THE CATEGORIES OF TAWHEED

everything which exists is Allaah and Allaah is everything. He asserted that there
is only one real existence, which is Allaah everything else is unreal.4 Yet, such
beliefs are classified by mainstream Islaam as pantheism and, as such, kufr. Other
Muslims such as the Mu‘tazilah5 held that tawheed consisted of stripping Allaah
of all His attributes and asserting that He is present everywhere and in everything;
yet these ideas were also rejected by orthodox Islaam and considered heretical. In
fact, almost all of the various heretical sects which broke off from the main body
of Islaam, from the Prophet’s time till today, began their divergence from the
point of tawheed. All of those who worked for the destruction of Islaam and the
misguidance of its followers have attempted to neutralize the principle of
tawheed, because it represents the very essence of the divine message of Islaam
brought by all the prophets. They have introduced concepts about Allaah totally
alien to Islaam; concepts designed to take man away from the worship of Allaah
alone. Once people accept these pagan philosophies about God, they become
easily susceptible to a multitude of other deviant ideas, all of which eventually
lead those who accept them to the worship of created things under the guise of the
true worship of God.
The Prophet (r) himself vividly warned Muslims to beware of such
deviations as had befallen the nations before them. He encouraged them to stick
closely to the path which he had tread. One day as he sat with his companions, he
drew a straight line in the dirt. He then drew a series of lines branching off from
either side of it. When the companions asked him what it meant, he pointed to the
branches and told them that they represented the various paths of misguidance in
this life. He went on to say that at the head of each path sat a devil inviting people
to it. After that, he pointed to the straight line in the middle and told them that it
represented the path of Allaah. When the companions asked for further
clarification, he told them that it was his path and he recited the following verse:
prophethood. In the centuries following his death, his followers elevated him to the status of saint,
and gave him the title of ash-Shaykh al-Akbar (The Greatest Master), but the majority of Muslim
legal scholars considered him a heretic. His principle works are al-Futoohaat al-Makkeeyah and
Fusoos al-Hikim, (H.A.R. Gibb and J.H. Kramers, Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam, (Ithaca, New
York: Cornell University Press, 1953), pp.146-7.
4 A modern proponent of this belief called wahdatul-wujood is Haroon Yahya. He has included a
chapter in most of his works written in refutation of Darwinism promoting this belief.
5 A rationalist philosophical school founded in the Umayyad period (i.e. early 8th century CE) by
Waasil ibn ‘Ataa and ‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd. It gained sway over the ‘Abbaasid state for over a hundred
years and continued to influence Islamic thought until the 12th century (Shorter Encyclopedia of
Islam, pp.421-6).
وأَنَّ هذَا صِراطِي مستقِيما فَاتبِعوه ولَا تتبِعوا ال  سبلَ فَتفَ  رق بِ ُ كم عن سبِيلِهِ
“This is my path leading straight, so follow it. And do not follow the
other paths, or else you will be separated from His (Allaah’s) path.”6
It is therefore of the utmost importance that tawheed be clearly understood in the
way it was taught by the Prophet (r) and understood by his companions, or else
one could easily end up on one of the many deviant paths while claiming
tawheed, praying, paying zakaah,7 fasting and making Hajj. Allaah, Most Wise,
has pointed to this phenomenon when He said in the Qur’aan,
وما يؤمِ  ن َأكْثَ  ر  هم بِاللَّهِ إِلَّا و  هم مشرِ ُ كونَ
“Most of them claim to believe in Allaah, but they really commit
shirk.”8
The three categories of tawheed are commonly referred to by the
following titles:
1. Tawheed ar-Ruboobeeyah: lit. “Maintaining the oneness of Lordship,” that is,
affirming that Allaah is one, without partners in his sovereignty.
2. Tawheed al-Asmaa’ was-Sifaat: lit. “Maintaining the unity of Allaah’s Names
and Attributes,” that is, affirming that they are incomparable and unique.
3. Tawheed al-‘Ibaadah: Affirming that Allaah is alone in his right to be
worshipped.9
The division of tawheed into its components was not done by the Prophet
(r) nor by his companions, as there was no necessity to analyze such a basic
principle of faith in this fashion. However, the foundations of the components are
all implied in the verses of the Qur’aan and in the explanatory statements of the
Prophet (r) and his companions, as will become evident when each category is
dealt with in more detail later.
6 Soorah al-An‘aam, (6):153, Reported by Ibn