By World-Insights / 5 Jan 2013

Tawheed is the most important Islamic belief. It implies that everything in existence originates from the one and only Creator, who is also the Sustainer and the sole Source of Guidance. This belief should govern all aspects of human life. Recognition of this fundamental truth results in a unified view of existence which rejects any divisions of life into religious and secular.

"Your Allah is One Allah; there is no Allah save Him, the Beneficent, the Merciful". (Qur’an: 2:163)

And say: "(All) praise is due to Allah, Who has not taken a son and Who has not a partner in the kingdom". (Qur’an: 17:111).

Allah is sole source of Power and Authority, therefore entitled to worship and obedience from mankind. There is no scope for any partnership with the Creator. tawheed tells man that Allah is not born, nor is anyone born of Him. He has no son or daughter. Human beings are His subjects. Linguistically Tawheed means: ”To make something one, or to assert the oneness of something.”

 Everything originates from ‘Him’ and eventually will return to ‘Him’, as stated in the Qur’an:

“We originated the first creation, so We shall bring it back (to its former state) again.” (21:104)

Although we, the people of the scientific age, have been blinded to some fundamental human limitations by great advances in technology, man is not, in essence, an omnipotent being. Neither is he self-sufficient and self-existing nor are his powers without limitations. He is, in fact, weak, frail, needy and destitute.

Say: "I do not control any benefit or harm for my own soul except as Allah please". (Qur’an: 7:188).

Say: "Then who can control anything for you from Allah if He intends to do you harm or if He intends to do you good". (Qur’an: 48:11).

Tawhid is the highest conception of deity, the knowledge of which God has sent to mankind in all ages through His Prophets.

He cannot create even a leaf or a gnat, of an insect, nor can he form a molecule of water without much expenditure, a fact which modern man does not wish to confess under the spell of modern technology. All natural events from the rising and setting of the sun to the movements of atoms, which he seems satisfied to ascribe to natural laws although they nominally exist, take place without his intervention.

Say: "Who gives you the sustenance from the heavens and the earth? Say: Allah". (Qur’an: 34:24).

"Or who is it that will give you sustenance if He should withhold His sustenance?" (Qur’an: 67:21)

Say: "What! Shall I seek a Lord other than Allah? And He is the Lord of all things". (Qur’an: 6:164).

 A firm and definite belief that Almighty God alone is the Creator, the Master and Owner, and the Command is for none but Him.The one who does not call to Tawheed and the correction of the Aqeedah, is like the one ...”who seeks to cure a body whose head has been cut off, since the place of the Aqeedah in the religion is like the head with regards to the body” [Sheikh Rabee' ibn haadee al-madkhalee, in al-manhaj al-anbiyaa fee Dawaah ill-Allah]. Jundub Ibn Abdullaah al-Bajaly said, ”We learned Eemaan (faith) and then we learned the Quran and it increased our Eemaan”.

"And rely on Allah; and Allah is sufficient for a Protector". (Qur’an: 33:3).

"Allah, there is no god but He; and upon Allah, then, let the believers rely". (Qur’an: 64:13).

"O my two mates of the prison! Are sundry lords better or Allah the One, the Supreme?" (Qur’an: 12:39)

There are countless requirements which he needs to maintain his existence, but none of them are essentially and totally under his control. He may be injured by many other events; accidents may bring his hopes to a sudden end; diseases and calamities always threaten him and mar his way to happiness. He experiences earthquakes, storms, floods, fires, and other natural catastrophes. The vast variety of phenomena, on the one hand, and the consciousness of his own frailty on the other, impress him with a deep sense of his own weakness and helplessness.

Say: "Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is the One, the Supreme". (Qur’an: 13:16)

"And those whom they call on besides Allah have not created anything while they are themselves created". (Qur’an: 16:20)

In spite of his claims to have complete dominance over nature, and of the great advances in his ‘conquering’ space so that he seems no longer to have need of divinity or religion, modern man actually needs religion more than the ‘primitive man’. He may not be worshipping fetishes of the ‘primitive’ man such as trees, animals, rivers, fire, rain, and heavenly bodies, but, as Erich Fromm puts it, fetishism has not ceased to be the religion of millions of people.It is inevitable for one who does not believe in and worship the One God to be the slave of numerous deities.

"And no one has with him any boon for which he should be rewarded, except the seeking of the pleasure of his Lord, the Most High". (Qur’an: 92:19-20).

Say: "Do you serve besides Allah that which does not control for you any harm, or any profit?" (Qur’an: 5:76).

It is Tawhid, that is the Principle of Divine Unity and Oneness, which is clearly observed throughout the universe. Whoever takes a look at himself and his environment can easily discern that everything depends upon this basic principle of God-revealed Religion. Parts of the human body.

"Surely His is the creation and the command; blessed is Allah, the Lord of the worlds". (Qur’an: 7:54).

"Judgement is only Allah’s". (Qur’an: 12:40).

One who believes in Tawhid can never be narrow-minded in his outlook. His belief in One God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Master of the east and the west and Sustainer of the entire universe.

"Therefore fear not the people and fear Me". (Qur’an: 5:44)

In order to lead men to a belief in one God, he did not delude them with happenings which deviate from the normal course of nature. Rather, he simply invited them, without asking them to leave the realm of reality, to consider the Universe and its laws. Being confident of the resultant belief in the one and indispensable God, he simply let men read in the book of life.

"But do not fear them, and fear Me if you are believers". (Qur’an: 3:175).

"Thanks to Islam, paganism in its various forms was defeated. The concept of the Universe, the practices of religion, and the customs of social life were each liberated from all the monstrosities which had degraded them, and human minds were made free of prejudice. Man finally realized his dignity.”