The categories of Tawheed.

Assalamou aleikoum wa rahmatoullah wa barakatou


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The following post is for the categories of Tawheed, and this was presented by sister Mariemuad.




http://sisters.islamway.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=30415

Assalamu alaikum,

All praises are due to Allah, we praise Him, we
seek His help, we seek His forgiveness and we seek His guidance. We
seek refuge in Allah from the evil in our souls and the badness of our
deeds. For whomever Allah guides, there is none to lead him astray. And
for whomever He allows to go astray, there is none to guide him. I bear
witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, for whom
there is no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and
Messenger.

Welcome to



As Muslims, what
differentiates us most from other faiths is the Tawheed. It is on
account of Tawheed that we have been promised Jannah. There is no other
way to enter Jannah except by correcting our beliefs and acting upon it.

The
scholars of Islam have divided Tawheed into three parts. Of course, we
cannot believe in one or two parts and deny the rest. It is a matter of
“Take it all or it won’t benefit you”. It wouldn’t be of much use to buy
a washing machine without a plug or to buy a car without wheels. So is
with Tawheed. The first part of Tawheed is:


The word “Rabb” is usually
translated as “Lord”. He is the Lord of the Universe. This is the
Tawheed of Allah by His actions. Allah’s Lordship over His creation
means that He alone is their Creator, Master and Regulator of their
affairs. He has created everything. Allah says:

اللَّهُ خَالِقُ
كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَكِيلٌ


whose meaning is:

Allah is the Creator
of all things, and He is the Wakil (Trustee, Disposer of affairs,
Guardian, etc.) over all things.
[Az-Zumar:62]

He gives sustenance to everything and everybody.
Allah says:

وَمَا مِن دَآبَّةٍ فِي الأَرْضِ إِلاَّ
عَلَى اللّهِ رِزْقُهَا


whose meaning is:

And no (moving) living
creature is there on earth but its provision is due from Allah.
[Hud:6]

He is capable over
everything. Allah says:

إِنَّ اللّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ
قَدِيرٌ


whose meaning is:

Truly, Allah is Able to
do all things. [al-Baqarah:148]

He
gives life and death. Allah says:

هُوَ يُحْيِي
وَيُمِيتُ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ


whose meaning is:

It is He Who gives
life, and causes death, and to Him you (all) shall return.
[Yunus: 56]

He is the Supreme Lord. A sentence that summarises
well this part of Tawheed is the sentence:

لا حول ولا قوة
إلا بالله .

La
Hawla wa la quwwata illa bi Allah. (read billaah).

whose meaning
is:

There is no movement nor power except by Allah.

A
hadeeth that explains well this concept of No movement nor power except
by Allah is a hadeeth reported in the 40 ahadeeth of An-Nawawi:

عـن
أبي العـباس عـبد الله بن عـباس رضي الله عـنهما ، قــال : كـنت خـلـف
النبي صلي الله عـليه وسلم يـوما ، فـقـال : يـا غـلام !
إني اعـلمك كــلمات : احـفـظ الله يـحـفـظـك ، احـفـظ الله تجده تجاهـك ،
إذا سـألت فـاسأل الله ، وإذا اسـتعـنت فـاسـتـعـن بالله ، واعـلم أن
الأمـة لـو اجـتمـعـت عـلى أن يـنـفـعـوك بشيء لم يـنـفـعـوك إلا بشيء قـد
كـتـبـه الله لك ، وإن اجتمعـوا عـلى أن يـضـروك بشيء لـم يـضـروك إلا بشيء
قـد كـتـبـه الله عـلـيـك ؛ رفـعـت الأقــلام ، وجـفـت الـصـحـف .
رواه
الترمذي [ رقم : 2516]
وفي رواية غير الترمذي : احفظ الله تجده
أمامك ، تعرف إلى الله في الرخاء يعرفك في الشدة ، واعلم أن ما أخطأك لم
يكن ليصيبك ، وما أصابك لم يكن ليخطئك ، واعلم ان النصر مع الصبر ، وان
الفرج مع الكرب ، وان مع العسر يسرا


On
the authority of Abu 'Abbaas 'Abdillaah bin 'Abbaas (radiAllaahu
anhumaa) who said : One day I was behind the Prophet (sallAllaahu alayhi
wa sallam) [riding on the same mount] and he said :

O young man, I shall
teach you some words [of advice]: Be Mindful of Allaah and Allaah will
protect you. Be Mindful of Allaah and you will find Him in front of you.
If you ask, then ask Allaah [alone]; and if you seek help, then seek
help from Allaah [alone]. And know that if the Nation were to gather
together to benefit you with anything, they would not benefit you except
with what Allaah had already prescribed for you. And if they were to
gather together to harm you with anything, they would not harm you
except with what Allaah had already prescribed against you. The Pens
have been lifted and the Pages have dried.
[at-Tirmidhee]

Another narration, other than that of Tirmidhee,
reads :

Be Mindful of Allaah, and you will find Him in front
of you. Recognise and Acknowledge Allaah in times of ease and
prosperity, and He will Remember you in times of adversity. And know
that what has passed you by [and you have failed to attain] was not
going to befall you, and what has befallen you was not going to pass you
by. And know that Victory comes with Patience, Relief with Affliction,
and Hardship with Ease.

