Tawhid

Tawhid

The Core of Islamic beliefs

By Sami Zaatari

Tawhid is the oneness of Allah, and it is the essence and core doctrine of Islam, without the belief and affirmation in tawhid one is not a Muslim. Believing and affirming tawhid means one rejects any form of associating partners with God, it is the complete firm belief that there is only one God, one creator, and the one to whom you must prostrate to and devout yourself to in worship.

Affirming and believing in tawhid also means that you seek refuge and protection only in the sole creator, and in no one else, by this it means that you affirm that only Allah can protect you by his will, for instance one should not pray to a saint or a dead person seeking protection from them, rather one should pray to God seeking his protection since he is the only one who may save you. If he wills you harm, then no one can save you, and if he wishes you good, then no one can harm you

All of this is not mere conjecture, but is clearly proven by the Quran itself; Allah makes all of this crystal clear in the holy book.

Allah makes it clear that he is the only one and only God having no partners:

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YUSUFALI: Turn ye back in repentance to Him, and fear Him: establish regular prayers, and be not ye among those who join gods with Allah,-

Allah calls upon the true believers to not join other gods in worship with him, and that they should establish prayers for him alone, no other false deity. Anyone who joins other gods to Allah has strayed off the true path.

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YUSUFALI: Say: He is Allah, the One and Only;

Once again Allah affirms his oneness (tawhid), that he is the one and only, the only true God, that there is no other God but he, which is essentially what tawhid is all about. There are several more passages that affirm this mighty belief:

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YUSUFALI: Therefore exalted be Allah, the King, the Reality: there is no god but He, the Lord of the Throne of Honour!

Again here Allah affirms his oneness, that there is no other God but him, this is what tawhid is, the oneness of God, having no partners or others gods.

A Muslim must believe this with all his heart, not contradicting it, or setting up other gods with Allah. As I earlier said, a Muslim must seek refuge and protection from Allah alone, not one anyone else, they should not pray to other deities, saints, or dead people for this protection, but only to Allah as he himself states:

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YUSUFALI: Say: "I have no power over any harm or profit to myself except as Allah willeth. To every people is a term appointed: when their term is reached, not an hour can they cause delay, nor (an hour) can they advance (it in anticipation)."

Here the prophet Muhammad is commanded to recite to the people that he has no power over any good or bad that befalls him, this is all up to God, this statement is a general statement for all people, that we have no control or power over the good and bad that happens to us, it is all Allah's will. This shows that Allah is in control of everything, hence it is to him you should pray to and seek protection, it is him that you seek refuge in, because he is the only one who can harm or protect you, whatever he wills happens, whatever he does not will does not happen, no one can contradict this.

Another aspect of tawhid is also affirming Allah's names to which he has given himself, and to also affirm the attributes he has given himself. For instance one of the unique names for Allah is:

Ar-raheem: The most merciful, full of mercy

This is one of the 99 names Allah has revealed to us. Also other than affirming his names, we must also affirm his attributes as well, for instance Allah tells us:

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YUSUFALI: (Allah) said: "O Iblis! What prevents thee from prostrating thyself to one whom I have created with my hands? Art thou haughty? Or art thou one of the high (and mighty) ones?"

As you can see here Allah rebukes satan for not prostrating to Adam whom Allah has created with his HANDS. The position we take in this is that we simply affirm Allah's attribute without giving our personal interpretation on what Allah's hand means but rather we simply accept it as it is.

This is basically what tawhid is, much much more can be said, but this should do for those who are interested in what tawhid means and how a Muslim should affirm this belief and act on it.

And indeed Allah Knows Best!