How to say the shahada

You already said the shahada when you became Muslim. It is the declaration of faith, and every Muslim comes back to it again and again. In this lesson you will learn the exact Arabic words, practice them in small parts, and see when Muslims say them in daily life.

First, one word you will see everywhere: Allah is the Arabic word for God, the One God who created everything. The word shahada means testimony. It comes from ash-hadu, which means "I bear witness". When you say the shahada, you state, as a witness, what you know to be true.

The words

These are the exact words that Thumamah ibn Uthal (may Allah be pleased with him) said on the day he became Muslim, as recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari. He was a man from the tribe of Banu Hanifa who had been held for a few days at the mosque in Madinah. When the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, set him free, Thumamah went to wash, came back into the mosque, and said these words. Then he told the Prophet that no religion had been more hateful to him than Islam, and now it had become the religion he loved most.

If your own path to Islam also involved a change of heart, you are in good company.

Say it in small parts

Arabic may be new to you. Break the shahada into short pieces and say each one slowly, out loud, two or three times. Tick each part as you go.

When Muslims say it

The shahada is not only for the day you become Muslim. It runs through a Muslim's whole day:

• In every prayer. In the sitting part of the prayer, called the tashahhud, you say the shahada. Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) said the Prophet taught them the tashahhud the way he taught them a surah of the Quran, and it ends with these same words (Sahih Muslim 403).

• When you hear the call to prayer. The Prophet taught that when the caller to prayer (the muadhin) says ash-hadu an la ilaha illallah, you say it after him, and the same with ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah (Sahih Muslim 385).

• As remembrance of Allah, at any time. The Prophet said that the highest branch of faith is saying la ilaha illallah, there is no god but Allah (Sahih Muslim 35).

It is fine to keep practicing

Many new Muslims worry that their Arabic is not good enough. Please do not let that weigh on you. Allah knows you are learning, and He does not ask more of you than you can do:

Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity.

Quran 2:286 (Saheeh International translation)

The Prophet said this about people reciting the Quran:

The proficient reciter of the Qur’an will be with the noble and obedient angel-scribes, and the one who recites the Qur’an stutteringly and finds it difficult will have two rewards.

Sahih al-Bukhari 4937 and Sahih Muslim 798

That hadith is about the Quran. It shows how the Prophet spoke to people who found Arabic hard: with encouragement, not blame. So say the shahada slowly. Listen for it in the call to prayer. Repeat it in your prayers. Over the coming weeks, the words will settle on your tongue.

In the next lesson, you will look at what each half of the shahada means and how it shapes a Muslim's day.