شهد
Shahida
To bear witness that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.
What it means
The verb shahida means to witness, to testify to what one knows and has seen. Faruqi gives it, in the religious sense, as to bear witness that there is no God but God and that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is His prophet, servant and messenger. The Quran uses it of God Himself (3:18). The same root yields shahāda, the declaration of faith; shāhid, a witness; and shahīd, one who dies bearing witness to the truth. In the declaration the verb is in the first person, ashhadu, “I bear witness”, so the believer takes part in the act.
Often misunderstood as
The English “witness” may suggest only a spectator, while the Arabic verb carries the duty of a person who testifies to the truth with full knowledge and commitment.
What the sources say
The Quran calls the Muslim community a witness over mankind (2:143). The first of the five pillars is the shahāda, which the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) placed first when he said that Islam is built on five, and the first of these is the witnessing that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim).
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 37, listed as SHAHADA. The definition is restated here.