Tawhid
[2] Tawhid is the religion's central and single most important concept upon which a Muslim's entire religious adherence rests.
[12] Although the monotheistic definition has persisted into modern Arabic, it is now more generally used to connote "unification, union, combination, fusion; standardization, regularization; consolidation, amalgamation, merger".
[22] That has caused Sunni scholars to accuse Salafis and Wahhabis of depicting God as a created object ruling from the sky.
[27]Vincent J. Cornell, a scholar of Islamic studies quotes the following statement from Ali: To know God is to know his unification.
They use a teleological argument for the existence of God as a creator based on perceived evidence of order, purpose, design or direction or some combination of them in nature.
[31] Ash'ari theologians rejected cause and effect in essence but accepted it as something that facilitates humankind's investigation and comprehension of natural processes.
[39][40] The Qur'an argues that there can be no multiple sources of divine sovereignty since "behold, each god would have taken away what [each] had created, And some would have Lorded it over others!
"[6] The Qur'an argues that the stability and order prevailing throughout the universe shows that it was created and is being administered by only one God (28:70-72).
Later Muslim theologians elaborated on the verse by saying that the existence of at least two gods would inevitably arise between them, at one time or another, a conflict of wills.
At times of crisis, for example, even the idolaters forget the false deities and call upon the one true God for help.
Also, certain natural phenomena (such as the sun, the moon and the stars) inspire feelings of awe, wonder or admiration that could lead some to regard these celestial bodies as deities.
Certain theologians use the term "tawhid" in a much broader meaning to denote the totality of discussion of God, his existence and his various attributes.
[44] 'Abdullah al-Ansari al-Herawi was a Hanbalite scholar who sought to reform sufistic interpretations in accordance with the salaf (al-salaf al-saleh).
In Maqalat al-Islamiyin, Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari describes the Mu'tazilite conception of the tawhid as follows:[48] God is unique, nothing is like him; he is neither body, nor individual, nor substance, nor accident.
[51] The solution proposed by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari to solve the problems of tashbih and ta'til concedes that the divine Being possesses in a real sense the Attributes and Names mentioned in the Qur'an.
[53] Twelver theology is based on the Hadith which have been narrated from the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the first, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth Imams and compiled by Shia scholars such as Al-Shaykh al-Saduq in al-Tawhid.
[23] Al-Farabi, Al-Razi and especially Avicenna put forward an interpretation of Tawhid in light of reason, with the Qur'an and Hadith serving as a basis.
[62] According to Vincent J. Cornall, it is possible to draw up a monist image of God (see Sufi metaphysics) by describing the reality as a unified whole, with God being a single concept that would describe or ascribe all existing things: "He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Immanent: and He has full knowledge of all things.
"(57:3)"[10] However many Muslims criticize monism for it blurs the distinction between the creator and the creature, something incompatible with the genuine and absolute monotheism of Islam.
Categorizations of different steps of tawhid may be found in the works of Muslims Sufis like Junayd Baghdadi and al-Ghazali.
[62] Al-Junayd for example "distinguishes four steps, starting from the simple attestation of unicity which is sufficient for ordinary believers, and culminating in the highest rank reserved for the elite, when the creature totally ceases to exist before his Lord, thus achieving al-fanā fi al-tawhīd [annihilation in unity]".
All of man's character traits and habits, everything that pertains to his individual existence must become completely naughted and "obliterated" (mahw).
[67] Widely different interpretations of the meaning of the "Unity of Existence" have been proposed throughout the centuries by critics, defenders, and Western scholars.
Understood correctly, wahdat al-wujud elucidates the delicate balance that needs to be maintained between these two perspectives.
"[69] Shah Wali Allah of Delhi argued that the Ibn Arabi's "unity of being" was experiential and based on a subjective experience of illumination or ecstasy, rather than an ontological reality.
Since it is impossible for two majesties to co-exist, one cannot participate in divine intimacy or mercy and will also be subject to God's wrath.
The Islamic doctrine of Tawhid puts forth a God whose rule, will or law are comprehensive and extend to all creatures and to all aspects of the human life.
[76] As is written in the Qur'an, all of humanity is created at the will of Allah, both the good and the evil, and their natures have been predisposed as such since the beginning of creation.
If the cosmos is a unified and harmonious whole, centred on the omnipotent and omnipresent God, they hold that recognising any other authority as superior is wrong.
According to one writer, "Traditionally, a Muslim is not a nationalist, or citizen of a nation-state; he has no political identity, only a religious membership in the Umma.