Most
people believe in this part of Tawheed although not completely. For
example, they believe that Allah created them or created the Heavens and
Earth. However, often, they do not believe in the Resurrection. Allah,
in His book, says:

قُلْ مَن يَرْزُقُكُم مِّنَ
السَّمَاء وَالأَرْضِ أَمَّن يَمْلِكُ السَّمْعَ والأَبْصَارَ وَمَن
يُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَيُخْرِجُ الْمَيَّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ
وَمَن يُدَبِّرُ الأَمْرَ فَسَيَقُولُونَ اللّهُ فَقُلْ أَفَلاَ تَتَّقُونَ



whose meaning is:

Say: "Who provides for
you from the sky and from the earth? Or who owns hearing and sight? And
who brings out the living from the dead and brings out the dead from the
living? And who disposes the affairs?" They will say: "Allah." Say:
"Will you not then be afraid of Allah's Punishment (for setting up
rivals in worship with Allah)?"
[Yunus:31]


Footnotes:

The main books I have
used are:

The Fundamentals of Tawheed by Abu Ameenah Bilal
Philips published by al-hidaayah

Tawhid of Allah's Most Beautiful
Names and Lofty Attributes by Muhammad ibn Khalifah Al-Tamimi also
published by al-hidaayah

Book of Emaan according to the classical
works of Shaikh-ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyah by Dr. Muhammad Naim Yasin
published by al-Firdous

At-Tawheed li-nashi'ah wal-mubtadi'een by
AbdulAziz bin Muhammad Al AbdulLateef and printed by the Minister of
Islamic Affairs in Saudi Arabia and published by Al-Maktaba Al-Arabiyah
As-Saoudiyah.

When Rasulullah (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam) was alive, all matters
in the religion were referred to him and any question was directed to
him. Whenever a new matter arose, he (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam)
spoke about it and corrected it. Thus, the Sahabah had the best
understanding of the deen.

When Islam conquered many lands and
the learnt men became few compared to the masses of people who needed to
learn this beautiful religion, the scholars of Islam had to explain
things further and all sciences in Islam started to be codified. This
took a few centuries but things really started at the time of the
younger Sahabah then the Tabi’een who condemned the heretics. At the
time, the heretics would either be killed or expelled but, when the
khalifa became himself corrupted in his learning, then the scholars of
Islam had to fight those new ideas by writing and by speaking. This is
when all the sciences in Islam developed then were codified, such as
science of hadeeth, Arabic grammar, science of tajweed, principles of
fiqh, ...


The word “tawheed” wasn’t used by Rasulullah (salla
Allahu alayhi wa sallam) but, of course, the word “wahhada” was used at
the time of Rasulullah (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam). The early
scholars of Islam categorised tawheed into two categories. These two
categories were given different names. Here are the names given by them:

1. Tawheed al-Ma’rifah
wal-Ithbaat: tawheed of knowledge and affirmation.
This was called as such because this part relates to the knowledge of
Allah and its affirmation by the tongue. This comprises the Tawheed
al-Rububiyyah and Tawheed al-Asma was-Sifaat. Other names for this
category are Tawheed al-Ilmi al-Khibari (knowledge and text
based) or Tawheed al-Qawli (speech based) or Tawheed al-Siyadah
(sovereignty).

2. Tawheed al-Qasd
wat-Talab: tawheed of Intent and Pursuit.
This was called as such because the servant turns to Allah with his
heart, tongue and limbs to worship him alone. This refers to Tawheed
al-Uluhiyyah. Other names for this category are (respectively with the
other names of the first category) Tawheed al-Iradi
at-Talabi (wilful and pursuing tawheed), tawheed al-amali (action based)
and Tawheed al-Ibadah (worship).

This
categorisation of Tawheed was, for example, done by Shaykh-ul-Islam bin
Taymiyyah. Then the scholars divided the first category into two:
Tawheed ar-Rububiyyah and Tawheed al-Asma was-Sifaat. This was done
because many sects appeared and changed the implication of the names and
attributes of Allah.

Nowadays, some people divided the tawheed
into four categories by dividing the Tawheed al-Uluhiyyah into two
categories: Tawheed al-Uluhiyyah and Tawheed al-Hakimiyyah (i.e. judging
by the Shari’ah) or Tawheed al-Ittiba (i.e. adherence) . However, the
tawheed al-Hakimiyyah is included in Tawheed al-Uluhiyyah as worship is
only accepted if it satisfies two conditions: al-Ikhlaas and al-Ittiba’.
Furthermore, we do not want to singularise every worship such as
Tawheed as-Salaat, Tawheed as-Sawm, ...
Other scholars nowadays have
added another category which is tawheed of the existence of Allah
(tawheed wujood Allah) because there are many atheists now while before,
people would recognise the existence of Allah.

These categories
of Tawheed are intertwined and cannot be taken out of the other. Belief
should be in all of them to have complete Tawheed.



Finally, here
are some words of Ibn al-Qayyim (alayhi rahmatullah):

“Every Surah of the Quran
entails Tawheed. In fact, we assert a comprehensive statement: Every
Ayah of the Quran entails Tawheed, is a witness to Tawheed and invites
to it. Since the Quran is either:

1. Information about Allah and
His Names, Attributes and Actions. This is Tawheed al-Ilmi al-Khibari

2.
A call to worship Him alone without any partners and to renounce
everything worshipped besides Allah. This is Tawheed al-Iradi at-Talabi.

3.
Commands and prohibitions, and the enjoining of obeying His commands
and prohibitions. These are the rights of Tawheed and are what perfect
it.

4. Reports of Allah’s reverential treatment of those who
establish His Tawheed and obedience, how they are treated in this world
and how Allah will honour them in the Hereafter. This is the reward of
establishing His Tawheed

5. Reports on the people of shirk, the
humiliation they underwent in this world and the punishment that will
befall them in the next life. This is information on those who are
outside the ruling of His Tawheed.

Hence, all of the Quran is on
TAwheed, its rights and rewards, and on the issue of shirk, its people
and their punishement.”