Why Is The Kalimah Unique?

[ابوالوليد المسلم]

Why Is The Kalimah Unique? (1/2)
Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi



Brothers in Islam! Let us consider further the meaning and essential implications of the Kalimah; for it is the very foundation of Islam. Believe it and you enter Islam on its strength; understand it fully and mould your lives in accordance with it and you become true Muslims. Without it you can neither enter nor remain in Islam.

The Parable
Allah calls it Kalimah Tayyibah, a good, pure and wholesome ‘word’, and thus defines it:
“Are you not aware how God sets forth the parable of kalimah tayyibah? It is like a good tree—firmly rooted, its branches reaching into heaven. It gives its fruits every moment by the permission of its Lord. So God sets forth parables unto men that they may bethink themselves. And the parable of kalimah khabithah (evil word) is like a corrupt tree—uprooted from the earth, having no permanence. God grants firmness unto those who have believed in the firm word, in the present life and in the world to come, and wrongdoers He lets go astray, for God does whatever He wills” (ٍSurah Ibrahim, 14: 24-27).

Kalimah Tayyibah is here likened to a noble tree, whose roots are firmly fixed in the earth and whose branches reach to the sky; and all the while it continues to yield abundant fruit, as commanded by its Lord.
Set against it is the kalimah Khabithah, that is, an evil or corrupt word, a false belief and a baseless saying, which may be likened to a self-seeded plant growing in poor, shallow earth and easily plucked out with a single pull because its roots have no firm base.
So striking and beautiful is the parable that the more you reflect on it the more you will come to absorb the lessons that can be learnt from it.

Two Kinds of Trees
Consider examples of the two kinds of trees.
Look at an oak tree. How firmly it is rooted, to what great height it reaches, how extensively its branches spread, what fine foliage it bears! How did this tree acquire such strength and magnificence? From the nature of its fruit, the acorn. Its seed has an inherent right to become a great tree.
And this right was so self-evident that when it made its claim, the earth, the water, the air, the warm day and the cool night, in fact, all the elements concerned, acknowledged it, and whatever it demanded from them was given to it.

Thus by merit it developed into a great tree; by yielding beneficial fruit and by the nobility of its dimensions it continued to demonstrate that it deserved to become a tree of mighty stature and that the help given it by the combined forces of earth and heaven was totally justified.
More! It was the duty of the elements to give such help because the power that is possessed by the earth, water and air and other elements to nourish, develop and mature trees is precisely meant for the purpose of helping trees of noble species.
But what about wild, self-seeded plants? Where are their strengths and virtues? Their roots are so shallow they can be pulled up by child.
They are so weak they wither away in the wind. If you touch them you may well be picked by thorns. If you taste them they may well bitter and harmful.
God, only, knows how many of these sprout every day, and wither away.
Why are they as they are? The reason is that they do not possess the intrinsic right to grow that the acorn does and which allows the growth of the mighty oak.
When there are no trees of noble species to grow, the earth, which by its nature cannot remain fallow, tolerates the growth of shrubs and weeds.
Water does give nourishment, and some energy is supplied by the air, but none of the elements accepts the right of existence of these plants as they do of the oak. That is why neither the earth allows their roots to spread themselves within itself, nor is water willing wholeheartedly to give nourishment, nor is the air inclined to help them flourish. So when, with this poor subsistence, these plants grow unhealthy, tasting bad, often bearing thorns and poisonous fruits, it is conclusively demonstrated that earth and heaven are not crated to help the growth of such plants. Keep these two examples before you and then think over the difference between the Kalimah Tayyibah and kalimah khabithah.

