Translation and explanation of the three sentences shown above (a), (b), and (c):

(a) "There is no god but God. Muhammad is God's messenger."
      [proper pronunciation: lā ilāha il-la-l-lāh, muḥám-madur-rasūlu-l-lāh]

This sentence, the shortest form of the Islamic Declaration of faith, or testimony (shahādah) means: "There is no deity (god, ilāh in Arabic) but the One and Only God (Allāh in Arabic); no-one is to be worshipped but God (Allāh) alone. ‒ Muhammad is God's messenger (to mankind)." This short formula is sometimes called the kalima (literally, "word") or the kalimat at-tauḥīd ("the word of confession of [God's] One-ness"); *kelime-i tevhîd in Turkish.

Properly speaking, the shahādah ("testimony") is the following declaration ‒ (b),(c) ‒ (using the word ash'hadu "I bear witness"):

(b) "I bear witness that there is no god but God. And I bear witness that Muhammad is God's messenger."

This is the kalimat ash-shahādah (*kelime-i şehadet in Turkish). The two parts of this declaration are used in the adhān (call to prayer); the word "And" (wa) between the two parts is, however, dropped in the adhān ‒ see below.

(c) is another version, which is, e.g., used in the ritual prayer (ṣalāh, *namaz), in the tashahhud:

"I bear witness that there is no god but God. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger."

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A remark on (b):

In the call to prayer (Arabic: adhān; Turkish: *ezan) the shahāda is as follows:

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See the German version of this page: Die Schahada: http://www.ismailmohr.de/schahada.html

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