An article on Tawhid - the oneness of God in Islam covering at least 10 different Muslim views of Tawhid - including Hanbalis, Ash’aris, Mutazilis, Maturidis, Ismailis, Ibn Sina, Ibn Arabi, Ibn Taymiyya, Mulla Sadra etc.
A great resource for academics, undergrads and laymen.
The Arabic word tawḥīd is a transitive verb; it means ‘to make [something] one’ or ‘to unify’ something. In the context of Islamic belief and practice, tawḥīd means to profess the unity and uniqueness of God and stands as a core defining principle of Islam. Muslims attest to tawḥīd through a variety of theological, ritual, and communal activities. When a person embraces Islam as their religion, they recite the shahāda (testimony) and thereby attest that ‘there is no god except God and Muḥammad is the Messenger of God’. This confession is a verbal affirmation of tawḥīd. When Muslims recite their daily prayers – in which they declare that ‘God is greater’ (Allāhū akbar), recite Qur’anic chapters such as the Opening (al-fātiḥa) and the Sincerity (al-ikhlāṣ), and submit to God through acts of bowing (rukūʿ) and prostration (sujūd) – they are embodying tawḥīd. Islamic theological texts and creeds require Muslims to intellectually assent to certain articles of faith (ʿaqāʾid al-imān); the most important of these credal beliefs is tawḥīd, which comprises a number of theological positions concerning God’s existence, attributes, and relations to His creatures. The Muslim quest to adorn the human soul with spiritual virtues by way of ethical living, a practice that believers understand as the assumption of divine character traits (akhlāq ilāhīya), is an attempt to spiritually reflect tawḥīd by integrating the human soul with the Divine Names. Tawḥīd is the underlying thread that both binds and permeates the entirety of Muslim belief, ritual, law, governance, and spiritual life.
Despite its centrality to Muslim religious and political life, tawḥīd is also the most contested Islamic doctrine.
Muslims have engaged in fourteen centuries of intellectual and polemical debate over the true meaning of tawḥīd.
Differences in truth-claims about the nature of God’s essence, attributes, actions, and relationships to His creation have divided Muslims into various theological, credal, philosophical, and mystical schools of thought. Certain theological disagreements have had downstream effects upon notions of orthopraxy well into modern times.
We survey some of the major Islamic theological positions on tawḥīd with a focus on God’s essence, attributes, and actions. In doing so, this entry draws liberally across the denominational diversity of Islam, including various Sunnī, Sufi and Shīʿī schools of thought, through both the classical and modern periods.
Full Article at
https://www.saet.ac.uk/Islam/DivineUnicity
https://www.saet.ac.uk/Islam/DivineUnicity
By Dr Khalil Andani First published: 29 August 2024