The Qurʾānic and Prophetic Foundations of of the word ‘Tawḥīd’

﷽

Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz bin ʿAbdAllāh bin Bāz (1330 to 1420 AH / 1910 to 1999 CE)

In response to the question: You call to tawḥīd; what is your evidence for the term “tawḥīd”, and from where has it been derived?

Answer:

There are numerous evidences for this term within the Book of Allah ﷻ and the sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ. The meaning of tawḥīd is to single Allah ﷻ out alone, affirming His Oneness and Uniqueness, without any partner.

Among the Qurʾānic verses that indicate this meaning is the statement of Allah ﷻ:

۞ وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنْسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ
“And I did not create the Jinn and Mankind except to worship Me alone.” (Sūrat al-Dhāriyāt 51:56)

And His statement ﷻ:

۞ وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ مِنْ رَسُولٍ إِلَّا نُوحِي إِلَيْهِ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنَا فَاعْبُدُونِ
“And We did not send before you any messenger except that We revealed to him that none has the right to be worshipped except Me, so worship Me alone.” (Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ 21:25)

There are many other verses which carry this same meaning.

As for the aḥādīth, among them is what has been authentically reported in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī on the authority of ʿAbdAllāh ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68 AH / 687 CE), may Allah ﷻ be pleased with them both, that the Prophet ﷺ said to Muʿādh ibn Jabal (d. 18 AH / 639 CE) when he sent him to Yemen: “Call them to the worship of Allah alone.”

Likewise, it is authentically reported in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim on the authority of Ṭāriq ibn Ashīm al-Ashjaʿī, may Allah ﷻ be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever worships Allah alone and disbelieves in whatever is worshipped besides Allah, his wealth and his blood are inviolable, and his reckoning is with Allah.”

Here, the Messenger ﷺ explicitly mentioned “worships Allah alone”, which clearly indicates the meaning of the statement Lā ilāha illā Allāh.

It is also authentically reported in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim on the authority of ʿAbdAllāh ibn ʿUmar (d. 73 AH / 693 CE), may Allah ﷻ be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Islam is built upon five: that you worship Allah alone…” to the end of the ḥadīth.

This narration serves as an explanation of his ﷺ statement in another authentic report: “Islam is built upon five: the testimony that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah…” to the end of the narration.

The narrations conveying this meaning are numerous. And Allah ﷻ is the Granter of success.

Translator’s Note

[TN]: Other narrations in which the term tawḥīd is explicitly mentioned include the following:

Imām Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī (d. 279 AH / 892 CE) recorded in al-Jāmiʿ (ḥadīth no. 2597) that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Some of the people of tawḥīd will be punished in the Fire until they become like charcoal. Then the Mercy of Allah will reach them, and they will be taken out and cast before the gates of Paradise. The people of Paradise will then pour water over them, and they will sprout as debris carried by a flood sprouts; thereafter, they will enter Paradise.”

Imām Muḥammad ibn Yazīd Ibn Mājah (d. 273 AH / 887 CE) recorded in his Sunan (ḥadīth no. 3122), on the authority of Abū Hurayrah (d. 59 AH / 679 CE), that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wished to offer a sacrifice, he purchased two large, fat, horned, black-and-white castrated rams. He slaughtered one on behalf of his nation, for those who testified to Allah with tawḥīd.

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Reference

Ibn Bāz, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz bin ʿAbdAllāh (d. 1420 AH / 1999 CE), Majmūʿ Fatāwā wa Maqālāt Mutanawwiʿa, Riyadh: Dār al-Qāsim, 1st ed., 1421 AH, vol. 3, p. 140.