Learning the Creed before Fiqh(Law) and the Quran

A couple of days ago I was with a group of old friends and we encountered a women who wanted to embrace Islam and she asked how she could become a Muslim. Out of ignorance ofone of my dumb friends she was told that she had to complete the recitation of the whole Quran to become a true Muslim. Instead she should have been told to utter the words of testification of faith and say the shahada ” I know, I believe, and I declare that no one deserves to be worshipped except Allah and Muhammad(pbuh) is his messenger.” It is enough to show the merits of this knowledge that one who is ignorant about the fundamental aspects of belief and does not carry the correct belief about Allah and His Messenger, whatever his deeds are among the good deeds, in the hereafter he will be in hellfire forever. As for the person who has the correct belief about Allah and His Messenger, and he dies in that status he will enter Paradise, whatever his deeds are, whether he is tortured before that for his sins or he was forgiven by Allah and not tortured.

Once a man came to the Prophet(pbuh) and asked, “Should I embrace Islam first, or should I fight?” The Prophet(pbuh) said “Embrace Islam, and then fight.” He then embraced Islam and then joined the battle and he was killed. The Prophet(pbuh) said “He did so little and he gained so much.” He did not perform even one prayer but despite that, he won in the hereafter. The reason for his victory was his correct belief about Allah and His Messenger. The Prophet, “By Allah, no one departs from this life while believing in the two shahadahs without any doubt except that he will be a winner in the hereafter.”

The reason I really wanted to tell you all about this story is because this same idealogy is roaming around in the minds of those whose works we are reading especially that if Iqbal. To them a sound foundation in the love for God and his messenger is more important than knowing how to read the Quran and knowing about the laws of Islam.