The Concept of Tawḥīd
By Dr H.M. Kotwal
All praise is to Allāh, Lord of the Worlds and may His peace and Blessings be upon the Final and Complete Messenger, Muḥammad Musṭaphā (SAW), his family and companions.
There is none worthy of worship except Him and Muḥammad (SAW) is His final Messenger.
Let us discuss a few points by way of introduction and define words and concepts like Tawḥīd, our mission also referred to as our purpose in life, and the Will and Plan of Allāh Almighty.
Generally speaking
Tawḥīd, the Oneness of Allāh Almighty, is the core element of all Revelations from Allāh, the All Knowing. All prophets taught Tawhid, the Unity of Allāh , The Perfect. Thus Islam insists that all Prophets are Muslim. Their primary mission was to transform the individual and society, based on the right and perfect belief and right conduct, and so facilitated in their own separate circumstances and time, the implementation of Allāh’s Will and Plan.
The essence of Nabi Muḥammad (SAW’s) message is the establishment of a complete, all inclusive transformed global society. In other words to establish the ‘Kingdom of God on earth’ as expressed by Nabi Īsa /Jesus may Allāh be pleased with him. A united universal brotherhood based on truth, peace, harmony, and equity for all human beings so that others could also accept the Oneness of Allāh, acknowledging His sovereignty, and unconditionally surrendering their will to the fulfilment of His Will and Plan to the best of their ability to benefit the entire creation which he, Nabi Muḥammad, achieved.
Now let us discuss the purpose of life in accordance to the Will and Plan of Allāh the Wise
God’s Will and Plan is that man must fulfil his purpose of life to the best of his ability. That purpose is the position of Khalīfatullāh, Allāh’s representative on earth, the vanguard of creation. Mans’ purpose of life can clearly be seen in the Makkan period. Every human being has been given the inherent capacity to fulfil this trust and responsibility provided he follows Gods’ Plan explicitly.
Can present and later generations also perform this task?
Certainly, without doubt, the answer has to be yes!
All of us have to accept the responsibility of Khalīfatullāh. It is an amãnat, a trust from Allāh the Merciful which we have to account for.
We have been blessed with a superior nature and more advanced capabilities compared to the rest of creation. And yet, Allāh in His infinite wisdom and mercy has not abandoned us.
Instead He developed a Divine Plan with integrated mechanisms, processes and programmes to facilitate a complete way of life, in Tawḥīd, by which any society and individual can be transformed to its highest potential and capacities. Everyone has the potential of reaching a status higher than angels. The Deen of Islam thus restores the dignity of man. It prompts or rather rejuvenates, directs and regulates the innate ego to an attitude change for truth and goodness.
What are these mechanisms, steps and procedures?
Man’s nature 1. Revelation 2. Practical Prophetic guidance (Sunnah) 3. Self-examination or also referred to as self-purification, including the institution of Tawbah for account and Khawf (God-consciousness). Through these mechanisms we are self-empowered to lift ourselves from both a slave and destroyer of creation, to a master and steward of creation.
Divine guidance is a pre-planned process aiming at restoring mans dignity, character and leadership role. Constantly man is elevated through a deliberate process of psychological evolution to grow the individual’s personality to bring about a paradigm shift in society. The shift is from a naive passive society to a vibrant participating society. The change takes place according to a perfect designed programme. These processes, mechanisms and institutions have been specifically designed to fit the nature of man. By this we mean the process is self driven, no regimentation, simple, universal with no outside regulations which can hinder individual initiative or creativity, equally available to the rich, the poor, the educated, or at any time or place. The ideology guarantees protection to all, and the environment is protected.
Tawḥīd is the essence of Divine guidance. Tawḥīd cannot merely be the acceptance of Godhood in isolation. It has to be total surrender and submission to His Will, Plan and Instructions.
So far we’ve discussed Allāh Almighty’s Will and Plan.
How man has been prepared and helped to achieve his purpose in life.
Now, a few words about the Nature of Tawḥīd.
