Understanding Salat — Page 195
Qa‘dah 195 worthy of worship except Allah,” in reality, they are saying, “O Allah, there is only Your Being and my being, nothing else. ” But the Holy Prophet sas showed with his sas entire life that, “I am also nothing, there nothing except Allah. ” ( Dhauqe ‘Ib ā dat , pp. 499) When we bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, then we negate everything other than Allah Almighty. Not only should the world become nothing, but we should also become nothing ourselves. It is easier to let go of the world than it is to let go of ourselves. When we say, ‘I bear witness that Muhammad is His worshipper [ ُ عَبْد ],’ we should ask ourselves if our statement of Shah ā dah as a worshipper [ عَبْدُ ] was like the Shah ā dah of the greatest wor- shipper sas of Allah. We raise our index finger when giving testimony to the unity of Allah. We thus give a physical symbol of that unity along with our words. This symbol adds emphasis to the expression and reminds us that everything except Allah Almighty is nothing. When only Allah is left, and His Unity is established in our hearts, there is no room for love for anyone else. The world disappears, and the desire to impress people also starts to disappear. We disappear, and our arrogance also starts to disappear. If we still see any importance in ourselves as we sit in front of Allah Almighty, then we should have raised two fingers instead of one: one for Allah Almighty and one for