Characteristics of the Kalimah Tayyibah
Kalimah Tayyibah is a true ‘word’; so true that there cannot possibly be anything truer in the entire world; that the God of the whole universe is Allah alone. Each and every thing on earth and in heaven bears witness to this. Human beings, animals, trees, stones, particles of sand, flowing streams, the bright sun---is there a single thing out of all these which has been created by anybody but Allah, which can survive through anyone’s care and sustenance but Allah’s, which can be destroyed by anybody but Allah?
The whole universe has been created by Allah and its life and sustenance depend on His mercy; Allah Alone is its Master and Ruler.
So when you declare: ‘In this world godhood and sovereignty belong to none but the One God’, everything on earth and in heaven cries out: ‘You have told the truth. We all bear witness to it’.
When you bow before Him, everything in the universe bows with you because all things are obedient to Him. When you obey His commandments, everything in the universe does likewise.
When you walk along His path, you are walk along His path, you are not alone. In fact, the countless hosts of heaven and earth will be with you: from the sun in the sky to the smallest particle of dust, everything is following the path He has laid down.
When you trust Him, you are not putting your trust in some insignificant power but in that greatest power which is the Master of the universe. All the forces of earth and heaven, you can now understand, will support anyone who has faith in the Kalimah Tayyibah and moulds his life in accordance with it.
He will grow and prosper throughout his life with it. He will grow and prosper throughout his life on earth and on into the world to come. Not for a single moment will failure or defeat touch him. This is exactly what Allah has stated in the Ayah quoted in the beginning: this Kalimah is like a tree whose roots are firmly embedded in the earth and whose branches are spread over the heavens bearing fruit perpetually, by the command of Allah.

Characteristics of the Kalimah Khabithah
In contrast to this, what does kalimah khabithah mean? Only that either there is no God or that there is someone else in addition to Him exercising Divine power. Just think! Can there be a more false and empty proposition? Is there anything in the world which lends credence to it? The atheist says there is no God, but everything on earth and in heaven denounces him as wrong: ‘Together with all of us, you have been created by God; this very God has given you the tongue with which to utter this falsehood.’ The idolater says that there are partners in His Divine powers; they too provide sustenance, they too have power over things; they too can determines our fates; they too can benefit or harm us; they too can listen to prayers and grant wishes; they too deserve to be feared and trusted; their write too runs on God’s earth and their commands and laws too should be obeyed alongside those of God. Yet everything on earth and in heaven refutes this claim as an absolute lie and totally against reality.
Now consider how a person who believes in such a false proposition and leads a life in conformity with it can ever prosper in this world and in the Hereafter. Allah has, in His mercy, allowed them freedom for a certain duration and promised them sustenance.
The elements of nature will, therefore, provide nourishment to them for a while, but they will not concede it as their right. They will be like the self-seeded shrubs and weeds I have just spoken of.

Contrasting Results
The same contrast is to be found between their fruits. Kalimah Tayyibah produces sweet fruits: it establishes peace in the world. Goodness, truth and justice predominate and people benefit accordingly. But what branches can you grow from an evil root like the kalimah khabithah? The more it grows the more it shoots out thorny branches; poison runs in its very arteries.
And what fruit can grow on such branches as these? Only such as are continually bitter and poisonous.
See with your own eyes what is happening in the world where Kufr, idolatry or secularism prevail: man is bent on destruction of his fellow beings. Preparations for war are constantly being made.
Nuclear weapons and poisonous gases are being manufactured. Nations are set on destroying each other. The powerful subjugate the weak simply to snatch away their bread. The weak are cowed by the armies and police and threats of jail and execution. They can find no escape from the oppression of the strong.
And what of individuals? Their morals are so depraved that even Satan would be ashamed. Human beings are committing acts which even animals would hesitate to do. The rich suck the blood of the poor through exploitation and usury and force the poor to work as if they were slaves born just to serve them. Human dignity and rights are being trampled upon. Abortion is rife because people do not want their physical pleasures to be interrupted. Even wife swapping is practiced.
Little wonder whenever a plant has grown anywhere from this kalimah khabithah, it is full of thorns, and whatever fruit it produces is bitter and poisonous.

