Tawhid : Faith in the Unity of God

The most fundamental and the most important teaching of Prophet
Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) is faith in the
unity of God. This is expressed in the primary Kalimah of Islam as
"There is no deity but Allah" ( La ilaha illallah ). This beautiful
phrase is the bedrock of Islam, its foundation and its essence. It is
the expression of this belief which differentiates a true Muslim from
a kafir (unbeliever), mushrik (one who associates others with God in
His Divinity) or dahriyah (an atheist).
The acceptance or denial of this phrase produces a world of difference
between man and man. The believers in it become one single community
and those who do not believe in it form an opposing group. For the
believers there is unhampered progress and success in this world and
in the hereafter, while failure and ignominy are the ultimate lot of
those whorefuse to believe in it.
But the difference between the believers and the unbelievers does not
result from the mere chanting of a few words. Obviously, the mere
utterance of a phrase or two is not in itself important. The real
difference lies in the conscious acceptance of this doctrine and
complete adherence to it in practical life. Mere repetition of the
word 'food' cannot dull hunger; mere chanting ofa medical prescription
cannot heal the disease.
In the same way, if the Kalimah is repeated without any understanding,
it cannot work the revolution which it is meant to bring about. This
can occur only if a person grasps the full meaning of the doctrine and
accepts and follows it in letter and spirit. We avoid fire because we
know that it burns; we keep away from poison because we know that it
can kill. Similarly, if the real meanings of Tawhid are fully grasped,
we avoid, in belief as well as in action, every form of disbelief,
atheism and polytheism. This is the natural consequence of belief in
the Unity of God.
The Meaning of the Kalimah
In Arabic the word ilah means 'one who is worshipped', that is, a
being which on account of its greatness and power is considered worthy
to be worshipped: to be bowed to in humility andsubmission. Anything
or any being possessing power too great to be comprehended by man
isalso called ilah . The concept ilah also includes the possession of
infinite powers and conveys the sense that others are dependent on
ilah and that he is not dependent on anyone else. The word ilah
carries, too, a sense of concealment and mystery. The word Khuda in
Persian, Deva in Hindi and God in English have similar connotations.
Other languages also contain words with a similar meaning. 1
The word Allah , on the other hand, is the essential personal name of
God. La ilaha illallah literally means "There is no ilah other than
the One Great Being known by the name Allah ." It means that in the
whole of the universe, there is absolutely no being worthy to be
worshippedother than Allah, that it isonly to Him that heads should
bow in submission and adoration, that He is the only Being possessing
all powers, that we are all inneed of His favor, and that we are all
obliged toseek His help. He is concealed from our senses, and our
intellect cannot perceive what He is.
Now we know the meaning of these words, let us look more closely
attheir real significance.
From the earliest known history of man as well as from the oldest
relics of antiquity that we have been able to obtain, it appears that
in every ageman recognized some deity or deities and worshipped them.
Even today every nation, from the most primitive to the most advanced,
believes in and worships some deity. Having a deity and worshipping
him is ingrained in human nature. There is something within man's soul
which forces him to do so.
But the question is: what is that thing and why does man feel impelled
to do so? The answer to this question can be discovered if we look at
the position of man in this huge universe. Neither man nor his nature
is omnipotent. He is neither self-sufficient nor self-existing; nor
are his powers limitless. In fact, he is weak, frail, needy and
destitute.
He is dependent on a multitude of forces to maintain his existence,
but all of them are not essentially and totally within his powers.
Sometimes they come into his possession in a simple and natural way,
and at times he finds himself deprived of them.There are many
important and valuable things which he endeavors to get, but sometimes
he succeeds ingetting them, while sometimes he does not, for it is not
completely in his own power to obtain them. There are many things
injurious to him; accidents destroy his life's work in a single
moment; chance brings his hopes to a sudden end; illness, worries and
calamities are always threatening him and marring his way to
happiness. He attempts toget rid of them, and meets with both success
and failure.
There are many things whose greatness and grandeur overawe him:
mountains and rivers, gigantic animals and ferocious beasts. He
experiences earthquakes,storms and other natural disasters. He
observes clouds over his head and sees them becoming thick and dark,
with peals of thunder, flashes of lightning and heavy rain. He sees
the sun, the moon and the stars in their constant motions. He reflects
how great, powerful and grand these bodies are, and, in contrast to
them, how frail and insignificant he himself is!
