ever be destined for the Fire? And the same applies to those who worship them. When these verses were revealed, the idol-worshippers sought to draw an analogy and said, “Jesus, son of Mary, is worshipped; therefore he will be thrown into the Fire as well.” In reply, Allah the Exalted sent down: “Indeed, those for whom the finest reward has already proceeded from Us will be kept far away from it. They will not hear even its faintest sound, and they shall abide forever in whatever their souls desire. The Great Terror will not grieve them, and the angels will welcome them, saying, ‘This is your Day which you were promised’” (Q 21:101–103). Thus Jesus, son of Mary, is among those for whom the finest reward has been decreed by Allah, for he is one of the messengers of firm resolve.

Dear brothers, the essential point is that everything worshipped besides Allah is false—whether a star, a saint, a righteous man, a scholar, or a ruler. Whatever is taken as an object of worship apart from Allah is false, and the worship itself is invalid.

The testimony that there is no deity but Allah therefore entails sincerity, without which worship is not valid, and it also necessitates adherence to the Prophet, which is contained in the testimony that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. For this reason the two testimonies are considered a single pillar.

The second pillar is establishing the prayer—that is, the five daily prayers and their related voluntary prayers—for prayer is a pillar of Islam. By unanimous agreement the obligatory prayers are five: Fajr, Zuhr, ʿAsr, Maghrib, and ʿIshāʾ, while Jumuʿah takes the place of Zuhr. Anything beyond these is subject to scholarly disagreement.

Regarding Witr, scholars differ: is it obligatory, so that a person is sinful for neglecting it, or is it recommended, or does the ruling vary? According to the last view, whoever has a regular portion of night worship must perform Witr, whereas one who sleeps from the ʿIshāʾ prayer until Fajr is not