is the Messenger of Allah,” for in reality he has testified that Muhammad is a lord alongside Allah—Allah forbid. The very meaning of his being a messenger is that he is a servant who must not be worshipped and a messenger who does not lie. Every day in our prayers we declare, “I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.” He is therefore a servant like all other servants, a created being, while Allah alone is the One who is worshipped and He alone is the Lord.

So we say to those whom we find going to extremes concerning the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, raising him above the rank that Allah assigned to him: you have not truly fulfilled the testimony that there is no god but Allah, nor the testimony that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. These two testimonies bear tremendous weight—the whole edifice of Islam rests upon them. Were a person to speak at length about all that they imply—explicitly, implicitly, in content and by indication—it would take days. We have merely hinted at some aspects of them, and we ask Allah the Exalted to make us and you among those who realize them in creed, in word, and in deed.

The second pillar: establishing the prayer. It is called ṣalāh (prayer) because it is a link between the servant and his Lord. When a person rises to pray, he confides in and converses with his Lord. This is affirmed in the authentic hadith narrated by Abu Hurayrah—may Allah be pleased with him—from the Prophet ﷺ, who said that Allah, Exalted be He, declared: “I have divided the prayer between Myself and My servant into two halves, and My servant shall have whatever he asks. When he says, ‘al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabb al-ʿālamīn (All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all worlds),’ Allah says, ‘My servant has praised Me.’ And when he says…”