Malfuzat – Volume X — Page 519
17 May 1908 519 cannot be found in anyone. Yet the rule is that it is indeed a living faith that inspires one to act [righteously]. So when there is no faith left, which is the real motivator of righteous deeds, how can good deeds be expected? Thus, with the disappearance of faith from the world, all traces of righteous deeds have also disappeared. So how, then, is it that God abandoned His age-old practice and did not send some Prophet or Messenger or recipient of Divine revelation at the time of such perilous predicaments and dire needs? The Essence of Kalimah Tayyibah The declaration of Tauhid [the Oneness of God] is ُ ل َٓٓ إِلٰه َ إِل َّ هللا. It means that there is no one worthy of worship and true obe- dience besides Allah. If God was in need of someone else in spreading Tauhid , or if He had made someone else His partner in this task, even that would have necessitated shirk [associat- ing partners with God]. The wisdom of adding the sentence ِ سُوْل ُ هللا َّ مُحَمَّد ٌ ر [‘Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah’] to the creed ُ ل َٓٓ إِلٰه َ إِل َّ هللا [‘There is no one worthy of worship except Allah’], is indeed to complete the lesson of Tauhid and so that the world should know that whatever comes, in reality, comes from God alone. The Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, is tasked to convey the guid- ance to all creation after having received it from God, and that whatever comes from there (God) comes only through this channel. Shirk does not just mean the worship of carved stones. One form of shirk that has been set forth is when a man puts his entire trust in means and methods while abandoning God. This is called shirk fil-asbab. The Brahmus etc. have failed to