The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 293
8 THE PILLARS OF ISLAM I have stressed it many times that you should not be satisfied merely with that you are Muslims and profess that: لا إله إلا الله 104 Those who have studied the Holy Qur'an know well that God Almighty is not pleased merely with words. The Holy Qur'an sets out the annals of the Jews that they were in the beginning bestowed great bounties by God Almighty, but when the time came that they were satis- fied with only verbal professions and their hearts became full of deceit, dishonesty and evil thoughts, God Al- mighty imposed diverse types of torments upon them, so much so that some of them were designated apes and swine. This happened despite the fact that they had the Torah and the Psalms and they professed to believe in them and acknowledged all Prophets. But God was not pleased with them because all their professions were mere words and they had nothing in their hearts. . . . Reflect on the meaning of the credo 105 لا اله إلى الله By affirming this by his tongue and confirming it with his heart a person proclaims that he has no God beside Allāh. 104 There is none worthy of worship except Allah. [Publisher] 105 Ibid. 293