If you were going to establish a cult, wouldn't you ritualize the prostration of your cult followers to your 'god' and yourself ? Wouldn't you demand, under divine auspices that the cult members utter every day that you are great and the last 'true' prophet and that your divine idol [the moon, the tree, your cat, a spirit...] is the only divine source and guidance for humans ? Surely irrational unthinking obedience is the first and most important thematic in creating a cult. Of course you would try to impose such a system on your cult worshippers. That is how a cult functions best [see Nazism and Communism]. No debate, no free will, no conscious choice.

In the creation of his cult Muhammad established 'pillars' for his community. The first and most important such pillar of Islam [Moslems can't agree if there are are 5, 6, or 7 such 'pillars], is the expression of Shahadah or 'faith'. Faith in the Moslem sense of the word has nothing to do with the liberation of your mind, your spirit or finding faith through reason. 'Faith' for Moslems is simply the blind faith of believing that the Al-Lah idol is the only unitary divine dialectical force; and that Muhammad is the greatest, the final and the most divinely guided of his [or its] prophets. Blind faith is not spiritual enlightenment or mental therapy. It is unthinking, unstinting and irreligious devotion to the cult.

We see the truism of the above in the mindless ritual prayers that make one a 'Moslem':

La ilaha illa Allah wa-Muhammad rasul Allah. There is no god but God and Muhammad is the prophet of God.

The great man Muhammad conflated yet again with a divine power. What political-military leader would not want such a connection? Obama still yearns for such a conflation.

To be accepted as a Moslem all you need to do is to recite the above gibberish in front of 2 Allah cult members. By so doing you are implicitly accepting the sovereignty of the El-Lah deity or idol over your life, and you acknowledge that the illiterate Arab adventurer Muhammad was his or its only spokesman. By accepting the great-man Muhammad you have committed to the entire Islamic program as outlined in his cult document the Koran, or recital. Since the Shahadah is the first and most important 'pillar' of your cult membership, you must say the words correctly and aloud prostrated in a ritualized position of submission to Muhammad or El-Lah [both of which are essentially the same].

This Shahadah is recited in the early morning Muzzein's call to prostration [named prayer], and it is included in the salat or the daily ritual prayer that every Moslem must utter. Somewhat irrationally as well, Moslems believe that from Shahadah other fundamental doctrines of Islam are derived including angels, the Qur'an, the Bible, the prophets, and the Day of Judgment. Moslems believe of course that all humans are born Moslem and that Christians, Jews, Hindus and non-Moslems are wayward souls who have somehow rejected Al-Lah, or as the Koran states many times, have been 'willed' by the Al-Lah thing to live as Unbelieving hypocrites so they may be punished in this life and the after-life. No one ever said that a cult was rational.

Shahadah is central to the Moslem and Al-Lah cult. It encompasses many ideals which bind the members of the cult together in a multi-race, multi-ethnic, nation-state independent organization including:

1.     There is only One Lord, the Allah thing who is described in the Koran as the Creator, the Organizer, the Planner and the Sustainer of the Universe.

2.     This Allah idol or dialectical force possesses the most beautiful names and qualities mentioned in the Koran. In fact the Al-Lah has 99 names and that ”Nothing is like unto Allah” (Qura’n 42:11). Therefore there can be no son of Al-Lah (Jesus), nor can this unknowable force be idolized in any form that a human would understood [Yahweh, Jehovah, the Trinity etc.].

3.     Shahadah also means that Muhammad is the last messenger of the El-Lah deity: “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah and the seal of the prophets” (Qura’n 33:40). “And whatever the messenger (Muhammad) gives you, take it and whatever he forbids you, abstain from it”. (Qura’n 59:1). “Say (O Muhammad) if you love Allah follow me Allah loves you” (Qura’n 3:31).

Shahadah demands an acceptance of these 3 principles. From the vantage point of developing a cult, Shahadah does a fine job indeed. It creates an unknowable thing as the perfect divine dialectical force and spirit which is the only thing that possesses free will. You must try to appease this El-Lah thing so it will 'reward' you.

Secondly, it binds this force with Muhammad and his leadership. Al-Lah and Muhammad are indivisible, they are a team. You can't accept the Al-Lah entity without offering total obedient loyalty to the 'great man' Muhammad.

Third by making the cult member say every day that Allah and Muhammad rule and that their ideas and book are the only path to follow, you ritualize and dumb-down your cult. Messy debates, thinking, objections, and reforms are all neutered and rendered unnecessary. Muhammad is the greatest human ever because Allah said so. The fact that Muhammad invented the Al-Lah deity is a fact lost on most of the Moslem cult members. Wouldn't it be nice to create your own idol, and have that idol tell people that you are the blessed prophet of divine revelation and power? How convenient. And how very mad.