The Oneness of the Creator: The concept of Oneness of God is the single most important concept in Islam

The Oneness of the Creator: The concept of Oneness of God is the single most important concept in Islam

 
The Oneness of the Creator.
The Creator-glorified & exalted is he- identifies Himeslf to us saying : {"Say (O Muhammad):"He is Allâh, (the) One.
"Allâh-us-Samad" [Allâh the Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need, (He neither eats nor drinks)]."He begets not, nor was He begotten. "And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him."} (Sûrat Al-Ikhlâs).

 It is the oneness(unity) that has no equivalent, similar, or identical,which all prophets & apostles proclaimed. The Almighty God says: "Had there been therein (in the heavens and the earth) âlihah (gods) besides Allâh, then verily both would have been ruined. “ Glorified be Allâh, the Lord of the Throne, (High is He) above all that (evil) they associate with Him!" ( Al-Anbia'a).

 If there were many gods, the universe would have been ruined. Presumably, these so-called gods have free wills ,which would certainly conflict concerning one creature. whenever they conflict, they will fight. Then,the system of the creature would be ruined ,and the whole universe is created & united with a unite of system-as observed. Scientists & sages have provided clear proves & confutations about the oneness (unity) of the Almighty Creator.

First proof: If there was a partner with God each one's need for the other would be undeniable. But, God-who is absolutely perfect- doesn't need since the need is imperfection.

Second proof: If there was a partner with God, each one could either prevent the other or couldn't .If one of them could, the other would be prevented & deprived. & if he was unable to prevent the other, he would be deficient & imperfect. Incapacity is not a trait of God. So in both cases, It's impossible that God has a partner. And it's proven that there is only one God who has no partner & who is absolutely able.

Third proof: The existence of God necessitates His absolute ability & power over all. That He can defeat absolutely all which encounters Him. Otherwise, the lack of such ability is imperfection. Consequently, It's intuitive that the partner is defeated, & obvious that it is impossible to be other than God the only one.

Fourth proof: If there was a partner with God, three cases wouldn't be exceeded. 1-Both are capable of applying the system. 2-Both are incapable. 3-They are different & unequal in their capacity. If both are capable, then one of them is supernumerary (unneeded). If both are incapable, the both are useless. If one is capable & the other is not, then the divinity is attributed to the capable & doesn't fit the other. So, divinity is attributed to the powerful only God with no partner or equivalent.

The whole world testifies that it is created by the only One. Your food depends on the function of your stomach & intestines. and doctors say that the function of intestines depends on the blood circulation.& the latter depends on breathing & air. And good air depends on plants.& plants depend on the sun.& the existence of the sun depends on he existence of other planets & stars. Thus,everything depends –in its existence & function- on another thing, as observed that the stomach is connected with the stars, which testifies that all are the creation of one God!

Tawheed is the belief that Allah is:

1. One without partner in His Dominion and Actions
2. One without similarity in His Essence and Attributes
3. One without rival in His Divinity and Worship

This is the core of the matter in Islam: that Allah is One without partner in His Dominion and Actions – He alone is the One who has the absolute control over creation, He alone has the power over all things; He is One without similarity in His Essence and Attributes – no other entity can in any way have the attributes of the Creator, He is far beyond our imagination and bears no resemblance to any of His creation; And He is One without rival in His Divinity and Worship – to single out the Creator alone for all worship, and not to worship anything along with Him.

The absence of any of the above aspects of Tawheed is referred to as Shirk, literally means sharing. It refers to the worship of others instead of Allah or along with Him. It is an act of assigning partners to Allah in whatever form it may take. In Islam, the main objective is to ensure the Oneness of God. It is not enough that people believe that “God is One”, but they must follow up this belief by worshiping that One God alone.

This simple concept of Tawheed has to be explained in detail because for some people, even though they believe in “One God”, do not direct all of their worship and prayers to Him alone. They call on numerous saints for every specific need, in statues made of stone, etc. Their argument is that they are not actually worshiping the stone image or the statue, but God who is present within it. They claim that the stone idols and carved images are only the focal point for God’s essence and is not in itself God.

They try devising a “rational excuse” for their actions. But obviously, this is faulty reasoning. This is not from God – this is idolatry. This is the worst sin that a man can commit. The belief in Tawheed means to deny all forms of association of partners with Allah. It rejects the use of all intermediaries between God and man, and stresses that people approach God directly and reserve all worship for Him alone.

If someone faces an idol or to a stone image and prays, he has associated a partner with Allah, because worship is being shared between Allah and His creation. Likewise if someone prays to a prophet, to so-called saints asking for help from Allah thru them, has also committed shirk. Shirk can take many forms: facing to idols or statues while praying, calling upon saints for help, believing that God became man, etc.

