Validity of Shahada

Submitted by Concerned European (Lithuania), Jan 11, 2007 at 04:51

[1. when your husband or boyfriend asks you to say the shahada, in front of him or his family, its not really valid unless you do it with an Imam or a Shaykh, basically the leader from the mosque.]

Conversion to Islam is valid every time when there is required number of adult male witnesses(I do not remember), which not necessarily must include Sheykhs, Imams or leaders of mosque. Only that some(maybe majority) Muslim countries could include requirements that the act of conversion must be done before or registered with a Qadi(Muslim judge) or other official in order that the person would be recognized as Muslim for legal(shar'i) purposes.

However if a non-Muslim female will pronounce Shahada before the family of her husband, while there is sufficient number of male witnesses and these witnesses will make their testimony before the Qadi, this woman would certainly be considered Muslim and would have no option to back from Islam since it would be considered apostasy, unless she manages somewhat to prove to Qadi that she has been forcibly converted or some other conditions were not met (eg. she had insufficient knowledge about Islam) which will be very difficult if not outright impossible. So that non-Muslim women(and men) should be very carefull with Shahada.

Of course customarily Shahada is almost always performed in the presence of some kind of Muslim elders or officials, in a solemn atmosphere, but one should not think that in absence of them, it would be necessarily null and void.

If a convert lives in a Muslim country, he/she must know that in some circumstances he/she may be obliged to prove his/her conversion and therefore should know what documents/certificates/witnesses are needed/acceptable for that purpose according to the laws of the country.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".