Peace ay, all,
Quotei think 63:1 is specific about hypocrites - ie. they say one thing but in their hearts is something else (ie. they dont believe in him as a messenger) so that is why intention counts.
And I am not of the belief that the second part of the shahada is valid anyways : i think it is just to affirm that "la illaha illa allah" and to submit as Abraham did seems right to me....
Witnessing something that one has not seen or witnessed is tantamount to lying and that is why Allah said that the hypocrites were liars when they witnessed the messengership, because they had not witnessed it.
Even the Messenger himself did not witness his own messengership but said God is sufficient as a witness !!!
13:43 And those who reject Say: "You are not a messenger." Say: "God is sufficient as a witness between me and you, the One who has the knowledge of the Scripture."SHAHADA means to witness/testify, not believe. We are required to BELIEVE in the mesengership, not witness/testify it, for which God is sufficient.
48:28 He is the One who sent His messenger with the guidance and the system of truth, so that it would expose all other systems. And God is sufficient as a witness.Thus saying "la ilaha ilallah" would be affirmation (7:158, 9:129, 13:30, 38:65), but saying "ash hadu an la ilaha ilallah" would be witnessing/testifying, and this can be done only by those with knowledge from among the humans.
3:18 God bears witness that there is no god but He, as do the Angels, and those with knowledge, He is standing with justice. There is no god but Him, the Noble, the Wise.Now can we affirm the messengership of Muhammad alone instead of witnessing/testifying ? I don't think so because then we will be differentiating between the messengers by not affirming all the messengers in that sentence, which would be an impossible task because we don't know the names of hundreds of messengers, but only those we have been told about in al-qur'aan. We have been told not to differentiate between any of the messengers.
2:285 The messenger believes in what was sent down to him from his Lord. And the believers, all who believe in God, and His angels, and His Scriptures, and His messengers: "We do not differentiate between any of His messengers;" and they said: "We hear and obey, forgive us O Lord, and to you is our destiny."Declaration of one's submission/peacefulness/islam is, however, done by saying "aslamtu li rabbi al-3alameen" as per Abraham:
2:131 When his Lord said to him: "Submit," he said: "I submit to the Lord of the worlds."It follows that:
DECLARATION OF ISLAM: Aslamtu li rabbi al-3alameen (2:131)
AFFIRMATION OF ONE GOD: La ilaha ilallah (7:158, 9:129, 13:30, 38:65)
SHAHADA: Ash hadu an la ilaha ilallah (only for those with knowledge, 3:18)
Hope that helps and clarifies any confusion.