All forms of shirk must be avoided, no matter what shape, form, or name. Shirk simply means an act of worship for other than Allah, or along with Allah. In other words, it is an act of calling, supplicating, and praying to created beings instead of the Creator. The greatest sin in Islam is to engage in practices which contradict or compromise Tawheed. This direct or indirect association of partners with Allah is referred to as Shirk.

Allah created humans to worship Him, that’s why Shirk represents the greatest act of rebellion against God because it contradicts the purpose of our creation, and is thus the ultimate sin. It is a sin so great that it virtually cancels out all good a person may do and guarantees its perpetrator eternal in Hell if he does not give it up before his death:
{“If you were to join other gods with Allah, (then) surely (all) your deeds will be in vain, and you will surely be among the losers (in the hereafter)”} (Qur’an 39:65).

Of course, if a person does give up this sin of idolatry before his death, then he is safe from such eternal punishment in Hell fire. Islam’s greatest commandment is to worship Allah alone, and its strictest prohibition is worshiping others besides Him or along with Him.

Man-made religions in one way or the other invite their followers to the worship of creation. Some people are called upon to pray to a man, a prophet named Jesus, whom they have claimed to have been the “son of God”. They also pray to Mary as the “mother of God”, as well as human saints, etc. They made a god out of Jesus and directed their prayer to him and his mother. They have saints for every occasion to whom they direct their prayers in the belief that these saints can directly influence the affairs of this world. They also use their priests as intercessors between themselves and God, in the mistaken belief that the priests are closer to God due to their celibacy and piety, and thus more likely to be listened to by God.

Since the greatest sin in God’s sight is the worship of others besides Him or along with Him, and everything besides Him is creation, the principles of Islam are all either directly or indirectly opposed to the worship of creation. The fundamental tenets of Islam make a very clear distinction between the Creator and what He has created. The Creator and the created are separate and distinct. The Creator is invisible in this life.

No one can see Him in this earthly life. Thus, He is not manifested or incarnated in any other life forms. Therefore, the commandments in Islam concerning worship clearly indicate that Allah is not to be found in created beings, He is totally separate from them, and thus any worship in His creation or thru His creation is the greatest of sins: {“Joining others in worship with Allah is indeed the greatest sin”} (Qur’an 31:13)

The concept of Oneness of God is the single most important concept in Islam.

The concept of Oneness of God is the single most important concept in Islam. This is the most fundamental principle, it is this concept of Tawheed which is at the core of Islam. It calls humanity away from the worship of any part of creation to the worship of The One and Only True God, The Creator.

Some religions claim that God cannot forgive man directly therefore He sends His so-called “only begotten son” to save mankind from their sins. Others interpret this concept that God came down to earth and became a human being to save mankind’s sins. By claiming that God cannot forgive humans directly, people turn to false gods for help. These false gods come in different forms, and anyone who is in his right mind can tell that these so-called gods are indeed false because these are created beings like him.

False religions either claim that God became man, or that God may be worshiped in the form of His creation thru carved-images of different idols. But as has been revealed in the Qur’an, God was not born nor does He give birth, and His being is distinct and separate from His creation. Therefore, He did not become a part of creation by becoming a human being.

Islam strongly stresses that God did not became man nor did He sent a so-called “only begotten son” to save the sins of the world because He can forgive man directly anyway. There is no need to shed blood to an innocent person just to save mankind from its sins because God is perfectly capable of bestowing His infinite Mercy and Forgiveness to whomever He chooses.

Islam teaches that God should be approached directly without any intermediaries. That is because the Most Merciful, All-Knowing God is completely in control of everything that exists, and that He can bestow His forgiveness and mercy on His creatures as He pleases. Islam commands Man to pray to God directly seeking mercy and forgiveness only to Him. It also forbids man to worship something created because the One True God has to be the Creator and not a part of creation that He creates.

Even though other religions have claimed to believe in One God, over time, some man-made ideas entered into their beliefs and practices leading them away from the pure teachings of the prophets. They carved different images and statues and worshiped them, despite the fact that they know that they are the ones who made these things.

They worship something that they made by their own hands that cannot hear or answer them. Some even believed that their prophet were the manifestations of God, or “Son of God”. All of these misconceptions lead to the worship of created beings instead of the Creator. But divine revelation makes it very clear that: {“Allah has not taken to Himself any son, nor is there any god with Him.”} (Qur’an 23:91).

This means that Allah does not have a son nor share his divinity with others. By neglecting the true teachings of the prophets and mixing them with man-made ideas, other religions have distorted and nullified the pure belief of “One God” even though they claim that they believe in such. Tawheed is not just simply believing that God is One, but it further emphasize to worship that One God alone.

