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Concept of Tawheed

Islam rejects characterising Allah in any human manifestation

TAWHEED, MEANING “doctrine of Oneness” (of God) is Islam’s most fundamental concept and holds that God (Allah) is One (Wâḥid) and Unique (âḥad). The Holy Quran asserts the existence of a single and absolute truth that transcends the world; a unique, independent and indivisible being, who is independent of the entire creation. God, is a universal God, rather than a local, tribal, or parochial one—God is an absolute, who integrates all affirmative values and brooks no evil.

Tawheed constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim profession. The first part of the Shahada is the declaration of belief in the oneness of God. To attribute divinity to a created entity, known as shirk, is the only unpardonable sin mentioned in the Holy Qur’an. The entirety of the Islamic teaching rests on the principle of Tawheed. There is an uncompromising monotheism at the heart of the Islamic beliefs, which is seen as distinguishing Islam from other major religions. In fact, a person is considered as Muslim if he/she accepts that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah and that (Holy Prophet) Muhammad (peace be upon him) (the second part of Shahada) is His slave and His messenger to humankind.

Almighty Allah says in the Holy Quran: “Allah -- there is no deity except Him, the Ever- Living, the Sustainer of [all] existence. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills. His Kursi (literally, a footstool) extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, the Most Great.” — 2: 255.

In these marvelous verses, Allah describes Himself as The Only One -- Most Powerful, Ever-Living Lord of us. Tawheed is the bedrock of Islam and it states that it is Allah Who has created the universe with whatever is in it and administers it. What we deduce from the operation of the universe and call ‘natural laws’ are, in fact, Allah’s regular ways of creating things and events and administering the universe.

According to Islam, all religions revealed to the prophets, may Allah exalt their mention, have the same essence and knowledge of Tawheed and unity of Allah, but, with the time, the message was misinterpreted, mixed with superstition, and degenerated into magical practices and some rituals. That was the same message with which Adam was sent down to earth, the same knowledge that Allah revealed to Nooh, Ibraheem, Moosa and Eesa, may Allah exalt their mention, and the last Prophet sent to humanity, (Holy Prophet) Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Islam rejects characterising Allah in any human form or depicting Him as favouring certain individuals or nations on the basis of wealth, power, or race. However, our human minds are often in search of understanding the concept of Allah in materialistic ways, although we are not capable to completely comprehend this concept. When Holy Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) contemporaries asked him about Allah, Allah revealed the chapter of Ikhlas (Quranic chapter No. 112) which is considered as the motto of Tawheed, Saying : “Say (O Muhammad), “He is Allah, [who is] One. Allah, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor was He begotten. Nor is there to Him any equivalent.”

The Creator must be a different nature from the things created, because if He is of the same nature as they are, He will be temporal and will, therefore, need a maker. If the maker is not temporal, He must be eternal. But if He is eternal, He cannot be caused. If nothing apart from Him causes Him to continue to exist, He must be Self-Sufficient and Self-Subsistent. If He does not depend upon anything for the continuance of His own existence, this existence can have no end. The Creator is therefore Eternal and Everlasting Allah says : “He is the First and the Last” . ---Quran 57:3.

The Creator does not create only in the sense of bringing things into being, in other words, He is not only a Starter, He also preserves everything, takes them out of the existence, and is the ultimate cause of whatever happens to them.

Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu Taalib (may Allah exalt him), the fourth Muslim Caliph, is reported to have said: “He is being but not through the phenomenon of coming into being. He exists but not from non-existence. He is with everything but not physical nearness. He is different from everything but not by physical separation. He acts but without the accompaniment of movements and instruments. He is the One, only such that there is none with whom He keeps company or whom He misses in his absence.

— Special to Khaleej Times