Explanation of the Oneness of Worship, Lordship, and the Names and Attributes

Because tawhid (the oneness of Allah) according to the scholars is divided into three categories: tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship), tawhid al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship), and some people express it as tawhid al-'ibadah (oneness of worship), which is clearer for the general public. The first type is tawhid al-rububiyyah, the second is tawhid al-'ibadah, and the third is tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes). If these are present in the belief of a Muslim, he is a true monotheist and he is the one who understands the meaning of "There is no god but Allah" by the text of the Noble Qur'an. So, who is the one who believes in the first type of tawhid? It is tawhid al-rububiyyah. The meaning of tawhid al-rububiyyah is tawhid al-khalqiyyah (oneness of creation), meaning: there is no creator with Allah. As you heard earlier, the text of the Qur'an relates the words of the polytheists: Do they say that al-'Uzza and al-Manat are...? No, the Creator is one with them; that is why part of their misguidance in their talbiyah (chant of response) around the House of their Lord was that they said: "Here I am, no partner have You, here I am, no partner have You, except a partner You possess and what He possesses." Look at this misguidance. "A partner You possess and what He possesses"—what is this partner? This is a partner in worship, meaning that they used to worship other than Allah. They admit—and peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings—they explicitly state that they worship these awliya (close friends of Allah) and the righteous people. But why? Do they worship them because they deserve worship other than Allah? No. So, these people disbelieved in tawhid al-'ibadah, the second category, tawhid al-'ibadah. They did not believe in it because they were worshipping other than Allah. And this is in the explicit text of the Qur'an, my brothers: What is the meaning of the verse? There is a fold in the speech here: .
So, the shirk (associating partners with Allah) of the polytheists was not their denial or rejection of tawhid al-rububiyyah, tawhid al-khalqiyyah (oneness of creation), but rather it was in tawhid al-'ibadah, tawhid al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship). Therefore, in the Qur'an: . Many of us, to this day, understand "ilah" (god) to mean "Rabb" (Lord), and this is a grave error linguistically and religiously. Because the disbelieving polytheist, of whatever type or religion, if he says: "There is no Lord but Allah," he does not become a Muslim. Rather, he becomes a Muslim only when he says: "There is no god but Allah." And if he says: "There is no god but Allah" with the meaning of "There is no Lord but Allah," he does not become a believer in Islam, in faith. Islam saves the Muslim from being judged in this world—treated like the disbelievers—when there is an Islamic ruling involving the People of the Book (dhimmis). The People of the Book have the right to live under the banner of Islam and the rulings of Islam, and so on, and their blood is respected, and their wealth and women are completely safe; because they are living under an Islamic system. But these people are not saved by Allah on the Day of Judgment; because they are polytheists. So, this polytheist, if he says: "There is no Lord but Allah," does not become a Muslim with our rights and our obligations until he says: "There is no god but Allah." If he says: "There is no god but Allah," he becomes a Muslim. But if he says: "There is no god but Allah" meaning "There is no Lord but Allah," he does not become a believer, meaning he is not saved by Allah on the Day of Resurrection. Why? Because he did not go beyond being misguided in his original shirk; because the polytheists used to believe in the Creator of the universe, and he says: "There is no Lord but Allah," so he is a believer, and the polytheists used to believe that Allah is the One Lord, the One Creator. And what did the Messenger of Allah ask of them? That they worship Allah alone, with no partner. And they, being Arabs, when he told them: "Say: There is no god but Allah," they were arrogant, as explicitly stated in the Qur'an: Why? Because we want to oppose our fathers and grandfathers? "Thus we found our fathers with a religion." And so they said, in amazement: "Has He made the gods one God?" They did not say: "Has He made the Lord one Lord," my brothers? Rather... they used to believe in the One Lord, but they did not believe in the One God. And I think it is now clear to you what is meant by the One God: the One Worshipped. They did not believe in the One Worshipped; they used to worship other gods along with Allah and explicitly stated in their previously mentioned words: . So, tawhid al-rububiyyah alone is not sufficient and does not save; because the polytheists used to believe in this tawhid. Rather, their disbelief was in tawhid al-'ibadah or tawhid al-uluhiyyah, which is one and the same. As for tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat (oneness of the names and attributes), this was further from the Arabs; because they were living in the jahiliyyah (the pre-Islamic age of ignorance). Many Muslims today—those who have not studied tawhid with that precise study—fall into these problems and say: "There is no god but Allah," meaning "There is no Lord but Allah." This is a deficient and incorrect interpretation that does not save the Muslim from the punishment of Allah, nor does it include him in the forgiveness in the previous verse: . So, just as tawhid is of three types, shirk is also of three types. Every tawhid of these three tawhids is opposed by a shirk: tawhid al-rububiyyah is opposed by the denial of creation, as is the doctrine of the materialists, the communists, and their like. Tawhid al-'ibadah is affirmed by everyone who believes in the Creator but does not believe in Islam; because Islam is what clarified this belief, the belief in tawhid with these three truths. The one who believes that Allah is the One Lord with no creator with Him, and believes that no one deserves worship with Him other than He, and does not worship with Him any other in any type of worship, the third category remains: tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat.

The questioner : The Beneficial and the Harmful?

The Shaykh : This is from the attributes, of course, but we give practical examples. Today, if you take any Muslim, he will tell you: Allah is the Beneficial and the Harmful, but...