al Mu_min (The Guardian of Faith), Al Muhaiymin (The Preserver of Safety), Al Azeez (The Exalted in Might), Al Jabbar (The Irresistible), Al Mutakabir (The Supreme) and all the other qualities mentioned in the Holy Quran.
I found in one translation of "Al Futhu Rabbani", the translator had freely used the word God when Referring to Allah. I could not find the NAME Allah anywhere in the entire book. I wrote and pointed this out to the translator. He replied, "The word GOD is mentioned in the Webster's Dictionary. It is derived from the Indian word Ghauss meaning Saviour."
The Muslims use the word
Ghauss for the person who is the Chief of the Walees (saints).
The Shaikh of the Shaikhs. The Christians use the word Saviour
for Isa (Jesus (
)). It is sad to
find that these people who translate the Holy Quran and the works
of prominent saints, use the word 'God' wherever they come across
the Name 'Allah'. Countless people read these translations.
The readers, are brain washed into believing that 'Allah' is 'God'. Is it any surprise the Muslims are suffering
in this day and age, when people who have impact (that is the
translators) on the lives of other people are ashamed to use the
Name Allah from the Holy Quran which is the
word of Allah. They would rather use the word 'God'
from a Dictionary written by men.
In this day and age, the entire population of the earth is aware of the religion of Islam. They are also aware, that those who practice and follow Islam are called Muslims and not Mohammadans. By the same reasoning, the entire population of the earth is aware of the Name ALLAH. Now it must be made clear to everyone including the ignorant Muslims (through no fault of their own), that the Muslims serve Allah, they do not worship any God.
In conclusion Allah is not a god. There is no god only Allah. Allah is the proper name of our Creator. Allah is infinite, because where ever we turn there is the Face of Allah. There are some Muslims who will argue that Allah is not everywhere. After providing the proof from the Holy Quran (Chapter 2 verse 115) if they still dispute that Allah is not everywhere then they have rejected the Word of Allah. Only Allah Knows Best!
.Now let us look at the second part of Kalima Tayyab starting again with the literal translation of the words MUHAMMAD(UR) RASOOL ULLAH.
Every Muslim will translate MUHAMMAD RASOOL ALLAH to mean Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah
There are no problems here. Except in comprehension. Some Muslims do not even realise what they are uttering. They are not paying attention to the words of the Kalima. They are veiled from the meaning of the Kalima.
When someone utters YA MUHAMMAD , others will quickly
admonish the utterer that he/she cannot say YA Muhammad
. Why?
The admonishers believe
that Muhammad the Messenger of
Allah is not present with us in this world. We can only use YA
for someone who is present. Therefore it is all right to say YA ALLAH, but it is not right to say YA MUHAMMAD .
Let me reiterate what I have already written in the above section (LA ILAHA ILL ALLAH). To become a Muslim, a person must first of all say the Kalima Tayyab LA ILAHA ILL ALLAH MUHAMMADUR RASOOL ALLAH with total belief. A person who does not believe in this Kalima is not a Muslim. The translation of this Kalima is:
In this section we are dealing with the second part of the Kalima. MUHAMMADUR RASOOL ALLAH. Literally translated means MUHAMMAD MESSENGER OF ALLAH. Grammatically translated the meaning is:
If we look at the literal translation, it clearly states Muhammad the MESSENGER OF ALLAH. There is no mention of time in relation to Past, Present or Future. The grammatically correct translation states:
Yet the admonishers do
not even realise what they are saying when reciting the Kalima
Tayyab. If a Muslim today cannot say Ya Muhammad he
cannot say Muhammad IS the messenger of Allah by the same
reasoning. I challenge anyone to change IS to
WAS. Whoever does that will be a non believer (Kafir).
The door of prophetship is closed. Muhammad
is the seal of all the Prophets. He is the Messenger of Allah
to all those who are here today and for those who are yet to be
born. That implies today, tomorrow and the rest of time which
is eternity. MUHAMMAD is the messenger of Allah even in the next
world because we the Muslims will still be known as Muhammad's
Ummah or
community.
Although we cannot see
Muhammad physically, spiritually he is
always present. As far as the souls are concerned, the very first
Soul, or Ruh, or Light that Allah created was the Light of Muhammad
. That Light (Ruh / Soul) said
"Subhan Allah" for 70,000 years. Today some of the Muslims
say Hadrat Muhammad
is not present, so we cannot say YA MUHAMMAD.
Muhammad was PRESENT (Hadar) even before
the creation of heavens and earth, how can he not be PRESENT now!
He is the First and the Last Prophet (Awal and Akhir these are
also among the names of the Muhammad ).
Those who say it is wrong to say Ya Muhammad only think in terms
of a physical body. By the same logic, has anyone seen Allah Subhana
Wa Ta Ala physically? Yet we say Ya Allah.
When Hadrat Adam () was sent from heaven to earth
for eating the forbidden fruit he repented for 330 years. Then
Allah gave Adam () guidance and he
remembered The Kalima he had seen inscribed in heaven
When Adam ()
recited the Kalima, Allah accepted his prayer and forgave Adam
(). Even Adam ()
had to say:
Why did he not say Muhammad
WILL BE the messenger of Allah?
Was Muhammad present then or
not? You can answer this question for your self. Only Allah Knows
Best!
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