al-Tanbihat ala Risalat al-Albani fi al-Salah - Hamoud ibn Abdallah At-Touwaïjri - (5)

al-Tanbihat ala Risalat al-Albani fi al-SalahHamoud ibn Abdallah At-Touwaïjri

that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah; to establish the prayer, to give the zakat, to fast in Ramadan, and to make pilgrimage to the House if you are able to find a way to it.’ He said, ‘You have spoken the truth.’

Al-Bukhārī, Muslim, and the authors of the Sunan—apart from al-Tirmidhī—also narrate it from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) in similar wording.

All of these ḥadiths present the obligations in order of priority. It is a matter of incontrovertible knowledge that, at the very start of his mission, the Prophet ﷺ was commanded with nothing other than calling people to monotheism and acknowledging his messengership. He continued upon that for about ten years, after which the five daily prayers were enjoined. This indicates the special emphasis placed on the two testimonies and shows that they are the greatest pillars of Islam.

In the two Ṣaḥīḥs, the Musnad, and the Sunan it is reported from Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent Muʿādh to Yemen he said, ‘You are going to a people from the People of the Book, so invite them to bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah. If they accept that from you, then inform them that Allah has made five prayers obligatory upon them in every day and night…’—and so on.

This again demonstrates the importance of the two testimonies and that they are the greatest pillars of Islam. The scholars have differed over whether a person who deliberately abandons the prayer is deemed an unbeliever and whether his life and property become lawful once he is summoned to perform it but persists in neglecting it. They have never differed, however, about the disbelief of one who abandons the two testimonies, or either of them, nor about the permissibility of taking his life and property. The proof of this is the report found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, the Musnad, and the Sunan from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘I have been commanded to fight the people until they say: There is no god but Allah. Whoever says: There is no god but Allah has protected his life and his wealth from me, except for a right that is due, and his reckoning is with Allah.’

أن لا إله إلا الله وأن محمدًا رسول الله، وتُقيم الصلاة، وتُؤتي الزكاة، وتَصُوم رمضان، وتحج البيت إنِ استطعت إليه سبيلاً))، قال: صدقت. ورواه البخاري، ومسلم، وأهل السنن إلا الترمذي، من حديث أبي هريرة ﵁ بنحوه. ففي هذه الأحاديث كلها الأهم فالأهم، ومن المعلوم بالضرورة أن النبي ﷺ لم يؤمر في أول البعثة بغير الدعاء إلى التوحيد والإقرار برسالته، وكان على هذا في مدَّة عشر سنين أو نحوها، ثم فرضت عليه الصلوات الخمس بعد، وهذا يدل على الاهتمام بالشهادتين، ويدل على أنهما أعظم أركان الإسلام. وفي الصحيحين، والمسند، والسنن عن ابن عباس ﵄: أن رسول الله ﷺ لما بعث معاذًا إلى اليمن قال: ((إنك تأتي قومًا من أهل الكتاب، فادعهم إلى شهادة أن لا إله إلا الله وأني رسول الله، فإن هم أطاعوك لذلك، فأعلمهم أن الله افترض عليهم خمس صلوات في كل يوم وليلة ...)) الحديث. وهذا يدلُّ على الاهتمام بالشهادتين، وأنهما أعظم أركان الإسلام، وقد اختلف العلماءُ في كُفر تارك الصلاة عمْدًا، وحل دمه وماله إذا دعي إلى فعلها فأصرَّ على الترْك، ولم يختلفوا في كُفر تارك الشهادتين أو إحداهما، وحل دمه وماله، والدليل على ذلك ما في الصحيحين، والمسند، والسنن، عن أبي هريرة ﵁ قال: قال رسول الله ﷺ: ((أُمرت أن أقاتلَ الناس حتى يقولوا: لا إله إلا الله، فمَن قال: لا إله إلا الله، فقد عصم مني نفسه وماله إلا بحقه، وحسابه على الله)).