Principles of Islam
54. Tawheed
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and the earth, and the preservation of both does not
weary Him. He is the Exalted, the Immense One.”
(2:255)
While
tawheed
means the oneness of God, it must be
stressed that this concept differs radically from
pantheistic or animist notions that all the forms of
existence are diverse manifestations of one and the
same reality. On the contrary, the oneness of God as
defined in Islam means that there is only one Being
of the nature of God. All other things of the
universe, they physical or non-physical, are the
creations of this One God: they are in no respect
constituents of, or partners in the divine godhead.
However, in Islamic theology,
tawheed
does have
two aspects to it:
tawheed fi az-Zat
and
tawheed fi as-
Sifat
, that is, oneness of being and oneness of
attributes. This means that in addition to the fact of
there being only one Being who enjoys the status of
divinity and possesses divine powers, there is also
the fact that no-one else can have a share in, or lay
claim to God’s attributes. These include the power
of creating and sustaining the universe with all its
countless bodies in motion, of sustaining and
