Meaning: (Whoever says, "There is no god but Allah," will enter Paradise).

The Shaykh : That is why, when it came in the authentic hadith in Muslim that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gave his sandals to Abu Hurayrah and said to him: And for a wisdom that Allah willed, the first person he met was 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, the Restorer of Justice. He said to him this word, and 'Umar became agitated; the matter was too much for him, so he pushed him in the chest and threw him on his back. Abu Hurayrah got up and ran away, and 'Umar ran after him until Abu Hurayrah entered upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), with 'Umar behind him. "O Messenger of Allah, did you order Abu Hurayrah to say to the people such and such?" He said: "Yes." He said to him: "O Messenger of Allah, if you do that, they will become complacent. Let them work, let them work." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He did not burden Abu Hurayrah with completing the delivery of the previous message, because he found the truth with 'Umar. As you know, he (peace be upon him) said regarding him: And so verses came that agreed with some of his suggestions, and we are not in a position to discuss that now. The important thing is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) accepted 'Umar's suggestion, and Abu Hurayrah did not narrate this hadith afterwards except when death approached him. And so 'Amr did, and so 'Abd ibn al-Samit did; they did not narrate this hadith except in the last breath of their lives. What is the reason? The reason is that we today feel it in some of the common people who attend some of the gatherings of the storytellers, i.e., the preachers, who preach to the people and soften their hearts with some authentic hadiths, and many of them are not authentic, and this hadith is authentic. So you find this storyteller makes the whole assembly hope for the forgiveness and pardon of Allah The matter is not so. Therefore, speak to people according to the capacity of their minds. If you narrate this hadith in a general gathering like this assembly to which our talk has led us, it is necessary to clarify what is intended by it so that they are not deceived. And glory be to Allah, there is an authentic hadith with the saying of the Messenger (peace be upon him): Then he (peace be upon him) said, and this is among the strange hadiths: You say, "I prayed two rak'ahs after I perfected my ablution, and that is enough." No, why? Because all the hadiths that come in the chapter of encouragement, you must remember the following truth in them. For example, the famous hadith: So, as soon as we pray a prayer and we glorify, praise, and say Allahu Akbar thirty-three times, thirty-three times, and the last one is the testimony that there is no god but Allah, is that enough for our forgiveness?! Do not be deceived. Why? Because this dhikr did not say "whoever says" absolutely, whoever glorifies, whoever praises, but rather it said: "after the prayer, after every prayer." So this is tied to that. Do you see, is this prayer that we prayed complete or incomplete? No one can say about his prayer, no matter how ascetic he is, no matter how righteous he is, that he is unable to say, "I prayed a prayer as Allah wants it, and as His Messenger explained to us." He said: No one can say this. First, secondly: he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: By how much? Half. Where did the other half go? It went in thinking, in rushing, in mispronunciation, etc. I say, happy is the one for whom half of the prayer is written today. This is the one for whom half of the prayer is written, and he is sitting glorifying—and especially as I saw today, one person doing this, and you see many of them, or with the prayer beads—may Allah forgive them for what has passed of their sins?! No, no, you are not promised that. Therefore, all the hadiths of encouragement are only encouragement for the remembrance of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) within the limits that Allah has prescribed. And for every person, from this virtue, is what corresponds to his realization of the worship that he was engaged in. So we return to the hadith: First, does "whoever says" mean merely saying it, or does it mean belief? It means belief. So, the meaning of the hadith is: whoever says it believing, not merely uttering it. I do not think there is a problem with this among the common people. But look at what follows: "whoever says there is no god but Allah." So the meaning is believing. Good. And "there is no god but Allah," does it mean understanding it, or without understanding? With understanding. Here is the greatest problem. Most Muslims to this day do not understand the meaning of "there is no god but Allah." And I believe that the shortcoming of the Islamic groups—the groups we spoke about today in general terms when we spoke about the seventy-three sects, and the one sect is the saved one—I say now that all Islamic groups do not sing around this good testimony, this good word; they do not speak about it at all. And especially since Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) ordered His Prophet and said to him: Do you see, is this an order for a recommended act? This is an order for the foundation of Islam, the root of Islam upon which it is established. Muslims