Tawhid

Muslims use the single raised index finger gesture (al-sabbaba or al-sabbaha) as a symbol of tawhid.[1]

Tawhid[a] (Arabic: تَوْحِيد, romanizedtawḥīd, lit.'oneness [of God]') is the concept of monotheism in Islam.[3] Tawhid is the religion's central and single most important concept, upon which a Muslim's entire religious adherence rests. It unequivocally holds that God is indivisibly one (ahad) and single (wahid).[4][5]

Tawhid constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim profession of submission.[6] The first part of the Islamic declaration of faith (shahada) is the declaration of belief in the oneness of God.[4] To attribute divinity to anything or anyone else, is considered shirk—an unpardonable sin according to the Quran, unless repented afterwards.[7][8] Muslims believe that the entirety of the Islamic teaching rests on the principle of tawhid.[9]

From an Islamic standpoint, there is an uncompromising nondualism at the heart of the Islamic beliefs (aqida) which is seen as distinguishing Islam from other major religions.[10] Moreover, tawhid requires Muslims not only to avoid worshiping multiple gods, but also to relinquish striving for money, social status or egoism, as well as attributing all success and worth to other than God, as this is seen as making an idol of the self.[11]

The Quran teaches the existence of a single and absolute truth that transcends the world—a unique, independent and indivisible being who is independent of the entire creation.[12] God, according to Islam, is a universal God, rather than a local, tribal, or parochial one, and is an absolute who integrates all affirmative values.[7]

Islamic intellectual history can be understood as a gradual unfolding of the manner in which successive generations of believers have understood the meaning and implications of professing tawhid. Islamic scholars have different approaches toward understanding it. Islamic scholastic theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, Sufism, and even the Islamic understanding of natural sciences to some degree, all seek to explain at some level the principle of tawhid.[13]

The classical definition of tawhid was limited to declaring or preferring belief in one God and the unity of God.[14] Although the monotheistic definition has persisted into modern Arabic, it is now more generally used to connote "unification, union, combination, fusion; standardization, regularization; consolidation, amalgamation, merger".[15]

Chapter 112 of the Quran, titled al-Ikhlas, reads:

Say, "He is Allah—One;
Allah—the Sustainer.
He has never had offspring, nor was He born.
And there is none comparable to Him."[16]

  1. ^ Symbolism, MENA (2019-03-22). "The index finger". MENA symbolism. Archived from the original on 2019-09-29. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  2. ^ Dressler, Markus; Geaves, Ron; Klinkhammer, Gritt, eds. (2009). Sufis in Western Society: Global Networking and Locality. London: Routledge. p. 207. ISBN 9780415850902. OCLC 824531805. Archived from the original on 2021-09-03. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  3. ^ "From the article on Tawhid in Oxford Islamic Studies Online". Oxfordislamicstudies.com. 2008-05-06. Archived from the original on 2020-04-01. Retrieved 2014-08-24.
  4. ^ a b "Allah". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Archived from the original on 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
  5. ^ "The Fundamentals of Tawhid (Islamic Monotheism)". ICRS (Indonesian Consortium of Religious Studies). 2010-10-30. Archived from the original on 2015-06-20. Retrieved 2015-10-28.
  6. ^ D. Gimaret, Tawhid, Encyclopedia of Islam.
  7. ^ a b Asma Barlas (2002), p. 97.
  8. ^ Wahhab, Abd Al. "Chapter 4, Fear of Shirk". Kitab Al Tawheed. Darussalam.
  9. ^ Tariq Ramadan (2005), p. 203.
  10. ^ Turner (2006), p. 75.
  11. ^ Chris, Rojek (2012-01-05). Fame Attack: The Inflation of Celebrity and Its Consequences. London: A&C Black. p. 114. ISBN 9781849668040. OCLC 774293531. Archived from the original on 2020-11-07. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  12. ^ Vincent J. Cornell, Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol 5, pp. 3561-3562.
  13. ^ Tabatabaei (1981), p. 23.
  14. ^ Lane, Edward (1863). Al-Qamus: An Arabic Lexicon. London: Williams and Norgate. pp. 2926–2928 (Vol.8.).
  15. ^ Wehr, Hans (1976). A dictionary of modern written Arabic - Edited by Milton Cowan. New York: Spoken Language Services. p. 1055. ISBN 9780879500030.
  16. ^ Surah Al-Ikhlas 112


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