Some people say that they pray to and worship others besides God only to get closer to Him. They often approach God through an intermediary, such as a saint, an angel, a human being like Virgin Mary or to a prophet like Jesus – obviously, these are all God’s creation. In Islam, there is a clear distinction between the Creator and the created.

The Creator of everything must be different from and greater than the things that He creates. There is no confusion in divinity. Anything that is created is not deserving of worship, and only the Creator is worthy of being worshiped. It is made clear that there is nothing divine or worthy of being worshiped except the One True God, the Creator. Or to put it in one simple statement, “Worship the Creator and not His Creations”.

In Islam, there is no such thing as an intercessor or intermediary in all forms of worship. You don’t need to seek help on anyone such as patron saints, or to call upon to so-called “son of God”, or to seek mercy to the supposed “mother of God”, or to go to a priest to confess your sins and ask for forgiveness, or to face an idol made of wood and stones when you pray, etc. It is only in Islam that a person is required to pray only to God, direct and without any intermediary. There is no need to call on anyone whether it is a saint, an idol made of wood and stones, or someone who is believed to be the “son of God”, because clearly all these are created beings like us.

We can easily determine if a religion is false by looking at the object of their worship. If they worship anything or anyone besides the Creator, then it must be false. It just makes sense to us that the only one who deserves to be worshiped is the One who created us, and not His creations. By using the principle of identifying the object of worship, we can easily detect false religions and the man-made nature of their origin.

False religions teach the greatest evil – the worship of creation. For example, Prophet Jesus invited his followers to worship God, but those who claim to be his followers today call people to worship Jesus, claiming that he was God, which is the exact opposite of what Jesus said. Jesus did not claim to be God, nor did he told his followers that he be an object of worship. Yet today most people who claim to be his followers have taken him to be God and pray to images and idols made in their perception of his likeness.

The message of Islam, as brought by the prophets of God, is to worship only the Creator and to avoid the worship of His creation either directly or indirectly. It is a clear call to the worship of the Creator and the rejection of creation-worship in any form. The objective of Islam is to call people away from the worship of creation and to direct them towards the worship of the Creator alone.

The belief in only One Creator is not all there is to a proper belief in God. Throughout history, it has been the case that some people stopped at this clear premise and deemed that such was all there was to the belief in God. This belief is definitely necessary but not sufficient. This belief must be followed up with the rejection of worshiping others instead of God, or along with Him. Then, and only then that a person will be fulfilling what it truly means to believe in One God. The most important message that God revealed to mankind is that there is nothing divine or worthy of being worshiped except Him. This is the very essence of the divine message brought by all the prophets, and it is what Islam really is all about – to worship One God alone.

Islam’s concept of Oneness of God that is Tawheed is very simple and clear, and leaves no room for any type of misconceptions which often lead to the worship of creation that is Shirk. Thus, a person who truly believes in the Oneness of God has to worship Him alone and refrain from associating any partner with Him of any kind. Islam strongly emphasizes the worship of Allah alone without ascribing to Him any partner.

The basic and most fundamental teaching of Islam invites man to worship only its Creator and to avoid the worship of creation in any way shape or form.

In Islam, there is no such thing as “Trinity” because Allah has no partners with Him being God, and He does not share His perfect attributes to anyone. Understanding that Allah is the only Supreme Being means denying the existence of any other god. The concept of Tawheed is straightforward, clear and easy to understand. It is free from irrational, mysterious or confusing ideas. That there is only One God – not in a Trinity or a multitude of gods – is something that even a small child can understand without difficulty.

Thus, simply believing in “One God” is not enough to become a Muslim because other religions also have this belief. This belief in “One God” needs to be supported with practice by worshiping that “One God” alone and no one else. For a Muslim, the belief of “One God” is in its purest, absolute meaning of the word. He refrains from worshiping anything or anyone besides the “One God”.

In Islam, the worst possible sin is to worship anything or anyone other than God, even if the worshiper intends to draw nearer to God by offering devotions to another being. So even though other religions also claim to believe in One God, they fall short and violate this belief by worshiping others alongside Him, which is, as all of the prophets taught, the greatest sin.

Prophet Muhammad was instructed by Allah to tell people what is really forbidden to them: {“Say (tell them Oh Prophet Muhammad): Come, I will recite to you what Allah has really forbidden to you: Do not setup anything (in worship) with Him”} (Qur’an 6:151).

Because of this, Islam considers associating any god or personality along with Allah as a deadly sin that He will never forgive, despite the fact that He may forgive all other sins. The act of associating others in worship with Allah is the most sinful act that Prophet Muhammad has informed us.