Explaining the Reality of Tawhid and Its Categories

Eid Abbasi : The first of these matters is the issue of tawhid (the oneness of Allah). The majority of Muslims, both the common people and the specialists, have erred in this matter. It has become widespread among them that the tawhid which Allah commanded in His Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet is merely the belief that this universe has a Creator, Manager, Provider, and Wise One who possesses attributes of perfection. They have filled their books and exhausted themselves in proving this fact, even though, as you have heard from our teacher more than once, this fact is innate, firmly rooted in souls and minds, and does not require much proof or great effort. Allah the Exalted said, for example: , . And anyone who looks at the path of humanity throughout the ages will find that all humans believe in the existence of a Creator, Manager, and Wise God, except for a rare few of the atheists throughout the ages. They were called the materialists (dahriyyun) in the past, and are now called atheists, heretics, or communists. Their proportion is very small compared to the rest of humanity. No one says that, by Allah, the communists, for example, are now the inhabitants of Russia, the inhabitants of China, and the inhabitants of the many other communist countries; no one says this. In fact, the majority of the inhabitants of these countries believe in Allah; the majority are either Christians, or, for example, Jews, or polytheists who believe in a god. But the atheists among them, and the communists, for example, are a small minority; they are only the rulers and those who manage military and other affairs; that is, they are members of the Communist Party and no one else. As for the rest of the people, you know they have their churches and their worship. They used to conduct censuses from time to time. I remember from the last census that the communists in Russia were only six or seven million. So they are a minority. What is the value of six or seven million? Add to that, for example, the other countries, another six or seven million, fifteen million, say twenty or fifty million. What is their value compared to the population of humanity, which is now, I think, about three billion people?
So, the common people and the masses of humanity throughout the ages believe in a God. So what do these people need? The most urgent thing they need is to believe in Allah with the correct faith that came to us through Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and the previous messengers. It is this faith that is counted, the faith that saves its owner from eternal abode in the Fire. It is the path to entering Paradise. It is the only correct faith, and everything else is disbelief. We all know that the polytheists believed in the Creator God, except for a very rare few. The Qur'an pointed to this when it said: . It clarified that the cause of their misguidance and their shirk (associating partners with Allah) was their belief in intercessors and mediators between them and Allah: , .
In the poetry of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, you will find the word "God" and "Creator" frequently, and they would swear by it and magnify it. But they believed that these idols were intermediaries and means of drawing near to this God, and that mentioning them and calling upon them was a guarantee that Allah would respond to their supplication and rescue them when they called for help.
So, the Salafi call focuses on clarifying the correct tawhid, which is what people need most. The scholars of verification, such as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and others, extracted that there are three types of tawhid. The first is what they agreed to call tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship): the belief that this universe has a Creator, Provider, and one who possesses attributes of perfection. The second type of tawhid is tawhid al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship). The third type is tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes). These are correct names agreed upon by these renowned imams, but their meaning and reality are found in the folds of the Book and the Sunnah. These scholars merely clarified them, distinguished them, and agreed upon these terms so that matters would become clear and realities would be evident.
We said that tawhid al-rububiyyah means this. As for tawhid al-uluhiyyah, it is, in general terms, that the Muslim devotes all types of worship to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), this Creator and Manager in whom he believes. This is, in fact, a natural thing. If Allah is the Creator, Manager, and Provider, and so on, why would he call upon other than Him? Why would they worship other than Him? They worship the created, they worship the needy, they worship those who do not possess for themselves any benefit or harm, as the poet says: "And whoever intended the sea, the water-carriers became light." This weak, helpless slave who does not possess for himself any benefit or harm, nor resurrection, nor life, nor raising up; how can you call upon him and leave your Lord who has everything in His hand, who, when He wills a thing, says to it: "Be," and it is? Is He...? Does He not respond to your supplication? Is He far away? Is He unjust so that you fear Him and turn to others? He is Merciful, Kind to His servants, and Compassionate with them. He responds to the call of the distressed when he calls upon Him. He accepts repentance from His servants. He is closer to one of you than...

The Shaykh : ...the neck of his camel.

