All the other hadiths from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, are likewise consistent with this, including the hadith reported in the two Sahīh collections from Abū Hurayra and Ibn ‘Umar:

“I have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah. If they do so, their lives and property are protected from me, except as required by its right, and their reckoning rests with Allah.”

In Ibn ‘Umar’s hadith, the wording is:

“Until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, establish prayer, and pay zakat.”

This is something upon which the imams of the religion and the Muslim scholars agree. They unanimously affirm what is necessarily known to be part of the Messenger’s religion: every unbeliever is to be called to the two testimonies of faith, whether he is a denier of God, a polytheist, or one of the People of the Book. Through this, an unbeliever becomes a Muslim; without it, he does not become a Muslim.

As Abū Bakr ibn al-Mundhir said:

“All the scholars whose views are known to me agree that an unbeliever who says, ‘I testify that there is no god but Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger; that everything Muhammad brought is true; and I declare before Allah that I disavow every religion contrary to Islam’—being an adult of sound mind and understanding—is a Muslim. If he subsequently reverses his position and openly professes unbelief, he is an apostate and is subject to what applies to an apostate.”

They disagreed, however, concerning someone who says, “I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”: does this include the testimony to Allah’s oneness, or does it not? Or should a distinction be made between someone who is