today do not know, as Allah ordered them, the meaning of this testimony that the Messenger said "enters Paradise." And now we proceed and do not stop here. Let us assume now that Zayd from among the people knows the meaning of "there is no god but Allah," and the summarized meaning is that there is no worshipped entity with truth in existence and in the whole universe except Allah. That is, as came in some hadiths: It is not enough for him to believe that Allah is One in His essence, One in His worship, One in His names and attributes. He must disbelieve in every false worshipped entity on earth, ancient and modern. When that is the case, he has known the meaning of "there is no god but Allah." Now, let us assume Zayd from among the people understood the correct meaning of and the Messenger says: He will enter Paradise if he dies upon that. But who guarantees that he will die upon that? So, merely saying the testimony and believing in the testimony with understanding of the testimony does not mean he enters Paradise for certain, except with the condition that he dies upon it. And so he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: In other hadiths: This means the meanings we referred to earlier. Good. And if he committed ninety-nine sins and gathered all these conditions, would he enter Paradise even if he committed all these sins? The answer is yes. Also, the answer is yes, because this occurred. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was one day outside the city with Abu Dharr, so he stopped him in a place and moved away a little. Then Abu Dharr heard a sound while he was in the place where the Messenger (peace be upon him) had stopped him. Then the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) returned to him and said: When the Messenger narrated the hadith to Abu Dharr from Jibril, even though the Messenger asked, "And if he commits zina? And if he steals?" And Jibril answered him, "And if he commits zina? And if he steals?" It was a matter that astonished him. So Abu Dharr, in his turn, said to the Messenger (peace be upon him): "And if he commits zina? And if he steals?" What could the Messenger say after the Messenger, who is sent by Allah, Jibril to Muhammad, and he says to him, "a human being," and the Messenger asks Jibril and says to him, "And if he commits zina? And if he steals?" and gives him the answer, "And if he commits zina? And if he steals?" What is left for him to say if Abu Dharr said to the Messenger what the Messenger said to Jibril? He wanted to say to him: "And if he commits zina? And if he steals?" But there is still something. He said to him, "And if he commits zina? And if he steals?" He said: "And if he commits zina? And if he steals?" He said: "And if he commits zina? And if he steals?" He said: This is a very great thing. What is the meaning of the hadith in the end? The detail of the hadith: if the conditions we mentioned are all present, and in them this question and answer, "And if he commits zina? And if he steals?" So the destiny of this monotheist, the outcome of his affair, is that he enters Paradise. But this does not mean that he is not reckoned, and it does not mean that he is not punished, except that Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) includes him in His forgiveness and mercy. So the confirmation of the Messenger (peace be upon him), following Jibril, of his saying "And if he commits zina? And if he steals?" means that this testimony benefits its speaker and the one who believes in it on the Day of Resurrection, even if he did what he did. But that he is reckoned or that he is punished for the sins he committed is a second matter. This remains folded up. Why? Because Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) alone knows the truth of every one who testifies that there is no god but Allah. Do you see, did they stand by its right? Did they fulfill its obligation? As came in the authentic hadith narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Except by its right. Do you see, did those who say "there is no god but Allah," after the conditions and descriptions we mentioned earlier in the previous sequence, stand by the right of this good word or not? If they stood by the right of this good word, they are the ones who enter Paradise without punishment. But we do not say without reckoning. And the Messenger (peace be upon him) says in the authentic hadith in al-Bukhari: So these Muslims who testify that there is no god but Allah, and the descriptions we mentioned are all realized, and they stood by its right—and its right, of course, is fulfilling what Allah has made obligatory and avoiding what Allah has forbidden, and this is a very, very wide gate—if they stood by the right, they enter Paradise without punishment. But that does not mean without reckoning. Why? Because entering Paradise without reckoning requires the fulfillment of some virtues of deeds. And imagine, no computer, no matter how large, no matter how precise, can give us the number of the people of Paradise. Their number will be from the day Allah created Adam until the Hour stands, billions of billions of billions, etc. No one knows their number except Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). From these billions of billions, how many of them need to enter Paradise? How many enter Paradise without reckoning? Seventy thousand.