Intro. to the Shahada, the Muslim's Confession of Faith

     Although there is a great diversity of beliefs within Islam, just as there is within Christianity, there is one confession, or Shahada, that makes a Muslim a Muslim. If a person can speak the words of the Shahada with conviction, then he or she is a Muslim. Here it is:

La ilaha il Allah, Muhammad-ur-Rasool-Allah

(There are no gods but God, and Muhammad is His prophet.)

     The Shahada functions for Muslims as the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds function for Christians. It defines, or makes public, the most fundamental beliefs of the religion.

     Though it contains far fewer words than any of the major Christian creeds, the Shahada contains at least as many meanings. You might say that although it contains few words, those few words make all the difference in the world. When a Muslim says that Muhammad is the prophet of God, he or she is saying that Muhammad is the final and authoritative prophet of God. They are saying that they believe that the word he was given as a prophet, the Qu’ran, is the direct revelation and speech of God. In other words, to know God one must affirm the status of Muhammad and accept the Qu’ran as the final and authoritative word of God.

     Although the religion of Islam goes back to Muhammad and his early companions, Islam traces its lineage back to Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael. Can anybody tell me who Hagar was, and Ishmael? Hagar was Sarah’s slave, and Sarah encouraged Abraham to have sexual relations with Hagar in the hopes that Abraham would have a child, since she herself was barren. Eventually Abraham and Sarah were visited by God, who came in the form of three persons, to declare that Sarah, in her old age, would bear a child, and that child’s name was Isaac. The Jews trace their historical lineage, then, through Abraham, Sarah and Isaac, and the Muslims trace their lineage through Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael. You might say that if Abraham had not had sex outside of marriage, the wars between the Jews and the Muslims would never have happened – the Crusades would not have occurred, either. Unfortunately, most people who commit adultery don’t get to stick around thousands of years to see the fruits of that particular sin.

     Let’s take a look at the Bible and see what God says about His relationship with Ishmael and Isaac.

Abram/Hagar/Ishmael – Genesis 16:11   “And the angel of the LORD said to her (Hagar), “Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the LORD has given heed to your affliction. He shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; and he shall live at odds with all his kin*…Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.”  *Note: Ishmael’s kin would be the descendants of Isaac (the Jews).

Genesis 17:18 ff: “And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” God said, “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac…”

NOTE: God’s covenant is only with the descendants of Isaac (in the OT) – and not Ishmael – and yet they are all given the land that God has given them to occupy together!

Genesis 17:8 “And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; & I will be their God.”

The Qur’an – on the subject of the Kaaba (in Mecca), Abraham, Ishmael, Jacob, et al.

from the 2^nd Surah: “Abraham and Ishmael built the House (the Kaaba) and dedicated it, saying: ‘Accept this from us, LORD. You are the One that hears all and knows all. LORD, make us submissive to You; make of our descendants a nation that will submit to You. Teach us our rites of worship and turn to us with mercy…Were you present when death came to Jacob? He said to his children: ‘What will you worship when I am gone?’ They replied: ‘We will worship your God and the God of your forefathers Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac: the One God. To Him we will surrender ourselves.’”