After giving the two parables, Allah says:
“Thus God grants firmness unto those who have believed in the firm word in the present life and in the world to come, and the wrongdoers He lets go astray” (Surah Ibrahim, 14: 27).
Thus Allah will grant strength and endurance in this world and in the Hereafter to those who have faith in the Kalimah Tayyibah. Conversely, He will set at naught all the endeavours of those wrongdoers who put their faith in the kalimah khabithah.
They will not do anything good which will bear fruit in this world, or the next.

Why Are Believers in the Kalimah Not Flourishing?
You have heard, brothers, the difference between the Kalimah Tayyibah and the kalimah khabithah and their results. You will now surely ask: We believe in the Kalimah Tayyibah. Then how is it that we do not flourish and why are the unbelievers prospering?
I should answer this question, and I shall. But, rather than just becoming angry at my words, look into your hearts to see if I am speaking the truth.
In the first place, your claim that you believe in the Kalimah is not true. Believing in the Kalimah does not consist in its mere utterance. It must be rooted in the heart, it must drive out any belief opposed to it, it should make any actions in contravention of it well-high impossible.
Tell me, brothers, in the name of God, is this true of you? Are not hundreds of idolatrous and polytheistic beliefs prevalent among you – ideas totally opposed to the Kalimah Tayyibah? Are not the heads of Muslims being bowed before objects other than God? Are not Muslims afraid of forces other than Him? Do they not take others as their providers? Do they not sometimes put the laws of God aside and follow other laws instead without any qualms?
Do they not sometimes openly state in the courts that they do not abide by the Shari’ah but by custom and usage? Are there not people among us who do not hesitate to violate the law of God for the sake of trifling material benefit? Are there not those who dread the anger of unbelievers but not the wrath of God? And those who are ready to go to any lengths to curry the favour of Kafirs but are unwilling to do anything to secure God’s favour? And those who take the supremacy of Kafirs to be real but the rule of God as imaginary?
Tell me, for the sake of God, if all this is not fact? And if it is, what justification have you complaining that you are not prospering despite believing in the Kalimah Tayyibah? First you should become true believers in the Kalimah Tayyibah, and model your lives on the pattern it lays down. If even then your lives do not become like trees which have firm and deep roots in the earth and which spread their luxuriant branches up to sky, then (I crave Allah’s pardon) you may consider your God a liar for having made you false promises.

Are Followers of the Kalimah Khabithah Prospering?
Again, your contention that believers in the kalimah khabithah are prospering in this world is not correct. In the true sense, these people have never before prospered nor are they prospering now. You judge by their excessive wealth, their abundance of luxury goods and their outward trappings of splendour.
Material prosperity is not real prosperity. Let their inner selves speak: how many of them have peace of mind? They are laden with luxury but their hearts are fiery furnaces which keep them anxious and restless. How has disobedience to the law of God turned homes into hell? How rampant is suicide in Europe and America?
How widespread is divorce? How, through genocide, birth ******* and absorptions, is the human race being diminished? How are drugs and alcohol destroying the lives of many thousands of people? What a terrible struggle for markets and economic prosperity is raging among different nations and classes? How are jealousy, malice and enmity making men fight each other? How has the mad race for possessions made life bitter for so many people? And today’s huge and magnificent cities, which look like paradise from a distance, contain thousands and thousands of people who are wallowing in misery. Do you call this prosperity? Is this what you are seeking so enviously?
Remember, my brothers, that the word of God can never be untrue. There is no Kalimah except the Kalimah Tayyibah by following which man may achieve glory in this-world and happiness in the world-to-come. Seek as you will, you will never be able to find any fault with it.

[ابوالوليد المسلم]

Why Is The Kalimah Unique? (2/2)
Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi


Why Believe In The Kalimah?
Brothers in Islam! Why should we believe in the Kalimah, what benefits shall accrue to us by it? Let us try to find an answer to this important question.

