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Chapter 2 of 510 min read
طبيعة الله في الإسلام: التوحيد المُبيَّن
Tawhid — the absolute oneness of Allah — is not one Islamic doctrine among others. It is the foundation on which everything else rests, the lens through which all other Islamic teaching is to be understood, and the organizing principle of the entire Islamic way of life. To understand tawhid is to understand Islam. To misunderstand it is to misunderstand everything built on it.
Ja'far Sheikh Idris approached tawhid both as a theologian — explaining its content precisely — and as a philosopher — examining its rational grounds and its implications for how human beings understand themselves, the world, and their obligations. His treatment is distinguished by its refusal to treat tawhid as a simple slogan ("God is one") and its insistence on exploring the full depth of what divine unity means and why it matters.
The Islamic scholarly tradition, especially in the Athari and Hanbali tradition that Sheikh Idris stood within, distinguishes three dimensions of tawhid that together constitute the full Islamic account of Allah's oneness. These are not three separate doctrines but three aspects of a single reality, each of which illuminates and supports the others.
The first dimension is tawhid al-rububiyyah — the absolute and exclusive lordship (rububiyyah) of Allah. This dimension affirms that Allah alone is the Creator, Sustainer, Provider, and Controller of all that exists. He created the universe from nothing, and it exists only because He continuously sustains it in existence. Nothing in creation operates independently of His sustaining will — not the movement of electrons, not the growth of plants, not the decisions of human beings, not the course of history. Every event, at every level of reality, occurs only because Allah wills and permits it to occur.
This is a comprehensive and radical affirmation. It excludes, entirely and without exception, any other power that could exercise the functions of lordship independently of Allah. There is no Deist God who creates the universe and then steps back to let it run on its own — the Islamic understanding insists that Allah's sustaining will is present and active in every moment and at every level of creation. There is no dualistic struggle between a good God and an evil power — evil exists in creation only insofar as Allah permits it, and He permits it within a framework of wisdom that comprehends purposes human beings cannot always see. There are no subordinate divine powers who exercise independent authority over portions of the creation — the angels are servants of Allah, executing His commands with no independent will, and other beings that humans in various traditions have worshipped (stars, forces of nature, ancestors) have no divine power or authority whatsoever.
The Quran's expression of tawhid al-rububiyyah is most magnificently concentrated in Ayat al-Kursi (2:255): "Allah — there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of existence. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills. His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, the Most Great."
This verse rewards careful reading. It affirms divine eternity (Ever-Living), divine activity without fatigue (neither drowsiness nor sleep), universal ownership (to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and earth), the conditions on intercession (only by His permission), comprehensive divine knowledge (He knows what is before them and what will be after them), the exclusive reach of divine sovereignty (His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth), and the effortlessness of divine governance (their preservation tires Him not). Tawhid al-rububiyyah is not a bare philosophical thesis about God being the cause of the universe — it is a rich, detailed affirmation of divine activity, knowledge, and sovereign control over all created reality.
The second dimension is tawhid al-uluhiyyah — the exclusive direction of worship (uluhiyyah, derived from ilah, deity) to Allah alone. This is the dimension of tawhid that distinguishes Islam most sharply from polytheism and from religious traditions that involve intermediaries between human beings and God.
Worship (ibadah), in the comprehensive Islamic sense, includes everything that a person does out of love, reverence, hope, or fear directed at a being considered deserving of these responses in a religious sense. It includes prayer (salah), supplication (dua), sacrifice (dhabh), vows (nadhr), seeking help (isti'anah), seeking rescue (istighathah), and reliance (tawakkul). All of these acts of worship are due to Allah alone and must not be directed to any other being — not angels, not prophets, not saints, not the pious dead, not natural forces, not any created entity whatsoever.
The prohibition of shirk — directing any act of worship to other than Allah — is the most fundamental prohibition in Islam. The Quran calls it the supreme injustice: "Indeed, shirk is a great wrong (zulm 'azim)" (31:13). It describes it as the one sin Allah will not forgive if a person dies upon it: "Indeed, Allah does not forgive that partners be associated with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills" (4:48). The severity of this prohibition is proportionate to the severity of the act: to worship anything other than Allah is to displace the one reality worthy of worship with something utterly unworthy of it, to misplace the most fundamental human orientation at the level of ultimate concern.
Tawhid al-uluhiyyah has direct practical implications. It means that dua — supplication, asking for help — must be directed only to Allah. A Muslim in distress does not ask the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ for help, does not pray to a saint at a shrine, does not beseech an ancestor's spirit. He asks Allah, who alone has the power to help and who alone deserves to be asked. The practices common in various Muslim cultures of seeking help from deceased saints, asking for intercession at shrines, or directing dua to anyone other than Allah are, from the Athari perspective that Sheikh Idris represented, violations of tawhid al-uluhiyyah. This is not a minor point of difference — it strikes at the core of what Islam teaches about who deserves worship and what worship is.
