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6.

Lengthening the
Pronounciation of LA ILAHA ILLALLAH
Ibn `Abbas said - may God be well pleased with him and his father - that the
Prophet said: "The day God created the heavens and the earth He created an angel
and ordered him to say: "There is no god except God alone" (LA ILAHA ILLALLAH). The
angel lengthens his delivery as he utters it and will not rest from this until the
trumpet is blown." One of the Companions said that whoever says: "No god except
God" and lengthens his pronounciation intending thereby to magnify God, God will
remit for him four thousand grave sins with it, and if he did not commit four
thousand, God will remit the difference for his family and neighbors. It is related
in the hadith: "Whoever says "No god except God" and lengthens his pronounciation
intending thereby to magnify God, four thousand of his sins are astruck thereby
from the register of his sins." Hence it is praiseworthy to lengthen one's
pronounciation upon uttering it, as Nawawi said, may God the Exalted have mercy
upon him. The Prophet also said: "Whoever lengthens his pronounciation upon
saying "No god except God," God will make him dwell in Paradise in the Abode of
Majesty by which he has named Himself when He said: {There remaineth but the
countenance of thy Lord of Might and Glory.} (55:27), and God will grant him to
behold His gracious countenance."
Anas ibn Malik said - may God be well pleased with him - from the Prophet : "O
human beings! Whoever says "No god except God" in astonishment at something, God
creates from each letter of his utterance a tree with as many leaves as the days of
this world, each leaf asking forgiveness for him and praising God on his behalf
until the Day of judgment."... It has been related that this phrase has on the side
of Iblis the effect which a gangrenous sore would have on the side of a human
being. al-Qadi `Iyad [fn4] relates in the "Shifa" from Ibn `Abbas that written
on the door of Paradise is the inscription: "There is no god but God alone,
Muhammad is the Messenger of God: Whoever says this, I shall not punish him."
fn4 Abu al-Fadl `Iyad ibn Musa al-Yahsubi al-Maliki (d. 544 H) of Andalusia and
Fes, Morocco. The imam of his time in the sciences of hadith, and a scholar of
tafsir, fiqh, Arabic grammar and language, and Arab genealogy. He wrote many books
including a commentary on the Sahih of Muslim which Nawawi used in his own great
commentary. Ibn Farhun in "Dibaj al-dhahab" says of his book "al-Shifa": "No-one
disputes the fact that it is totally unique nor denies him the honor of being the
first to compose such a book. Everyone relies on it and writes about its usefulness
and encourages others to read and study it. Copies of it have spread East and
West." (Qadi `Iyad, "Muhammad Messenger of Allah: Al-shifa' of Qadi `Iyad," trans.
Aisha Abdarrahman Bewley, Granada, Spain: Madinah Press, 1991, p. 511).

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