names—one hundred minus one; whoever enumerates them will enter Paradise. Yet he did not list them, and the report that does list them is weak and provides no valid proof. In the same way, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says here that faith comprises “some seventy-odd or some sixty-odd branches,” he left them unnamed so that we would be eager to trace them in the Quran and the Sunnah, gather those branches together, and then put them into practice. This is part of the wisdom Allah bestowed upon His Messenger.

The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) then says about these branches: “The highest—or the best—of them is the statement La ilaha illa Allah.” This magnificent phrase—were the seven heavens, the seven earths, and all created beings placed on one side of a scale and it on the other, it would outweigh them all—for it is the greatest utterance, the declaration of pure monotheism. Whoever pronounces it becomes a Muslim; whoever spurns it becomes a disbeliever. It is the line that separates faith from unbelief, and for that reason it is the loftiest and most meritorious of the branches of faith: La ilaha illa Allah, meaning “None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.” Every object of worship besides Allah is false; Allah alone, without partner, is the Truth, as He, exalted is He, says: “That is because Allah is the Truth, and what they invoke besides Him is falsehood, and because Allah is the Most High, the Most Great.” (Quran 22:62)