This is also the dimension of tawhid that Islamic dawah has historically emphasized most strongly, because it is where the clearest line is drawn between Islam and the polytheism and saint-veneration that Muslims encountered in Arabia and elsewhere. The first call of every prophet was la ilaha illa Allah — there is no deity (worthy of worship) except Allah — and this was simultaneously an affirmation (Allah alone deserves worship) and a negation (no one and nothing else deserves worship).
The third dimension is tawhid al-asma' was-sifat — the oneness of Allah in His names and attributes. This dimension concerns how Allah is to be spoken about and understood. The Islamic tradition, following the Quran and authentic prophetic hadith, affirms a rich set of divine names and attributes: Allah is Al-Rahman (the Most Merciful), Al-Rahim (the Ever-Merciful), Al-'Aziz (the Exalted in Might), Al-Hakim (the All-Wise), Al-'Alim (the All-Knowing), Al-Qadir (the All-Capable), Al-Sami' (the All-Hearing), Al-Basir (the All-Seeing), and ninety-nine names in total. He has hands (yadayn), He has a face (wajh), He descends to the lowest heaven in the final third of the night, He will be seen by the believers in the akhirah.
Two wrong approaches have historically tempted Muslim theologians. The first is tashbih (likening) — assuming that these attributes mean for Allah what they mean for created beings, so that Allah's hand is like a human hand and His descent is like a human movement. The second is ta'til (emptying) — refusing to affirm that these attributes mean anything real, interpreting them all metaphorically until they dissolve into an abstract, attributeless deity.
The Athari position, articulated by Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and elaborated by later Athari scholars including Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, follows what they regarded as the approach of the Companions and the early generations (Salaf): affirm the names and attributes as they come in the texts, without asking "how" (bila kayf), without likening them to creation (bila tashbih), without emptying them of meaning (bila ta'til), and without denying them (bila ta'wil that amounts to denial). Allah has a hand — a real hand, not a metaphor for power — but His hand is not like any created hand. Allah descends — really descends — but His descending is not like any created being's movement.
This approach preserves both the reality and the transcendence of the divine attributes. It refuses the false choice between an anthropomorphic God (tashbih) and an abstract, attributeless principle (ta'til). Allah is truly known through His names and attributes as He has revealed them, and yet He remains utterly unlike His creation in His essence.
A philosophically careful comparison between Islamic tawhid and other monotheistic traditions illuminates what is distinctive about the Islamic understanding without descending into polemics.
Christian Trinitarian theology holds that God is one in substance (ousia) and three in persons (hypostaseis) — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The person of Jesus Christ is held to be fully divine and fully human, the second person of the Trinity incarnate. The philosophical question this raises from an Islamic perspective is not primarily about the theological definitions (which are sophisticated and carefully worked out) but about the concept of divine unity they presuppose. For Islam, the unity of Allah is absolute and indivisible: there are no persons, modes, or hypostases within the divine being. The Quran's direct address to this: "Say, He is Allah, One. Allah, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent" (112:1-4). The divine unity that Islam affirms is incompatible with any division within the divine being, however that division is philosophically characterized.
Jewish theology, particularly in its classical rabbinic form, is closer to Islamic tawhid in its insistence on absolute divine unity and its rejection of divine incarnation. The Shema — "Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One" (Deuteronomy 6:4) — affirms a divine unity that Jewish philosophy has always been at pains to protect from any compromise. The significant difference between Jewish and Islamic monotheism is not theological (the understanding of divine unity is quite close) but revelational and soteriological — Islam's claim that the Torah has been altered and supplemented by later Talmudic tradition, that Jesus was a prophet (not a divine figure), and that Muhammad ﷺ is the final prophet whose message supersedes and completes the previous revelations.
The implications of genuine tawhid for daily life are both comprehensive and liberating. Comprehensive, because every aspect of life is now seen in relation to Allah: every act has a divine dimension, every relationship is within the scope of divine regulation, every moment is lived before the One who knows and sees. Liberating, because the recognition that Allah alone is Lord and that nothing else deserves worship frees a human being from every other form of existential dependence and ultimate concern.
Sheikh Idris often made this point: the person who has genuinely internalized tawhid is the freest person in the world, because he has been freed from slavery to everything except Allah. He does not fear other human beings with ultimate fear, because only Allah ultimately controls outcomes. He does not depend on wealth, status, or power for his sense of ultimate security, because these are created things without ultimate power. He does not despair in adversity, because he knows that the One who controls all outcomes is the Most Merciful. He does not become arrogant in prosperity, because he knows that his prosperity is a gift from Allah, not the product of his own ultimate capability.
Every act becomes ibadah — worship — when performed with the intention of pleasing Allah and in accordance with His guidance. The Muslim who goes to work to provide for his family and discharge his responsibility as a provider is engaging in ibadah. The Muslim who treats his employees fairly because Allah has commanded justice is engaged in ibadah. The Muslim who maintains family relations, speaks honestly, avoids what is haram, and pursues what is halal — all of this is ibadah, all of it is colored by tawhid. This is what it means, in practice, for Islam to be a comprehensive way of life: not an exhausting constant religious performance, but a unified, coherent, Allah-oriented existence that is simultaneously worship in the comprehensive sense and ordinary human life.