Tawheed Quotes

You cannot see That which is the Seer of seeing; you cannot hear That which is the Hearer of hearing; you cannot think of That which is the Thinker of thought; you cannot know That which is the Knower of knowledge. This is your Self, that is within all; everything else but This is perishable.

most Sunnis and all Shia still regard each other as fellow Muslims. The Wahhabis do not. They refer to the Shia as rejectionists (raffidah). In his detailed “Treatise on the Denial of the Raffidah,” Mohammed Abd al-Wahhab made it very clear that attributing infallibility to imams is a form of polytheism.11 Even today, many devout Wahhabis continue to regard the Shia as dangerous heretics whose reverence for their imams violates the Wahhabi’s most fundamental doctrine of the unity of God (tawheed).

The foundation of Islam is tawheed (Oneness), but tawheed is not just about saying that God is One. It is so much deeper. It is about the Oneness of purpose, of fear, of worship, of ultimate love for God. It is the oneness of vision and focus. It is to direct one’s sight on one singular point, allowing everything else to fall into place.

Imam Mohammed al-Saud died in 1765, and in such a backwater would have remained as obscure as the village that he ruled had he not met Mohammed Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792). Mohammed Abd al-Wahhab was something of an Arabian Martin Luther with a touch of John Knox thrown in. He was charismatic, possessed significant political skills, and saw himself as a religious reformer. Some would say he was a fanatic; he was certainly fervent in his beliefs and today would be called a fundamentalist. Like all fundamentalists, Abd al-Wahhab accepted a literal interpretation of his holy book and, like Luther, wanted to rid his religion of practices for which he could find no basis in scripture. Among these practices were: sorcery, idol worship, sun worship, fortune-telling, animism, the cult of ancestors, seeking intercession from saints, and even worshiping stones, tombs, and trees.3 Above all, he emphasized the unity of God (tawheed) and the avoidance of innovation (bid’a), by which he meant anything not found in the Quran or known to the Salaf, the pious ancestors of Islam’s first three generations from whom the term Salafi is derived.

The Creator introduces Himself rather than some people filling the gap with an assumed deity. Qur’an provides evidence of its divinity since its descriptive accuracy of nature (even though mentioned only as a supplement to its core message) is not contradicted by established facts of modern science. The unity of origin (Tawheed) is also consistent with the order and design manifested in the universe.

Every civilized society with laws accepts freedom only with responsibility. When that responsibility is determined and guided by the Creator Himself, belief in Tawheed enables a person to be free from being subservient to anyone else except the Creator. Belief in Tawheed ensures equality since every human being is the creature of Allah like everyone and everything else. Religion does not argue for ‘Creation’ doctrine alone. It gives a worldview which explains the meaning and purpose of life, i.e. submission to Allah and ethical purification of actions and which will bring deterministic rewards with absolute justice in the afterlife.

The theistic concepts of Tawheed, Khilafah and Akhirah govern the Islamic way of life. Belief in the single source of creation defies racial, ethnic or gender basis of biases. According to Islam, all creations belong to Allah. Tawheed also implies interrelatedness of all things in nature due to common status as creatures originating from a single source, i.e. the will of a Supreme Being. Animals and plants are partners to humans in the universe. Simultaneously, the concept of Khilafah raises the stature of human beings as moral beings with an inbuilt and active conscience, which provides the ability to differentiate moral from immoral acts. The concept of Khilafah inculcates the responsibility of custodianship, trusteeship and stewardship in human beings with regards to the use and ownership of physical property and environmental resources. The two worldly view of life in Islam extends the decision horizon of economic agents, be they firms or consumers.

While the concept of Tawheed creates an equal basis for humans to use what is bestowed in nature, the concept of Khilafah instils stewardship towards the responsible use of natural and environmental resources without pushing planetary boundaries and causing precious loss of biodiversity.

The fact that Muslims do not believe man is created in the image of Allah,35 combined with the doctrine of tawheed, prevents any connection between Allah and man. Allah’s lack of unconditional love and mercy is expressed in the Muslim mind-set as well, especially in the way Islam views and treats non-Muslims. The impersonal and distant nature of Allah engenders a ritualistic and formalistic religion in which the individual can have no hope of personal salvation through faith alone.36 Instead, a Muslim must earn salvation through his works.37 Even a devout Muslim who diligently performs good works throughout his life has no true assurance that he will enter paradise in the afterlife. Continually working toward the goal of being “good enough” is thus extremely important in Islam.38 Unfortunately, according to the Quran, jihad is among the good works that earn Allah’s favor.39 In fact, martyrdom for Allah, dying in the way of Islam, is the only way to ensure acceptance into heaven.40 This explains why suicide bombing is attractive to so many radical Muslims.

Part of [the benefit of God’s making one fall into sin] is also that the servant attains the ranks of humility, meekness and lowliness as well as neediness before Him, for the ego has a tendency to rival lordship; if it had the power it would claim what the Pharaoh claimed, but He has predestined and dominated and all other than Him is incapable and dominated.