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questionsonislam · 4 years

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Could you please explain the notion of Tawhid (Oneness)?

It means oneness; to declare as one.

To know and to believe in the existence and oneness of Allah, that Allah has all of the efficient qualities and that He has no associates or partners. This knowledge and belief is expressed concisely in the sentence, "La Ilaha Illallah” (There is no god but Allah). Therefore, this sentence is called kalima at-tawhid (word of oneness). A person who utters and believes in the word of oneness is called a believer and a muwahhid. The branch of science that that deals with the issues of oneness is called ilm at-tawhid.

The word tawhid does not exist in the Quran. However, the belief of oneness is mentioned in numerous verses in terms of its various aspects.

Especially, the verses sent down in Madinah focus on the belief of oneness so that it will be understood well. The belief of oneness, which forms one of the three principles of the religion called usul ad-din, has been examined deeply by Islamic scholars, kalam scholars and Sufis and interpreted in various ways.

The Quran deals with the belief of oneness in terms of the essence of Allah, his oneness, attributes, relations with the universe and man in various dimensions. They can be summarized as follows:

Allah is one. There is no god but Him. He does need anything; everything needs Him. There is nothing similar to Him. He is free and away from having an associate or partner. If there were other gods along with Him, some of them would want to dominate the others. He is one; He is not one of the three as Christians believe. Those who attribute daughters and sons to Him and who say Jesus is his son or he is God slander Allah. He has neither sons nor daughters. He did not beget; He was not begotten. However, unbelievers attribute the things that do not create anything but that are created to Him as partners. Those so-called gods can do neither something good nor something bad. They can control neither death nor life, nor resurrection. Therefore, there is no god that can be connected with Allah. The gods that people make up are only names based on imagination and what their souls wish.

Allah has absolute power. Everything returns to Him. He is the Creator; He is the one that starts the process of creation and that creates as He wishes. First, He created the skies and the earth; He brought them together in the form of smoke or a nebulous substance and then separated them. The skies and the earth with all of the beings on are His order. His order is definite; nobody can change it. The sun, the moon and stars that He created act in accordance with His laws and orders. Every being in the sky and on the earth surrender to His orders willingly. He is the one that creates and shapes everything.

Allah is the Lord of the realms; He is the Lord of the hidden beings, too. He has power over everything; all of the powers of the skies and the earth belong to Him. He is the Owner of the generous and exalted Arsh (throne). He is the owner of all of the elevation degrees. He extends the earth like a cradle; He sends down water in appropriate amounts. He created all of the beings in pairs. He arranged and perfected the sky. He is sovereign over the skies and the earth and everything between them. The east and the west belong to Him. No matter what direction you turn, He is there because He has surrounded everything. His chair covers the skies and the earth. He protects and takes care of His creatures; and He does not have any difficulty in doing it. He is mighty and wise.

Allah is not only the Creator; He is also the Compassionate; He gives sustenance; He guards, helps and guides; He sends help to the creatures that are in need. Allah did not create the world for fun. The world was created for a certain period based on a purpose and plan. He imposes laws and guides; He creates everything based on a criterion; He creates and shows the way. He knows everything. He sees everything.

Allah is the best one among those who judge. He never oppresses anyone. He does not treat man unjustly; man treats himself unjustly. On the Day of Judgment, the scale of justice will be established; even the slightest deed will be accounted. He punishes quickly with painful torture. He orders people to be just and He loves those who are just. He gives great rewards to those who avoid sins and do good deeds. The good deeds of people are recorded so as to be rewarded in the best way. Allah has collected all good deeds in His self; He is the source of all good deeds. He is free and away from all bad deeds.

Allah created the spirit of man out of nothing; He created the humankind from that single soul. He created the first man and his wife; then, he made many men and women reproduce from them. He gave man ears, eyes, the mind and feelings; He made man His vicegerent on earth. He decided that he would die one day; then, it was written that he would be resurrected on the Day of Judgment. The whole humanity is one family because they come from the same parents. Man is the most superior creature because Allah created him in the best of moulds. He is born by breathing in the breath blown by Allah. Therefore, the perfection of man depends on being painted by the paint of Allah, and being the perfect realization and internalization of the divine names. Allah does not want anything but the perfection of His light, that is, the perfection of those attributes in man. The only aim of man is to promote all of the divine qualities and natural values and to realize them in himself. Allah has encompassed the humanity and elevates man. He is always with man; He is nearer to man than his jugular vein.

