Say: I Believe in Allah, Then Be Upright
A comprehensive word after which one need ask no one else: the meaning of declaring faith, and of uprightness according to one's capacity.
Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 18 October 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — [Watch the original video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBZ4lbZAN30)
Dr. Ahmed began his khatira with a supplication in which he asked Allah to turn away from us the causes of punishment in this world and the Hereafter, to write us among the people of Paradise and grant us the means to it, to bring us close to His mosques and not distance us from obedience to Him, and to make us among the people of the Qur'an and not deprive us of the delight of worshipping Him with it in His presence. Then he said: And now, in our hadith today, Abū ʿAmra Sufyān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Thaqafī (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates to us, saying:
«قلتُ: يا رسول الله، قل لي في الإسلام قولًا لا أسأل عنه أحدًا غيرك. فقال النبي ﷺ: قل آمنت بالله ثم استقم».[1]
("I said: O Messenger of Allah, tell me something about Islam that I will not need to ask anyone else about but you. The Prophet ﷺ said: Say: I believe in Allah, then be upright.")
Multiple narrations of a single hadith
In another narration Sufyān (may Allah be pleased with him) tells us: I said, O Messenger of Allah, tell me of something I may hold fast to. The Prophet ﷺ said: «قل ربي الله ثم استقم» ("Say: My Lord is Allah, then be upright."). I said: O Messenger of Allah, what do you fear most for me? So the Prophet ﷺ took hold of his own tongue and then said: «هذا» ("This.")
He also mentioned a narration from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sufyān, in which he relates that a man came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked him: O Messenger of Allah, tell me about Islam. He said that he mentioned this last narration to show that Sufyān's son narrated the hadith from him without naming his father.
Who is Sufyān?
Sufyān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Thaqafī was from the tribe of Thaqīf, who embraced Islam after Ḥunayn, around the ninth year, and said: There is no god but Allah, Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah. The speaker said: You remember the famous phrase in Sūrat al-Zukhruf:
﴿وَقَالُوا لَوْلَا نُزِّلَ هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنُ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٍ مِّنَ الْقَرْيَتَيْنِ عَظِيمٍ﴾ [al-Zukhruf: 31] ("And they said: Why was this Qur'an not sent down upon some great man from the two towns?").[3]
He wanted protection, so he was directed to faith
Sufyān asked for "a statement after which he need ask no one else," and said: Direct me to something I may hold fast to. He wants to protect himself. And the Prophet's ﷺ answer was one: Say: I believe in Allah; say: I believe in Allah.
Dr. Ahmed sees that this command to say it carries two possible meanings: either it is a repetition of the words to remind the mind and revive the meaning in a person's self and heart, so that he remains settled in this obedience, by Allah's leave; or it is the taking of a decision in life: Say: I believe in Allah.
And what does faith do within the believer? It makes a person more certain of what is in his Lord's hand than of what is in his own.
Then be upright
The Prophet ﷺ said: «قل آمنت بالله ثم استقم» ("Say: I believe in Allah, then be upright"). And Allah, glory be to Him, has said: ﴿إِنَّ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا رَبُّنَا اللَّهُ ثُمَّ اسْتَقَامُوا تَتَنَزَّلُ عَلَيْهِمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ﴾ [Fuṣṣilat: 30] ("Indeed, those who say, 'Our Lord is Allah,' and then remain upright, the angels descend upon them").[5]
And what does uprightness signify in people's lives? That the heart be upright in its certainty about what is with Allah; that the mind be upright within the sphere of thinking about what is lawful and not transgress it; and that the body not cease worshipping Allah, blessed and exalted, especially when one knows that this is obligatory upon him and that he will be held accountable for it in Allah's presence on the Day of Resurrection.
Uprightness varies according to persons and circumstances, in view of what you are able to do and what you are not; it is according to capacity, and it is a path.
The supplication
He concluded by saying: I ask Allah, the Most High, the Almighty, to spread out for us and for you a share of the provision of wisdom, understanding and knowledge, to grant us the means of guidance, to accept from us the good deeds that are in our hands, and to grant us sincerity in what we do.
--- [1]: Editor's documentation: The origin of the hadith is in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, where its wording is «قل آمنت بالله فاستقم»; the narration «ثم استقم» appears elsewhere. The other narration («قل ربي الله ثم استقم» and «ما أخوف ما تخاف عليّ») is in al-Tirmidhī and Aḥmad. [3]: Editor's documentation: The speaker did not complete the link between the verse and Thaqīf in the transcribed passage; he mentioned it only as a recollection when naming the tribe. Ibn Kathīr says in his commentary on the verse: «يعنون مكة والطائف» ("they mean Mecca and al-Ṭāʾif"), and reports this from Ibn ʿAbbās, ʿIkrima, Qatāda and others. [5]: Editor's documentation: Of the verse, only as much as the speaker mentioned has been recorded; its continuation is in Sūrat Fuṣṣilat.