Whatever work we do is done with some purpose or some benefit in view. We never do anything without some objective, goal or need.
Why do you drink water? Because it quenches your thirst. If you were to discover that drinking water failed to quench your thirst, you would not waste your time doing it the next time you were thirsty. Why do you eat food? Simply because you want to satisfy your hunger and keep your strength to live.
If it made no difference whether you ate food or not, you would naturally feel that it was a useless activity. Why do you take medicine when you are ill? Because you want to get rid of your illness and regain your health. But you soon stop taking medicines which do not work.
Why do you work so hard cultivating land? So that crops, fruits and vegetables may be produced. But if nothing grew after you had sown the seeds, you would not again exert yourselves to plough the field, to sow the seed and water the ground.
Thus, whatever work you undertake always has an end in view. If the end is achieved, you consider the work fruitful, and if not, you say it was pointless.

Success in the Hereafter
Bearing this in mind, let us now ask: Why should the Kalimah be recited? The obvious answer is: to draw a distinction between a Kafir and a Muslim. But what is the nature of this distinction? Does it mean that if a Kafir has two eyes, a Muslim will have four?
Or that if a Kafir has one head, a Muslim will have two? You will say: No. It does not mean that; it means that there should be a difference between the end result of a Muslim’s life and a Kafir’s life.
The end result of a Kafir’s life is failure: he will be deprived of God’s mercy in that-world, in the Hereafter, and be totally wretched; while that of a Muslim’s is success: he will win the pleasure of God and be happy and honoured there.

This-world and That-world
Your answer is correct. But now tell me: What is the nature of that-world? And, what is the meaning of being a failure in the Hereafter? What does it mean to be successful and honoured there?

We need not delay ourselves working out the answer to the first question, for it has already been given by the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him: ‘This-world is the cultivating ground of the Hereafter’.
This-world and the Hereafter are not two separate entities, but a continuous process.
This process begins in this-world and ends in the Hereafter.
The relationship between the two is the same as that between cultivation and crop.
You plough the land, sow the seeds, irrigate and tend field till such time as the crop is ready. When you have reaped the harvest, you feed yourselves it throughout the year.
You will naturally reap whatever you have sown in the land. If nothing is sown, nothing will grow.
Whatever mistakes and errors you make in the course of ploughing, sowing irrigating and tending your fields, the effect will become apparent at the time of reaping the crop. But if you have carried out all the necessary preparations properly, you will get your reward at the time of reaping.
This is exactly the position in respect of this-world and that-world. This-world is like ground to be tilled. Man has been sent into this field for the purpose of raising a crop for himself by his own efforts and hard work.
He has been allotted specific time---from birth till death---to do this task. Whatever type of crop he sows will be reaped in his life beyond the grave, and that produce will be the mainstay of his life in the Hereafter.
If you have sown good seed in the field of this-world throughout your lives and have nourished it with water and careful supervision, you will find the fruits of your labours ready in the next life in the shape of beautiful gardens.
You will be able to live happily on the fruits of the garden you have cultivated so assiduously throughout your earthly lives; you will not need to do any further hard work. This is Paradise; this is the success, the state of gratification in the Hereafter.
In contrast to this, if you sow thorns and grow bitter and poisonous plants during your lives on earth, you will reap a similar crop in the next life. You will not be given a second chance to grow a good crop and will have no choice but to sustain yourselves on the bad crop.
You will have to lie on the bed of thorns which you have nurtured, and eat the bitter, poisonous fruits you have grown. This is what is meant by being wretched and unsuccessful in the Hereafter.

Success in That-world
The same meaning of the Hereafter as I have described is given in the Qur’an and the Hadith. This shows that the success or failure of a man in the life after death depends on whether his knowledge and actions have been correct during his life on earth.
From the above it follows that the difference between Muslims and Kafirs in the Hereafter is determined by the difference which existed between them in the patterns of their lives on earth.
Unless there is a difference between the knowledge and actions of a Muslim and Kafir in this-world there can be no difference between their ultimate states in the Hereafter.
It is impossible that the knowledge and actions of a Muslim be the same as those of a Kafir without his suffering the fate that is destined for a Kafir.