These vast phenomena, on the one hand, and theconsciousness of his own
frailty, on the other, impress him with a deep sense of his own
weakness, humbleness and helplessness. And it isquite natural that a
primitive idea of divinity should coincide with this sense. He thinks
of the hands which are wielding these great forces. The sense of their
greatness makes him bow in humility. The sense of their powerfulness
makes him seek their help. He tries to please them so that they may be
beneficial tohim, and he fears them and tries to escape their wrath so
that he may not be destroyed by them.
In the most primitive stage of ignorance, man thinks that the great
objects of nature whose grandeur and glory are visible, and which
appearto be injurious or beneficial to him, hold in themselves the
real power and authority, and, therefore, are divine. Thus he worships
trees, animals, rivers, mountains, fire, rain, air, heavenly bodies
and numerous other objects. This is the worst form of ignorance.
When his ignorance dissipates to some extent and some glimmers of
light and knowledge appear on his intellectualhorizon, he comes to
know that these great and powerful objects are in themselves as
helpless and dependent, or rather, they are still moredependent and
helpless. The biggest and the strongest animal dies likea tiny germ,
and loses all his power; great rivers rise and fall and become dry;
the highest mountains are blasted and shattered by man himself; the
productiveness of the earth is not under the earth's control - water
makes it prosperous and lack of water makes it barren. Even water is
not independent. It depends on air which brings the clouds. Air, too,
is powerless and its usefulness depends on other causes. The moon, the
sun, and the stars are also bound by a powerfullaw outside whose
dictates they cannot make the slightest movement.
After these considerations man's mind turns to the possibility of some
great mysterious power of divine nature which controls the objects he
sees and which may be the repository of all authority. These
reflections give rise to belief in mysterious powers behind natural
phenomena, with innumerable gods governing various parts and aspects
of nature such as air, light and water. Material forms or symbols are
constructed to represent them and man begins to worship these forms
and symbols. This, too, is a form of ignorance, and reality remains
hidden to the human eye even at this stage of man's intellectual and
cultural pilgrimage.
As man progresses still further in knowledge and learning, and as he
reflects more and more deeply on the fundamental problems ofexistence,
he finds an all-powerful law and all-encompassing control in the
universe. What a complete regularity is observed in sunrise and
sunset, in winds and rains, in the motions of stars and the changes of
seasons! With what a wonderful harmony countless different forcesare
working jointly. And what a highly effective and supremely wise law it
is according to which all the various causes in the universe are made
to work together at an appointed time to produce an appointed event!
Observing this uniformity, regularity and complete obedience to one
great law in all fields of Nature, even a polytheist finds himself
obliged to believe that there must be a deity greater than all the
others, exercising supreme authority. For, ifthere were separate,
independent deities, the whole machinery of the universe would be
upset.
He calls this greatest deity by different names, such as Allah ,
Permeshwar , God , Khuda-i-Khuda'igan . But as the darkness of
ignorance still persists, he continues worshipping minor deities along
with the Supreme One. He imagines that the Divine Kingdom of God may
not be different from earthly kingdoms. Just as a ruler has many
ministers, trusted associates, governors and other responsible
officers, so the minor deities are like so many responsible officers
under the Great God Who cannot be approached without winning the favor
of the officers under Him. So they must also be worshipped and
appealed to for help, andshould in no case be offended. They are taken
as agents through whom an approach can be made to the Great God.
The more a man increases his knowledge, the greater becomes his
dissatisfaction with the multiplicity of deities. So the number of
minor deities begins to decrease. More enlightened men bring each one
of them under the searchlight of scrutiny and ultimately find that
none of these man-made deities has any divine character; they
themselves are creatures like man, though rather more helpless. They
are thus eliminated one by one until only one God remains.
But the concept of one God still contains some remnants of the
elementsof ignorance. Some people imagine that He has a body as men
have, and is in a particular place. Some believe that God came down to
earth in human form; others think that God, after settling the affairs
of the universe, retired and is now resting. Some believe that it is
necessary to approach God through the media of saints and spirits, and
that nothing can be achieved without their intercession. Some imagine
God to have a certain form or image, and they believe it necessary to
keep that image before them for the purposes of worship.
