Most Glorious” except from the lips of the Messenger of Allah (1) (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), who would recite it from the pulpit every Friday when addressing the people.
Abū Dāwūd (2) reported from Ibn Mas‘ūd (3) that when the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) pronounced the testimony of faith, he would say: “Praise be to Allah. We seek His help and forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil within ourselves. Whomever Allah guides, none can lead astray; and whomever He leads astray, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, whom He sent with the truth as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner before the coming of the Hour. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has followed the right path. Whoever disobeys them harms only himself and does not harm Allah in the least.”
Abū Dāwūd (4) also reported from Yūnus that he asked Ibn Shihāb about the Messenger of Allah’s declaration of faith on Friday. He related something similar, except that he said: “Whoever disobeys them has gone astray.”
Ibn Shihāb (5) said: It has reached us that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) would say when delivering a sermon: “Everything that is to come is near; nothing that is to come is distant. Allah does not hasten because anyone is impatient, nor does He yield to people’s demands. What Allah wills, not what people will. People desire something, and Allah wills something (6), and whatever