Tawheed is the foundation of Islam

Tawheed is the foundation of Islam as we know it now, but also of all past Deen (religions) brought by all the previous Prophets and Messengers of Allah. Therefore, the understanding of Tawhid lies at the very core of human existence: if we understand it, we have understood what it means to be a human being; if we don’t, we are no better than animals, in fact, much worse.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: ‘Do you know what is the right of Allah over His human creatures? May they worship Him and do not commit Shirk by associating anything else with Him ‘. Shirk is the failure to affirm the unity of Allah, it is the one thing that Allah does not forgive and therefore it is absolutely vital for our well-being in both the dunya (this world) and the ajira (the next life) to make sure that we truly understand what the words are saying. really mean.

The scholars of this science have put a lot of effort into defining Tawheed as completely as possible. Al-‘Ashari, for example, described the unity of Allah by giving us a list of Divine attributes derived from Suratu’l-Ikhlas and others that are in the Qur’an. He said that Allah has an existence that is pre-eternal and continues forever; that it has absolute independence; that he is disconnected from all time or place; that He is one in His essence, His attributes, and His actions; and that it has life, power, knowledge, will, hearing, sight, and speech. The problem with this and similar descriptions is that, while it is true that if we really grasp them we will be absolutely safe from committing Shirk, the language has become so empty for us that too often we miss the deep meaning of the definitions and they remain just words.

What they are actually saying and what the Qur’an itself makes very clear, over and over again, is that in reality nothing that exists has any power except Allah. La hawla wala quwwata illa billah. There is no power or strength except for Allah. La fa’il fi’l wujud siwa’llah. There is no active agent apart from Allah. This is the truth and it means that everything that happens happens only because of Allah. The problem for us is that we have all, from a very young age, had the exact opposite, that in the so-called real world Allah has nothing to do with what happens and that in fact it is the secondary causes that actually make things happen. Do not underestimate how deeply the materialistic scientific worldview has penetrated human consciousness, Muslim and non-Muslim. It is a complete and ongoing process of indoctrination that we are bombarded with every day of our lives.

Wind and rain are caused by pressure changes in the atmosphere and the rainfall cycle; the cause of plant growth is the nitrogen cycle; flight occurs through the science of aerodynamics; our own birth is the result of human conception and the gestation process; diseases are cured by the science of medicine; The examples are endless. But it’s simply not true. It’s not that these things don’t happen. They do. But they are not the reason for anything; they are not the cause of anything. Nothing makes anything happen except Allah:

And He is the One Who causes water to fall from heaven; with it we make the germ of everything emerge and from there we make greenery sprout from which we draw the harvest. (Qur’an, 6:99)

He makes the rain fall; makes plants grow.

Do they not see the subordinate birds in the air of the sky? Only Allah sustains them. (Qur’an, 16:79)

The flight is only for Allah.

Men! If you are in doubt about the return to life… Verily, We created you from earth, from a drop of sperm, from a clot, from flesh that is well formed or as yet unformed, to make it clear to you. And in the matrices we shape what we want until a certain period is met and then we make you come out as children and then reach maturity; and some of you are taken away and others we let reach the most decrepit age of life so that after having known they know nothing. And you see the land barren, but when we make water fall on it it stirs up, swells and gives all kinds of splendid species. (Qur’an, 22:5)

Allah is responsible for bringing us into the world.

And when I am sick, it is He who heals me. (Qur’an, 26:80)

Allah is the healer of sickness.

You can say, “Oh, yes, of course!” to these words, but look inside your heart to see what you actually believe about how things happen. What do you really attribute things to when they happen? Do you really see them as coming from Allah or does your conditioning get in the way of you actually attributing it to the process by which they happen? We live in this world of secondary causes, so it’s natural for us to see existence in those terms. The difference between us and our ancestors is that they were taught the truth, it was their foundation, and therefore it was much easier for them to cut off appearances and see things as they really are. We, on the other hand, have been indoctrinated into a lie to the extent that it has become almost impossible for us to see things as they really are. Shortly after I became a Muslim when I lived in Morocco, I remember a man who was highly respected for his knowledge saying to me, “The difference between you and me is that I believe that if you give me a cup of deadly poison and say Bismillah and drink Allah can protect me from harm, but you think it will surely kill you.” The gulf between these two perspectives is very difficult to bridge.

