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the concept of tawheed has existed since the
beginning of human life on this earth. The first
man—Adam—was the first messenger of God. It was this
first messenger who taught human beings the religion
of tawheed.
It was in later generations that this religious
system began to change. This happened principally
because people began to make the assumption that
divinity was inherent in natural phenomena. They
wondered at the loftiness of the mountains, the
unceasing flow of the rivers, and the extraordinary
brilliance of the sun and moon, and took it that
thing possessed of such awesome attributes must
necessarily share in God’s divinity. Men gifted with
special talents likewise came to be included in the
category of the divine; they were supposed to be
incarnations of God Himself. It was in this manner
that the concept of polytheism crept into the
religious system.
In consonance with the view that human religions
began with tawheed—with polytheism as a later
development—the basic mission of all the Prophets
who made their appearance at intervals in this world
was to lead people away from the worship of many
gods and back to the worship of the One God. In
other words, to turn them away from the adulation of
creatures and towards reverence for the Creator. As
a proof of the Creator’s existence, the Qur’an
advances the very fact of the existence of the
universe. All studies of the universe show that it
cannot be sui genesis: some other agent is essential
for the universe to have come into existence. This
means that the choice for us is not between a
universe with God, or a universe without God. It is
rather between a universe with God, or no universe
at all. Since a non-existent universe is utterly
inconceivable. We are forced to accept the option of
a universe with God—a necessary condition also for
the existence of human beings.
God created man and settled him on the earth. After
installing him here, He has kept an unceasing watch
over him. Life and death are equally in His hands.
Whatever man gains or loses, it is all a matter of
the will of God. As the Qur’an expresses it: “God;
there is no god but He—the Living, the Eternal One.
Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him. His is what
the heavens and the earth contain. Who can intercede
with Him, unless by His leave? He is congnizant of
men’s affairs, now and in the future. Men can grasp
only that part of His Knowledge which He wills. His
throne is as vast as the heavens and the earth, and
the preservation of both does not weary Him. He is
the Exalted, the Immense One.” (2:255)
While tawheed means the oneness of God, it must be
stressed that this concept differs radically from
pantheistic or animist notions that all the forms of
existence are diverse manifestations of one and the
same reality. On the contrary, the oneness of God as
defined in Islam means that there is only one Being
of the nature of God. All other things of the
universe, be they physical or non-physical, are the
creations of this One God: they are in no respect
constituents of, or partners in the divine godhead.
However, in Islamic theology, tawheed does have two
aspects to it: tawheed fi az-Zat and tawheed fi as-Sifat,
that is, oneness of being and oneness of attributes.
This means that in addition to the fact of there
being only one Being who enjoys the status of
divinity and possesses divine powers, there is also
the fact that no-one else can have a share in, or
lay claim to God’s attributes. These include the
power of creating and sustaining the universe with
all its countless bodies in motion, of sustaining
and nourishing our world, in short, of governing all
the happenings in the heavens and on earth; all of
these are directly managed by God. No representative
or deputy of God has any power—either independent or
delegated—over the events of the universe: “He
throws the veil of night over the day. Swiftly they
follow one another.
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