Eid Abbasi : ...the neck of his camel. He is the One who rejoices in the repentance of the repentant more than the joy of a man who was traveling and his camel was lost, then he found it with his food and drink on it after he had despaired of perishing. So, why do you leave this Great, Wise, Merciful God and turn to these weak, helpless gods who do not possess for themselves any benefit, life, harm, or benefit?
So... it is natural. Therefore, tawhid al-uluhiyyah is one of the most specific characteristics of tawhid, and it is one of the most important things brought by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). It is, in fact, the meaning of our saying: "There is no god but Allah, alone, without partner." The phrase "There is no god but Allah" is what brings a person into Islam. It is the good word, and it is the word about which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So, he linked entering Paradise to the one who says this word, believing in it and being sincere from his heart. What is the meaning of this word? Is it just words spoken by the tongue like this without understanding, belief, or application? No, that is not the case. Matters are judged by their realities. The meaning of this word is: the God who is worshipped. "Ilah" (God) comes from "ala" (to worship), meaning: he worships, he is worshipped. So, the God who is worshipped; "There is no god but Allah" means: there is no one worthy of worship in truth except Allah. So, one of the most closely connected meanings of "There is no god but Allah" is directing and devoting all worship, in its various types, to Allah (Mighty and Majestic).
Many Muslims are ignorant of worship and think that "There is no god but Allah" means, as you say, devoting worship to Allah. And we, too, believe in that, so we do not devote [worship] to anyone, nor do we prostrate to anyone except Allah. This indicates a deficiency in understanding, for they are ignorant that worship is a broader and more comprehensive concept than that. Worship is everything that Allah loves and is pleased with. Worship includes the types of magnification that must be exclusive to the Wise Creator. It includes supplication, it includes vows, it includes slaughter, it includes reliance, it includes turning back, it includes seeking help, it includes slaughter (we mentioned it), and it includes fear, awe, calling for aid, hope, and love. All these types are among the acts of worship. And these people, out of their ignorance, think that worship is limited to prayer and Hajj, for example.
This is indicated by many texts, which we will not count now due to the brevity of time. Rather, we will mention some examples, for instance: supplication and seeking help. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says: . The fronting of the object here is intended for specification. means we do not worship other than You. means we do not seek help from other than You. This is the difference between our saying "You alone we worship" and our saying "We worship You." He did not say "We worship You" because it might be intended to include, or encompass, "We worship You" and "We do not worship other than You." So, he fronted the object with this specification. Similarly, His saying (Mighty and Majestic): . He contrasted and , clarifying that supplication is worship. And this is fully clarified by the authentic saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): .
Likewise, the slaughter in His saying - the Exalted - : , and my sacrifice; meaning: my slaughter, , and many other texts that include fear and hope , , , and the like of these noble texts. This is the second type of the types of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) that Muslims are ignorant of, and the Salafi call focuses on it; because whoever errs in it, and because whoever is ignorant of it, and because whoever believes in its opposite; he is a mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah) and it is ruled that he will abide in the Fire eternally, unless this call did not reach him, in which case his case is left to Allah; so Allah forgives him. It clarifies his fate the hadith narrated by Imam Ahmad and others that he will be questioned, a messenger will be sent to him on the Day of Resurrection, to the end of the well-known hadith.
The third type of the types of tawhid that - also - many Muslims are ignorant of, and they contradict its substance and associate partners with Allah through it, is tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes). It is the belief that someone shares with Allah in one of His attributes. Among Allah's attributes is that He knows the unseen. So when a person believes that a human being knows the unseen, as the Sufis believe that their sheikhs are revealed to and they know what is in your soul, and they are aware of your conditions even if you are in the East of the earth and they are in the West; this is undoubtedly shirk (associating partners with Allah) in the attributes. Likewise, when they believe in some of their sheikhs that they are capable of everything, and that they say to a thing: "Be, and it is," as mentioned in some of their books, and when they believe in other attributes that are among the most specific characteristics of Allah - Mighty and Majestic - in their awliya (close friends of Allah) and their sheikhs or in the prophets and messengers; then they have associated partners with Allah - Mighty and Majestic. And unfortunately, this has spread a lot in the speech of the later scholars, among them the poets who are called the...

Another questioner : ... .

Eid Abbasi: No, the maddah (praisers), meaning for the Prophet - peace and blessings be upon him - who wrote poems praising the Messenger - may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him - and people specialize in reciting them in the mawlid and religious celebrations; these are full of istighathah (calling for aid), these attributes, and attributing these matters which are not permissible except to Allah to the Messenger - may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him - and to their sheikhs and to their awliya (close friends of Allah).
And the Messenger - may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him - warned many times about this, and he ordered not to exaggerate in praising him - may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him - out of fear of falling into this dangerous deviation. He said - may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him - for example: . And when some people came to him and said to him: "You are our master and the son of our master." He said to him - may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him - . So the words "our master and the son of our master," the Messenger - may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him - found in them an excess; because "the son of our master" is an attribution that Abdullah, the father of the Messenger of Allah, is their master, even though he was a mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah), as in the well-known hadiths, as in the well-known hadith; so this is an excess, and he warned them against it. And when he heard some maids and children reciting: "And among us is a Prophet who knows what is in tomorrow"; he forbade them from that - also - and said: . So despite this warning and this caution from the Prophet - peace and blessings be upon him - the people contradicted him openly, and one of them, al-Busiri, for example, said:
"Leave what the Christians claimed about their Prophet *** And judge as you wish, praising him, and be judged"
The meaning of the verse is that you: leave, do not say: that Muhammad is the son of Allah, and say whatever you wish about him in words, and this is clearly misguided and clearly deviant and excessive... So tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes) is one of the most dangerous types of tawhid that Muslims have been ignorant of and contradicted, and it is known that the issue of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) is the criterion between Islam and kufr (disbelief), as we said. So if a person is worshipping at the highest degrees of worship; fasting during the day, standing in prayer at night, giving charity, paying zakah, and performing various types of voluntary acts, and drawing near to Allah with all kinds of nearness, and maintaining family ties to the end; and if he associated partners with Allah once in his whole life, called for aid other than Allah; said a word in which he described one of the created beings with an attribute of Allah, then all his work is invalid, and he will abide in the Fire eternally if he does not repent from it. Allah - Mighty and Majestic - said: ; so the issue is serious and very serious; therefore the Salafis give it great attention. And it is amazing that the rest of the sheikhs and scholars do not dwell on it, but rather they dispute us in it, and they say: there is nothing in it, and the issue relates to the niyyah (intention), ask about his niyyah (intention), this person only wants thereby the face of Allah and wants to draw near and to love and to magnify this Prophet and these awliya (close friends of Allah); even though they know that the niyyah (intention) does not intercede for the deed no matter how good it is, so the deed must be good and the niyyah (intention) must be good, in accordance with the saying of Allah - Mighty and Majestic - : , meaning: let his niyyah (intention) be good, meaning: in accordance with the Sunnah, as the imams and exegetes interpreted it with that, such as Ibn Kathir and others; so it is obligatory to pay great attention to the issue of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) with its three types, especially the last two types, to save people from the abyss and from misguidance.