Praise be to Allaah and blessings and peace be upon His Messenger and Chosen Prophet . 

Tawheed in Arabic means attributing Oneness to Allaah and describing Him as being One and Unique, with no partner or peer in His Essence and Attributes. The Arabs say ‘Waahid’, meaning one. Allaah is Waahid, meaning that He has no rivals or partners in any way. So Tawheed means knowing Allaah is One, with none like unto Him, so Tawheed is the belief in Allaah alone as God and Lord and attributing to Him alone all the attributes of Lordship and divinity . Thus, a Muslim must believe and practice theism and whoever opposes this does not believe in Tawheed. 

It can be defined by believing that Allaah is One with no partner or associate in His Lordship (ruboobiyyah), divinity (uloohiyyah) or names and attributes (al-asma’ wa’l-sifaat). 

Allaah says “Say (O Muhammad): He is Allaah, (the) One. Allaah is the Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need, (He neither eats nor drinks)]. He doesn’t give birth, nor was He born. And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him” [al-Ikhlaas 112:1-4] 

“And your God is One, there is none who has the right to be worshipped but He, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” [al-Baqarah 2:163] And there are many similar Aayaat. 

When the Prophet  sent Mu’aadh ibn Jabal to Yemen, he said to him: “… the first thing to which you call them to, is belief in Allaah alone (Tawheed)…” (Bukharee & Muslim).  

He  also said: “Islam is built on five (pillars): belief that Allaah is One-the testimony that there is no god except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger …” (Muslim).

What is meant by Tawheed in all these texts is affirming the meaning of the testimony that there is no god but Allaah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allaah , which is the essence of the religion of Islam with which Allaah sent His Prophet , based on the evidence of the words of the Qur’aan and Sunnah. This indicates that Tawheed is the essence of the testimony that there is no god except Allaah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allaah, and that this is Islam with which Allaah sent His Prophet to the two races of mankind and the jinn, other than which Allaah will not accept any religion from anyone, as Allaah SWT says, “Truly, the religion with Allaah is Islam” [Aal ‘Imraan:19] and “And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers”[Aal ‘Imraan:85]. 

For ease of understanding, Tawheed can be divided into three categories, as follows: 

1.    Tawheed al-Ruboobiyyah (Oneness of Divine Lordship)

2.    Tawheed al-Uloohiyyah (Oneness of Divinity) and

3.    Tawheed al-Asma’ wa’l-Sifaat (Oneness of the Divine Names and Attributes). 

Tawheed al-Ruboobiyyah (Oneness of Divine Lordship): means believing in Allaah as One and Unique with regard to His actions such as creation, sovereignty, control, giving life and death, and so on. “Surely, His is the creation and commandment. Blessed is Allaah, the Lord of the ‘Aalameen (mankind, jinn and all that exists)! [al-A’raaf:54] And there are many Ayaat like this.

Whoever believes that there is any creator other than Allaah or any sovereign controlling this universe and disposing of its affairs other than Allaah has denied this aspect of Tawheed and disbelieved in Allaah. 

The kuffaar of the Quraysh and others accepted this aspect of Tawheed in general terms, although they differed with regard to some of its details. The evidence that they used to accept this is to be found in several verses of the Qur’aan such as the following “And if you were to ask them: ‘Who has created the heavens and the earth and subjected the sun and the moon?’ they will surely reply: ‘Allaah.’ How then are they deviating (as polytheists and disbelievers)?”[Al-‘Ankaboot: 61] and “And if you ask them who created them, they will surely say: ‘Allaah.’ How then are they turned away (from the worship of Allaah Who created them)? ”[Al-Zukhruf: 87]  And there are many Ayaat like this.

In these verses Allaah states that the kuffaar affirm that He is the Creator, Sovereign and Controller, but despite that they do not worship Him alone (Tawheed of worship), which points to the graveness of their wrongdoing and lies, and the weakness of their reasoning. For if there is One Who is described in such terms, none should be worshipped except Him alone and none should be described as being one and unique except Him; may He be glorified above those that they associate with him. 

So whoever affirms this Tawheed in the true sense must inevitably also affirm the Oneness of Allaah’s Divinity (Tawheed al-Uloohiyyah). 

Tawheed al-Uloohiyyah means devoting all acts of worship, both inward and outward, in word and deed, to Allaah Alone, and not worshipping anything or anyone other than Allaah, no matter who he is. Allaah says “And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him” [al-Isra’:23] and “Worship Allaah and join none with Him (in worship)” [al-Nisa’:36] It may be described as devoting all one’s actions to Allaah alone.  

It is called Tawheed al-Uloohiyyah because it is based on the worship and devotion of Allaah accompanied by love and veneration, and that a person worships Allaah by doing that which He has commanded and avoiding that which He has forbidden, at the same time the person does not seek anything except the reward from Allaah, so he worships Him sincerely. 

This is the kind of Tawheed is concerning which people went astray, which is why the Prophets were sent and the Books were revealed. This is the purpose for which the universe was created and laws were prescribed. Relating to this, disputes arose between the Prophets and their peoples, so the stubborn were doomed and the believers were saved. 

Whoever goes astray with regard to this Tawheed, such as devoting some of his worship to someone other than Allaah, has gone beyond the pale of Islam and drifted away from true belief. May Allaah protect us from that! (ameen)

With regard to Tawheed al-Asma’ wa’l-Sifaat (Oneness of the Divine Names and Attributes), this means affirming the names and attributes of Allaah and believing that there is none like unto Allaah in His names and attributes. This Tawheed is based on two principles: 

Affirmation: i.e., affirming that which Allaah has affirmed for Himself in His Book or that His Prophet  has affirmed of His beautiful names and sublime attributes in a manner that suits the Majesty and Greatness of Allaah, without distorting them, twisting their meanings, denying their reality or discussing how they are. 

Denial: i.e., denying that Allaah has any faults and denying any shortcomings that He has denied Himself. The evidence for that are the words of Allaah, “There is nothing like Him, and He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer” [al-Shoora: 11]. So He has denied that He bears any resemblance to His creation, and affirmed that He has attributes of perfection in a manner that befits Him, may He be glorified. 

And Allah Knows Best.