Are We Muslim???

Asyhadu al-la ilaha illallah, wa asyhadu anna Muhammadar-Rasulullah.
I bear witness in my heart, that there is no Lord but Allah.
and I bear witness in my heart, that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
He who is called Lord is the Being who creates heaven and earth and the contents thereof.
I bear witness that the most Excellent Prophet Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah, for mankind throughout the whole world.

Syahada is the first step one must take to be a Muslim, but has the effort then stop there? at a declaration of faith? A teacher of mine says : One who would truly recite syahadat is required to incorporate two things: the first is to pronounce it by the tongue and to fill the heart with earnestness while witnessing that there is no god that can be rightfully worshiped but Allah, and that Prophet Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. He must be sure that Prophet Muhammad's prophethood is to teach jinn and humankind about the divine message written in the Holy Qur'an. Secondly, real recital of syahadat should be accompanied by tasdiq, ta'dhim, khurmah and khilwah. Tasdiq means affirming that Allah is the sole God; ta'dhim means glorifying God; khurmah means exalting God; and khilwah means being generous in accepting Allah as the sole God; that is the real syahadat. Ignoring those elements is to mar the recital of syahadat and one's becoming a Muslim is only superficial.

The 1st part of the declaration of faith There is no god but Allah means that nothing other than Allah is worthy of worship thus denies the attribution of divinity to all other things, and affirms it as a quality which belongs to Allah alone. As for the second part of the declaration, 'Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah', this means that we do what the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, has told us to do, and stop doing what he has told us not to do.

Many of us sadly has professing, declaring and then violating what we declared. Allah has said :

Do men think that they will be left alone on saying, "We believe", and that they will not be tested? We did test those before them, and Allah will certainly know those who are true from those who are false. (Al-Ankaboot:2-3)

This is an admonition in the form of a question, meaning that Allah will inevitably test His believing servants according to their level of faith. Every person who claims to be a true Muslim will be tested and tried by Allah. These trials can be in the form of starvation, famine or oppression from the disbelievers, even wealth, loved ones can also be our test, which are can divert our sole love to Allah alone.

Temptation lunged themselves at us at everytime, from every corner. A sincere and steadfast believer are those who can fend off the temptation, and even if they were strayed and sinned, they hurriedly ask for repentance and won't do the same sin ever again. To err is human, but human are endowed with brain and aql, to keep making the same err is not khilaf, it is but ignorance.
We have declared that we submit to Allah and will do what Allah has ordered and avoid things Allah has forbid, and that we believe Prophet SAW is Allah's messenger and thus we will follow what the Prophet has done and ordered by Allah. And yet, we abuse, we slander, we lied and we transgress, knowingly that the things we've done are the things Allah has forbid us to do. We skipped salah, we dont do zakat, we neglected hajj and we refuse to treat others with good attitude, knowingly those are the things Allah has ordered us to do. We ignored Allah's order and committing Allah's prohibition. And yet we still expecting the paradise for us?

Are we still worthy to be called a Muslim after all those things that we did? Are we sill entitled for Allah's mercy? Do we still dare hoping for paradise? Let us all be kaffah in our deen and let us all strive to be a good muslim. A Muslim who are worthy of the title. May Allah help us all.