what the Messenger commanded and what he forbade—then he departs from the religion of Islam to the extent that he departs from this distinction. For universal lordship was acknowledged even by the polytheists of whom Allah said:
“Most of them do not believe in Allah without associating others with Him.”
A person only becomes a Muslim, upright in faith and devoted to Allah alone, when he testifies that there is no deity worthy of worship but Allah. He then worships Allah alone, associating no one with Him in his devotion, his love for Him, his servitude, his turning to Him, his submission to Him, his supplication to Him, or his reliance upon Him. He forms allegiances and enmities for His sake, loves what He loves, and hates what He hates. Through the truth of monotheism, the falsehood of polytheism is effaced from him.
This effacement is accompanied by an abiding devotion: his worship of anything besides Allah is effaced through his worship of Allah, thereby fulfilling his declaration, “There is no deity worthy of worship but Allah.” He thus rejects and effaces from his heart the worship of anything besides Him, while affirming and retaining in his heart the worship of Allah alone.
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said in an authentic hadith:
“Whoever dies knowing that there is no deity worthy of worship but Allah will enter Paradise.”
In another hadith:
“Whoever’s last words are ‘There is no deity worthy of worship but Allah’ will enter Paradise.”
He also said in an authentic hadith:
“Prompt your dying ones to say, ‘There is no deity worthy of worship but Allah,’ for this is the very essence of the religion of Islam. Whoever dies affirming it dies a Muslim.”
Allah Most High has commanded us in several places not to die except as Muslims, as in His words:
“Fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.”
The truthful one said:
“Let me die a Muslim and join me with the righteous.”
The correct of the two views is that he neither asked for death nor wished for it. Rather, he asked that, when he died, he would die as a Muslim. He thus asked for the condition, not for the event itself, just as Allah commanded this and commanded it of His close friend Abraham and of Israel. More than one scholar has explained it in this way, including Ibn ‘Aqīl and others. And Allah Most High knows best.