Islam begins with a declaration of faith in God, that is, by uttering these words, 'I bear witness that there is no God but the one God and I bear witness that Muhammad is God's servant and His messenger.' Bearing witness means giving a statement on the basis of direct knowledge.
The beginning of Islam is, therefore, realization. A seeker of truth discovers truth after a long search. Then his heart is filled with the conviction that what he has discovered is the truth. At that time, it is a natural urge to express the reality he has found at the level of his heart and mind in words. The words of witness, or shahadah, are in fact a declaration of his realization, there is no god but the one God, rather than simply a repetition of words. That is, God alone is the real object of worship. He alone is worthy of being worshipped. He alone is the Lord of the Day of Judgement. No one in any respect is His associate or partner. 'No god but the one God' means there is no being worthy of being worshipped save God.
The actual target of Islam is spiritual progress. For this, man's spirituality has to be awakened, and the divine feelings latent within him aroused. In the Quran, this (Islam's actual goal) is called purification and cleansing (9:102).
In actual fact, every person is born with an upright nature. In this respect, everyone by his or her very birth is pure and clean. But during his stay in this world he becomes externally sullied. What is meant by purification is for man to rid himself of this outer shell of moral grime and revert to the upright nature he was born with.
This action of purification and cleansing has to be performed by the individual himself. A little child may be clean and pure on his own, but this state of purity is not due to some effort on his part, for he has been in this state from the very moment of his very creation. It is a different matter when he grows up. Then he must make himself clean and pure spiritually, by his own striving. It amounts to arriving consciously at the optimal stage of spiritual development by one's own will and efforts. It is this self-attained spiritual progress which is desirable in Islam. In the Quran it is called coming before one's Lord with a "pure heart" (26:89).
According to a hadith, the Prophet observed while praying "May God fill my heart with light." Similarly, the Prophet once uttered these words, while praying for someone, "O God, forgive his sins and purify his heart." In the Muatta of Imam Malik a saying of Luqman is recorded in these words: "God revives the heart with the light of wisdom, just as he revives the dead earth with rains." (p. 707)
This is called spiritual progress. And it is this spiritual progress which is the actual goal of Islam. Those who fail to make spiritual progress will certainly never become truly Islamic in character.
