The Meaning & Proofs of Tawhid

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is taken from Habib Ahmad Mashhur ibn Thaha al-Haddad’s (q.s.) Miftah al-Jannah, “Key to the Garden” and translated from the Arabic by Dr. Muhammad Muswthafa al-Badawi. 

The meaning of this ennobling phrase, laa ilaha illa Allah, embraces all that we have set out in sum, and what the a’immah among the people of the science of tawhid have expounded in detail in their writings.  It has been elucidated and conclusively proved in the Qur’an and the ahadits of the Prophet (s.a.w.).  From these two sources the theologians have derived the categories of Divinity, prophecy, and doctrines received in sam‘iyyat, faith.  They have discoursed on these matters with an abundance that is a cure and an illumination of hearts, and have called it the science of tawhid, the science of beliefs and the science of uswul ad-din, the roots of religion.  This science is preeminent over all other sciences and is to be relied upon implicitly.  By its light believers are guided, and from its pure wellspring the gnostics quench their thirst.  This science together with the sciences of Qur’anic commentary, tafsir; ahadits; fiqh, law; uswul al-fiqh, jurisprudence; and Sufism; are among the Islamic sciences which no seeker of knowledge and gnosis can do without.  Whoever knows what is obligatory for him of these will be clear about his case, possessed of insight into his religion, and shall be among the successful. 

Beyond any doubt, the foundation of all this is knowledge of the One, the Unique, Whose Majesty is Sublime, together with certainty regarding His Oneness, His other Exalted Attributes and Beautiful Names, and His freedom from what does not befit His Majesty.  This knowledge is the utmost aim and the purest fountain, and is described as “the firm implantation of faith in the heart.”  Now faith is a light that God Cast into the heart of His servant to make its glass luminous so that it may perceive the hidden knowledges and secrets as though it were actually beholding and witnessing them.  This results in the severance of all attachments other than that which is to God, and in single-heartedness before Him, tranquility in His remembrance, fear and hope in Him, acquiring noble qualities of character and divesting oneself of reprehensible ones, addressing oneself to acts of obedience to Him, abstaining from rebellious and wrong actions, and winning His Nearness and Good Pleasure – which is the greatest felicity of all.