The understanding of oneness expressed in the Quran has been systemized by Kalam scholars in various forms. According to this, the oneness of Allah includes the oneness of the creator and the divinity. Expressing the oneness of the creator is called oneness based on will (tawhid al-iradi) and oneness based on action (tawhid al-amali). All of the prophets called people to this oneness. Hazrat Muhammad was sent to teach and realize those two kinds of oneness. Oneness based on knowledge means to accept the essential qualities of Allah and to reject the incomplete qualities. Thus, oneness based on knowledge saves one from the understanding that does not accept the attributes of Allah and the understanding that likens Allah to the created beings. Oneness based on knowledge means to express that Allah is one in the level of knowledge and words.

Oneness based on will or action necessitates worshipping Allah, who has no associates or partners, love, sincerity, trust in Allah, loyalty to Allah, expecting and fearing from Him only, and not associating partners with Him. Oneness based on will means to express that Allah is one through one’s intention, will and actions. In oneness based on knowledge, there exists confirmation and refutation; in oneness based on will, there exists encouragement or prohibition. There are two opposites of oneness based on knowledge. They are cancellation of the attributes and likening Allah to the created beings. Oneness based on action has two opposites, too. They are avoiding love, loyalty, trust in and reliance on Allah and associating other beings as partners to Allah.

Oneness based on knowledge and oneness based on action complement each other compulsorily. The oneness of understanding put forward by Islam cannot be realized without combining those two kinds of oneness. For instance a person who says, “Allah is the only creator” is not regarded to have said “La ilaha illallah” (There is no god but Allah). The essence o f the word oneness is worshipping the real Allah, who deserves being worshipped, who has no partners and who is one. Therefore, it is not enough to say that Allah is the Creator and Lord of everything, that He has no partners in creation and lordship. Along with saying them, it is necessary to say that there is no divinity to be worshipped except Him.

The fact that Allah creates the deeds of people, that He administers the whole universe and that He is the Lord of the realms constitutes the topics of the oneness based on knowledge. Those kinds of facts are called universal realities. The facts like loving what Allah orders, disliking what Allah prohibits, loving those that Allah loves, disliking those that Allah dislikes and the judgments of the religion being imposed by Him constitute the elements of oneness based on action. Those kinds of facts are called religious realities. A person who regards universal realities enough and who does not surrender to religious realities is not regarded to have obeyed the prophets and is not regarded as a muwahhid.

To say that Allah is one means to say that He is one in His personality, attributes and deeds. To say that His personality is one means to say that He has no parts or divisions because it is one of the indispensable qualities of Allah not to be combined. To say that his attributes are one means to say that He has no partners and that He does not resemble anyone because not to resemble the created beings is one of His essential qualities. To say that He is one in His deeds means to say that He has no partners because to have partners necessitates being weak.

Sufis have interpreted oneness in various forms. According to the most common one, oneness is divided into two: oneness based on intention and oneness based on witnessing. Oneness based on intention means to want and wish Allah or rather to want and wish what Allah wants and wishes. In this oneness, the will of the slave and the will of Allah unite in the same point; they want and wish the same thing. This kind of oneness is expressed in the sentence, "La maqsuda illallah" (There is nothing purposed except Allah).

Oneness based on witnessing originates from the spiritual experience of the sufi. The sufi who is enraptured and enchanted sees Allah only. He does not see the other beings. This oneness which is also called oneness based on conscience or pleasure is summarized by the sentence, "La mashhuda illallah"(There is nothing witnessed except Allah). Oneness based on witnessing has three degrees. In the first degree, Allah becomes manifest to the sufi in His deeds; he sees all deeds as coming from Allah. The oneness in this degree is expressed by the sentence, "La faila illallah" (There is no doer except Allah). In the second degree, Allah becomes manifest to the sufi in His attributes. In this case, the sufi sees only Allah and His attributes not the beings. In the third degree, Allah becomes manifest to the sufi in His essence. In this case, the sufi sees Allah in all beings. This oneness which is based on observation is expressed by the sentence, "La mawjuda illallah" (There is no being except Allah). This last form of oneness is the understanding of the oneness of being (wahda al-wujud) of the sufis.

Worshipping Allah is not limited to certain deeds. Worshipping Allah means to obey the rules imposed by Him, to fulfill His judgments and to follow the way of the prophets in one’s deeds, actions and words. To ask help only from Him, to fear Him, to trust and rely on Him, to take refuge in Him, not to accept anyone except Him as a guardian, to refer to Him to solve one’s problems, and not to accept anyone as a protector constitute the dimensions of worshipping only one Allah, which the belief of oneness necessitates.

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