The most important aspect of Divine Guidance is Tawḥīd.
The central objective of Tawḥīd is to settle the issue of Godhood. Each human being must search for, and ultimately recognise and accept Allāh, the Evolver as the only True God for all mankind and creation, seen and unseen. Once settled the human being is expected to implement the Divine scheme (Will of God). Clearly Tawḥīd is not merely content with blindly following leaders being pre-occupied with only specific aspects of Islam or limited to minute details of daily living but rather widening vision of the person to be focused on the whole of life and its consequences.
How do we apply and develop Tawḥīd in ourselves?
Essentially through formal worship salāh, fasting, Dhikr as well as informal worship by promoting goodness and forbidding evil for ourselves and others, and being aware of Allāh constantly.
Let’s discuss this.
- Allāh Almighty becomes our sole focus in worship. As a result we develop an increased commitment to Allāh, The Beneficent, a sincere sense of obligation filled with humility and deep gratitude. The unconditional acceptance of Godhood and worship anchors our resolve to exert ourselves to our maximum to fulfil our stewardship to gain His love and pleasure.
- Allāh Almighty is consciously taken as the only source of Authority. Only Allāh Almighty can Mandate the parameters of discussion regarding the nature of existence, of good and evil of social organisations and laws. Allāh the all Knowing, is the source and nature of our moral code and systems of political, economic, justice and all aspects of our lives. Aims of all human endeavours and what that entails and the nature of leadership. Governance must be compliant to His Will.
- In short, the binding nature of the Prophetic leadership is a natural consequence of the Will and Plan of God Almighty accepted as being binding – binding as a sense of obligation to God Almighty accompanied by an urge and love to carry it out.
Thus 1. Our identity, 2. Our moral code, 3. Our status, and 4. Our mission have been clearly defined. It merely requires implementation. This frees us from servitude to others. We now have a complete freedom since we will to do what Allāh’s wills.
This is how we benefit from implementing Tawḥīd.
Now let’s discuss Tawḥīd as a belief system and as a dynamic aspect.
Tawḥīd as a belief system is known to all.
So I won’t discuss Beliefs. As for the process or dynamic aspect, this
implies attention is to be given to what we call the External and internal Jihad plus the mission of a Muslim. I will concentrate on the dynamic aspect. This aspect is needed in order to change human attitudes and behaviour.
Let’s first discuss the external Jihād.
The dynamic part has both a positive and a negative aspect. The negative aspects precede the positive application of Tawḥīd. Referring to the Kalimah. An unconditional surrender is necessary to free yourself from shirk. (The co-worship and obedience to creation) Free yourself from human beings, false Ideologies, unjust constitutions and institutions. What is required is a deep sense of independence and equality with other human beings irrespective of their religious status or lack thereof. Also necessary is a profound consciousness of freedom from the will of others except from the will of Allāh the Tremendous. We should not allow ourselves to be influenced by anything that Allāh and His Rasul rejects.
Submission is obligatory to the will of Allāh alone thus discarding wrong beliefs and false ideals. Unless we do this, Tawḥīd and Imān will be weak because we will submit to more than one ideal as a result we will regard other nations, leaders, priests, traditions, fore-fathers, and social institutions as superior or even necessary. A direct consequence is the development of an inferiority complex. All social norms and world views will be left unchallenged. But as life and circumstances change we require better approaches and alternate methods. Merits and demerits of proposed solutions must be carefully evaluated within the parameters of Quran and Sunnah. Failing this attitude, grievous consequences on the individual and society at large will follow. We cannot blame Allāh the Merciful. Allāh Almighty will never deal unjustly to cause human suffering. Evil and harm is a direct consequence of our wrong beliefs followed by misguided actions.
The core liberating rational process is to regard the Quran and Sunnah as obligatory and rendering us with permanent values. Man –made solutions are fallible and temporary. Human judgement is limited. To consider human judgement as final and perfect is irrational, reckless and sub-human. Thus external Jihad is deliberately designed to free us from Shirk. It is not a process of chance.