In fact, we are in grave danger because, by attributing effects to their apparent causes, we are giving effective power to something other than Allah, which is a clear Shirk. We may have the formulas of tawhid in our tongues, but do their meanings really penetrate our beings? It is in the light of these that we really perceive the world. We must be careful to have Tawheed in the head, but not in the heart. The people of Allah tell a story of a terrible man who spent his life satisfying his appetite and committing all kinds of wrong actions. He gave instructions that when he died his body should be cut into small pieces and each piece burned separately and all his ashes scattered in different areas so that Allah would find it almost impossible to put him back together and thus avoid the punishment of fire. On the last day, Allah, of course, will have no difficulty in bringing him back to life and he will be brought before his Lord in a state of abject terror. But Allah will say to him: “Because of your absolute belief in the reality of My Power, today I have forgiven you, so enter My Garden with those who enter it.”

An important way in which the knowledge of Tawheed directly affects our daily lives is in the whole matter of provision, of Rizq. Allah is ar-Razzaq, the Provider. He alone continually nourishes and sustains all that exists, including us. This means that the energy we expend to make a living, whatever form it takes, is not actually the cause of us getting what we need. It is Allah who provides for us. It is vital for us as Muslims to understand the implications of this.

The culture in which we live, and it is now clear that the kuffar have created a system that covers every part of the world, is completely governed by the economic imperative. As we know, this present of the Kufr system, which is undoubtedly broader and more dominant than any previous version of kufr in all of human history, has earned its place by the unscrupulous use of usurious financial techniques that have now entangled the entire world in a web of banks, markets, and financial institutions in which both nations and individuals are trapped in a spiral of unpayable debt. As a direct consequence of this, human life, in all parts of the world, is now basically defined in economic terms and human aspiration in terms of economic goals.

Children are taught in school that their career, their future employment, is the only thing in their life that really matters and their entire education is geared towards that end. And the result is that anxiety about employment or lack thereof, about income or the scarcity of it, is what actually occupies most people’s hearts and minds and forms the subject of much of their conversation. And all this time the Kafir system has been able to keep everyone, both Muslim and non-Muslim, in their bondage by convincing them that their livelihood depends entirely on the system as it is set up. It is only the sword of Tawhid that can cut through the suffocating net and set us free. We simply have to remember that our livelihood depends on Allah alone and nothing else. We don’t have to worry about getting what we need, that’s Allah’s business. What should concern us is our Taqwa, our amazement, and our obedience to our Lord.

At this point I can already hear people saying, ‘Yes, but! What about …?’ And talk about tying camels and not forgetting our part of the dunya, etc. etc. But in my experience, this reaction, in the vast majority of cases, is due to the anxiety we are trying to escape. I’m not saying we shouldn’t work or do whatever it takes to get what we need to feed ourselves and our families. What I am saying is that we must be aware deep within our being that doing that is not what brings us our provision. Only Allah does. In fact, the reality is the opposite of what most people think. Far from relaxing and doing nothing, the people I have met with the deepest knowledge that Allah is their provider are more active in worldly terms than anyone else I can think of.

The difference between those who truly know that Allah is their provider and those who do not is basically a hidden one, although it is quite likely to manifest itself at some point. However, it is what separates the true believer from someone subject to a hidden Shirk and its crucial importance to our lives, and indeed to our destinies, is made abundantly clear to us by what happened on Hudaybiya’s expedition. When the call to leave came, the Muminun (believers) did not hesitate to let go at any time and leave with the Messenger of Allah. But what did those who did not go say? ‘Our wealth and our families occupied us.’

Our job as Muslims is to worship Allah and establish His Deen; Any other project we have at work or at home should be subsidiary to this. If we do so, Allah will take care of our needs as He took care of the needs of all those who came before us, when they undertook this task. But we can never do this until, unless we truly understand and embody the meaning of ilaha illa’llah (there is no God but Allah), until, and unless, we really come to depend on Allah alone and can say hasbunallahu wa ni’ma’l-Wakil: ‘Allah is sufficient for us and is the best guardian’ from the bottom of our hearts.

Written by: Abdalhaqq Bewley for https://es.truth-seeker.info/