Let’s understand the concept and seek His blessings, writes Nasir Nabi.

Tawheed or the Oneness of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Master of Glory and Honour is the essence on which the whole of world nay universe is based. The Oneness in His Being, The Oneness in His Attributes, The Oneness in His Beautiful Names, The Oneness in His Power, and in His Will. The Heavens and the earth and whatever lies between them, all testify this great Truth about which there isn’t any bit of doubt. It is this absolute Truth to which the Allah commanded the mankind to stand witness to. All of the revealed religions accept the fact that there is only one Supreme Deity who is to be worshiped and obeyed in all the dealings which He Commands us to do. Right from Adam to Last Messenger Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Tawheed was the only and only Message they preached. They never compromised on it. All those revealed books which Allah sent down to mankind from time to time carried this flame of light.  We should bear in mind that the Last and Final Message of Allah made this thing clear that every one is to be let free in choosing his way in accepting the truth or rejecting it. The Glorious Qur’an says: “Let there be no compulsion in religion.”
 But the following part of this verse continues to say that even though there is a free will to accept His Deity or denying it but the fact is this: “Truth stands out clear from the error; whosoever rejects evil and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold that never breaks. And Allah hears and knows all things. (2:256)”
 Compulsion is incompatible with religion because religion depends upon faith and will, and these would be meaningless if induced by force. Truth and error have been so clearly shown up by Allah that there should be no doubt in the minds of any person of goodwill regarding the fundamentals of the faith.
 God’s protection is continuous and His plan is always to lead us from the depths of darkness into the clearest light. The preachers or callers of Islam do not invent their own message or philosophy but act only as the vicegerent of Prophet Muhammad (saw) and propagate the same thing which Allah The Most Gracious revealed to him (saw) without distorting any part of it. Narrated Ibn Abbas (Ra): When the Prophet sent Muadh to Yemen, he told him, “You are going to a nation from the people of the Scripture, so let the first thing to which you will invite them, be the Tawheed of Allah. If they learn that, tell them that Allah has enjoined on them, five prayers to be offered in one day and one night. And if they pray, tell them that Allah has enjoined on them Zakaat of their properties and it is to be taken from the rich among them and given to the poor…” (9.469).
 It becomes very clear from the above Hadith that the first and foremost thing to which the caller of Islam invites people to is the TAWHEED and unless and until one is well versed with what it means and implies, it won’t fetch him anything. Today we see corruption, oppression, tyranny, lawlessness and above all bloodshed all around us.
 The only and unique solution to all these problems is to accept Him the only authority, Lord, Master and ultimate Ruler Who has by default every authority over all His creation and is having Perfect Knowledge of all the things. It is He Who knows what is good for us and what is not, where lies our success and where not— in both the worlds here and hereafter. The only golden time we have seen is when Islam used to rule people, both at their personal and at collective levels. Let’s all accept the Oneness of Allah.

(Writer is pursuing MA in Islamic Studies from KU)

Lastupdate on : Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 IST