True Purpose of the Kalimah
You said earlier that the purpose of reciting the Kalimah was to differentiate between the end results of a Kafir and a Muslim. Now, having discussed further the nature of the end result and of the Hereafter, we will have to rephrase your answer. Now you will have to say that the purpose of reciting the Kalimah is to set right man’s knowledge and actions here in this-world so that ultimately he attains happiness in that-world.
This Kalimah teaches us to plant that garden whose fruits we will pick in the Hereafter. If we do not believe in the Kalimah how can we plant the garden and from where will we pick its fruits in the Hereafter? And if we merely utter the words of the Kalimah without it correcting our knowledge and if our actions too remain the same as if we had not uttered it.
Would you, then, not agree that it is pointless to utter the Kalimah without letting it change our thoughts and deeds? There is no reason why our fates in this case should be different from those of Kafirs.
We do not put God under any obligation by merely uttering the Kalimah. If we do not learn how to plant a garden, and instead sow thorns all our lives, we cannot expect to inherit a flourishing garden with fruits in the next world. Several examples are before you to show that it is meaningless to do something if an identical outcome would result if you had done nothing.
Medicine is not medicine if a patient’s condition remains the same after using it. In the same way, if a Kalimah reciter’s knowledge and actions remain the same as those of a nonreciter, such a recital is meaningless.
If no difference exists between the lives of Kafirs and Muslims on earth, how can there be any difference between their lives in the Hereafter?

What Does the Kalimah Teach Us?
What, then, is the nature of the knowledge which the Kalimah Tayyibah imparts to us?
And what difference takes place between the actions of a Muslim and a Kafir after acquiring this knowledge?

One: Submission to Allah. The first thing that you learn from this Kalimah is that you are slaves of Allah, and of Allah alone. Fully understand this profound truth, and you will be automatically led to the realization that, in this world, you must live according to the will be tantamount to rebellion against your Master.

Two: Obedience to the Prophet. The second thing that you learn from the Kalimah is that Muhammad, blessings and peace be on him, is the Messenger of Allah. Having learnt this, it immediately becomes self-evident that, to grow flowers and fruits in this world instead of thorns and poisonous plants, you have to plant your gardens as he has taught you.
If you follow his way, you will reap a fine harvest in the Hereafter; but if you act against his way, you will grow thorns in this world and reap only thorns in the Hereafter.

Actions Must Accord With Knowledge
When you have acquired this knowledge it is essential that your actions should be in conformity with it.
If you believe that you have to die one day, that after death there is another life, and that in that life you will have to sustain yourselves solely on that crop which you produced in this world before leaving it, then it is scarcely possible for you to deviate from the path shown by the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him.
Why do you cultivate your fields in this world? Simply because no crops will grow unless you do and that without a crop you will die of starvation.
If you have not been certain of this, if you had thought that a crop could grow without cultivation, or that you could satisfy your hunger without crops, you would never have laboured to cultivate the fields. In other words, your actions accorded with your knowledge.
Judge your position with respect to the Kalimah in like manner. You assert that you accept God as your Master and the Muhammad, blessings and peace be on him, as Gods’s Messenger. You also affirm belief in life after death.
Why should, then, your actions run counter to Qur’anic teachings and the Prophet’s Sunnah? Such undoubtedly is the result of weak faith.
If you really have faith that your fate in the Hereafter depends on your behaviour in this life, you would never risk being negligent in living as God wills you to live.
Only someone who does not really believe that what he is sowing will produce thorns and that these thorns will cause him harm would do such a thing.
You never pick up embers in your hand knowingly because you know that they will burn you. Only children put their hands in the fire because they do not know what will happen.