Up to now we discussed the external Jihad. Now let’s discuss the internal Jihad.
The liberation from the Nafs or the instinctive drive and the ego which leads us to that which is lowly temporary and short term, narrow mindedness and serving group interests.
By adopting Quranic values we avoid a drop in status as human beings- Here I am referring to an animal type of existence, Beings with misdirected motives, and wrong beliefs. On the other hand Quran and Sunnah offer clear guidelines with a Universal outlook and standards for right and wrong.
Now let’s discuss our mission and our commitment to the wider society as this is part of the dynamic aspect of Tawḥīd which is often neglected.
A sense of mission starts as soon as the Kalimah is accepted. Commitment to Allāh leads to help oneself, family, community and the larger society. Other activities like education, justice, health, and economics become of paramount importance in an attempt to uplift and empower society.
Revelation reminds us of our task and grants us a sound orientation with correct universal values and a balanced judgement to bring about beneficial changes in society. Only the value orientated intellect is capable of finding sound new solutions and effect beneficial change within the given parameters of Quran and Sunnah.
Now let us go back into History to prove that Tawḥīd, as a process (ie. The internal Jihad plus the external Jihad plus our mission) is an essential and an imperative tool to bring about that paradigm shift in the individual and society.
The process of Tawḥīd and this mission has been planned by Allāh, the Creator, with a specific purpose to develop an Islamic Society to benefit the whole of mankind and the rest of creation. This was seen in the establishment of the society firstly in Makkah and then introduced to Medina.
In Makkah the Sahabah were being prepared for their great task. We see the development of external and internal jihad within them. The Sahabah were equipped with the correct ideas of Moral values, of proper aims of human endeavour, equality, equity, brotherhood justice, benevolence and consolidation of the family. Priority of social good over individual good. Sexual relations only within marriage with contractual obligations. Promotion of economic activity including the right to private ownership within the context of social good. The legal provisions and role of the state was later defined in Medina in its entirety as a complete package.
Having been adequately prepared the Sahabah went to Medina with these values thoroughly inculcated in their very being. Armed with a deep sense of spiritual conviction and a profound moral value system they were able to adapt and bring about a change for the benefit of the entire society.
In other words, the value orientated personality with its mission-inspired will is an absolute pre-requisite to educate our children. Indeed a valuable lesson for all of us.
The orientation in Makkah and the implementation in Medina was not a historical event of chance but were deliberately designed by Allāh, the Wise.
So it should be crystal clear that the nature and content of the Quran and Sunnah is geared for this process simply because the programme of the Quran and Sunnah fits our human nature and our requirements even today. If not more today than ever before.
Quran and Sunnah clearly emphasises that which is permanent / unchangeable while it treats the changeable aspects of life in broad principles only.
Human effort is necessary in real life situations to deal with all changing needs in all aspects of life. Revelation emphasises that hard work together with sacrifices are deeply rooted in human nature. Islam merely regulates this process in the individual for the benefit of the entire society. Islam condemns ignorance, arrogance, laziness as it is proof of poor faith and a poor sense of mission. Islam stresses truthfulness, efficiency, discipline, reliability, accountability, etc, as being necessary in building the Islamic Society.
In conclusion
Knowledge is a priority, as we need to know and define our mission, means and limitations.
Knowledge of Quran and Sunnah gives us knowledge of how Allāh Almighty wants us to live.
Knowledge of the world is necessary to find the means to promote and achieve our goal and destination. In other words, seeking nearness to Allāh, the All Loving.
I make du’ā that Allāh the Merciful guide us, our children and grandchildren from all forms of Kufr. May He make our task easy in inculcating the principles of Tawḥīd in ourselves and in our children. May our personalities grow in the Tawḥīd of Allāh and in the example of His illustrious Messenger (SAW). May Allāh the Forgiver of all sins forgive us our shortcomings in this life and on that tremendous fearful day of accountability and recompense.
Wal Ḥamdulillāhi Rabbil ‘Ālamīn