Such distorted notions of godhead have persisted and lingered, and
many of them are prevalent among different people even today.
Tawhid is the highest conception of godhead, the knowledge of which
God has sent mankind in all ages through His Prophets. It was this
knowledge with which, in the beginning, Adam was sent down to earth;
it was the same knowledge that was revealed to Noah, Abraham, Moses
and Jesus (God's blessings be upon them all). It was this knowledge
which Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) brought to
mankind. It is Knowledge, pure and absolute, without the least shade
of ignorance. Man became guilty of shirk , idol-worship and kufr only
because he turned away from the teachings of the Prophetsand depended
on his own faulty reasoning, false perceptions or biased
interpretations. Tawhid dispels all the clouds of ignorance and
illuminates the horizon with the light of reality.
Let us see what significant realities the concept of Tawhid - this
little phrase: la ilaha illallah - embraces: what truth it conveys and
whatbeliefs it fosters.
First, we are faced with the question of the universe. We are face to
face with a grand, limitless universe. Man's mind cannot discern its
beginning or visualize its end. It has been moving along its chartered
course from time immemorial and is continuing its journey in the vast
vista of the future. Creatures beyond number have appeared in it - and
go on appearing every day. It isso bewildering that a thinking mind
finds itself wonderstruck. Man is unable to understand and grasp its
reality by his unaided vision. He cannot believe that all this has
appeared just by chance or accident. The universe is not a fortuitous
mass of matter. It is not a jumble of uncoordinated objects. It is not
a conglomeration of chaotic and meaningless things. All this cannot be
without a Creator, a Designer, a Controller, a Governor.
But who can create and control this majestic universe? Only He can do
so Who is Master of all; Who is Infinite and Eternal; Who is
All-Powerful, All- Wise, Omnipotent and Omniscient; Who is All-Knowing
and All-Seeing. He must have supreme authority over all that exists in
the universe. He must possesslimitless powers, must be Lord of the
universe and all that it contains, must be free from every flaw and
weakness and none may have the power to interfere with His work. Only
such a Being can be the Creator, the Controller and the Governor of
the universe.
Second, it is essential thatall these divine attributesand powers must
be vested in One Being: it is impossible for two or more personalities
having equal powers andattributes to co-exist. They are bound to
collide. Therefore, there must be one and only one Supreme Being
having control over all others. You cannot think of two governors for
the same province or two supreme commanders of the army! Similarly,
the distribution of these powers among different deities, so that, for
instance, one of them is all- knowledge, the otherall-providence and
still another life-giver - and each having an independent domain - is
also unthinkable. The universe is an indivisible whole and each one of
such deities will be dependent upon others in the execution of his
task. Lack of co-ordination is bound tooccur. And if this happened,
the world would fall to pieces. These attributes are also
untransferable. It is not possible that a certain attribute might be
present in a certain deity at one time and at another time be found
inanother deity. A divine being who is incapable of remaining alive
himself cannot give life to others. The one who cannot protect his own
divine power cannot be suited to govern the vast limitless universe.
The more you reflect on the problem, the firmer must your conviction
be that all these divine powers and attributes must exist in one and
the same Being alone. Thus, polytheism is a form of ignorance that
cannot stand rational scrutiny. It is a practical impossibility. The
facts of life and nature do not fit in with it. They automatically
bring men to Reality, that is Tawhid , the Unity of God.
Now, keeping in mind this concept of God, look closely at this vast
universe. Exert yourself to the utmost and say if you find among all
the objects that you see, among all the things that you perceive,
among all that you can think, feel or imagine - all that your
knowledge can comprehend - anyone possessing these attributes. The
sun, the moon, the stars, animals, birds or fishes, matter, money, any
man or a group of men - does any of them possess these attributes?
Most certainly not! For everything in theuniverse is created,
controlled and regulated,is dependent on others, is mortal and
transitory; its slightest movements are controlled by an inexorable
law from which there can be no deviation. Their helpless condition
proves that theattire of divinity cannot fit their body. They do not
possess the slightest trace of divinity and haveabsolutely nothing to
do with it. It is a travesty of truth and a folly of the highest
magnitude to attribute divine status to them.