Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz bin ʿAbdAllāh bin Bāz

In response to the question: You call to tawḥīd, yet what is your evidence for the word ‘tawḥīd’, and where have you derived it from?

Answer: There are numerous evidences for this term present within the Book of Allāh and the sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ. The meaning of tawḥīd is to single Allāh out alone [in his Lordship, i.e. the belief that He is One and Unique and He has no partner]. From the verses that are indicative of this is Allāh’s statement:

۞ وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنْسَ إِلا لِيَعْبُدُونِ

“And I did not create the Jinn and Mankind except to worship Me alone.” (51: 56)

And His statement:

۞ وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ مِنْ رَسُولٍ إِلا نُوحِي إِلَيْهِ أَنَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا أَنَا فَاعْبُدُونِ

“And We did not send before you a messenger except that We revealed to him that none has the right to be worshipped except Me so worship Me alone.” (21:25)

And there are many other verses which carry this meaning.

As for the aḥadīth; then from them is that which has been authenticated in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās – may Allāh be pleased with them both – that the Prophet ﷺ said to Muʿādh when he sent him to Yemen, “Call them to the worship of Allāh alone.”

And in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim on the authority of Ṭāriq bin Ashīm al-Ashjaʾī – may Allāh be pleased with him – narrated that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said, “Whoever worships Allāh alone and disbelieves in that which is worshipped besides Allāh; his wealth and his blood are sacred and his reckoning is with Allāh.” Here we find that the Messenger  ﷺ explicitly mentioned, “…worship Allāh alone…” clearly indicating (the statement) Lā ilāha illā Allāh.

It has also been authenticated in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim on the authority of ibn ʿUmar – may Allāh be pleased with him – that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Islam is built upon five; that you worship Allāh alone…” to the end of the ḥadīth; and that is an explanation for his ﷺ statement in another narration, “Islam is built upon five; the testimony that none has the right to be worshipped except Allāh and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allāh….” to the end of the narration; and the narrations that carry this meaning are numerous. And Allāh is the granter of success.

[TN]: Other narrations in which the word tawḥīd is mentioned;

• Imām al-Tirmidhī mentioned in his al-Jāmīʿ under ḥadīth no.2597 that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: ‘Some of the people of tawḥīd will be punished in the Fire until they are coals. Then the Mercy (of Allāh) will reach them, and they will be taken out and tossed before the doors of Paradise.” He also said: ” The people of Paradise will pour water over them, and they will sprout as the debris carried by the flood sprouts, then they will enter Paradise.’

• Imām Ibn Mājah mentioned in his Sunan under ḥadīth no.3122 from Abū Hurairah that when the Messenger of Allāh wanted to offer a sacrifice, he bought two large, fat, horned, black-and-white castrated rams. He slaughtered one on behalf of his nation, for whoever testified to Allāh with tawḥīd….