What is Tauheed?

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahim!

In the name of God the Most Merciful, the Most Beneficent. We are still in saturday. Saturday is counted just after 'asr prayer time. Usually in thursday until fajr of sunday we use the time to memorize Quran and prayers so that our time could be used in a beneficial way. That time is what I mean by peaceful saturday. Some people do not understand the term but that is just how we refer to few things. We also may learn about Him and His teachings during these free times so we may become good Muslims and improving our submission to Him, may He help us.

Today we learn about what is tauheed? Tauheed is our arabic word from the root word ahad which means One. So, tauheed basically means Oneness and it refers to the Lord. Another word for it is monotheism. It is an ideology if it is according to politicial studies academician speech and I frankly hate their terms. Everyone in this world know that Allah is an arabic word used by people in arabic speaking and semitic area in reference to the Creator of the Universe. Other reference for Him is, He who is the King without crown. 

In this post, I would like to talk about this Oneness of God. In our syar'iah or the way of life, it is a sub-branch of 'aqidah (belief). 'Aqidah is the first component in the law of life. So, those who talk about secularism in Muslim community. The first thing to be noted is that we are not like western world. Some muslims becoming secular muslims when they believe that religion should be a separate part of human life differentiated with political entity. Eastern world is no west, and even there are christians in the east whom are the adherents of the church of the east, they are not like the french.

Eastern is as diverse as europe and complicated in different ways to europe or the States. It is the area where philosophies emereged since the Mesopotamia civilization. Persian, Greek, and Rome civilizations began to emerge just after Mesopotamian civilization in Semites' area.  

Please do not assume people around the world are the same when europe put this brand where it is promoting diversity in unity as it would show how silly is the brand when europeans do not walk the talk, and are no different from other bigots in the world but masking itself like uncivilized easterners according to european's perception. I am not anti-europe nor western world. 

I'm myself taking the course about european union and I learned about French Revolution when I was in my first degree. I could recall my class with my kamceng colleague and a close friend, Amir. He passed the paper but I didn't pass the paper because I don't really understand revolution at that time. But now, when I go through the previous notes and discussing it with friends online. I manage to understand those tricky reasons behind the French Revolution. Many reasons that could possibly being related to the revolution.

Back to tauheed. It is then simplified by the ulamas (religious science scholars) in the orthodox sunnah pillars of creed. We call it as arkaanul imaan and its meaning is as what we mentioned. Every Muslim regardless sunnah or shi'ite would profess that they believe in the One God which is Lord God. Shi'ite muslims have their conclusion for pillars of creed which are slightly different from sunnah muslims formulation because they have their ulamas and terms.  

Non-muslims too believing Him but some of them tend to take mediators for Him. I had once being an infidel where my 'aqidah is deflected due to environment and circumstances around so basically I understand how non-muslims religious thinking works. Some are taking their teachers as their mediator to be close to Him. Some may take angels as the mediators to be close to Him or asking this and that. Some personify His attributes to different personifications so that is why we can see many gods and goddess emerge to represent another entity which is Supreme but could not easily being achieved by their mind. Some may take money, positions, and others as their gods. Muslim ulamas too had differentiated this model of tauheed into two branches which are called as Uluhiyyah and Rubbubiyah. We would talk about this later according to our understanding from lectures, may He permits it.

In orthodox sunnah creed, the belief in Allah is concluded as the first pillar. It is the first condition to be a muslim. We profess that there is no gods but only the God. It is also concluded in our first pillar of Islam or arkaanul Islam. We recite this in our salaat during a postion called tasyahud (testimonial), and in each salaat we have twice tasyahuds. This matter has connection with creed and faith. Then, what does tauheed in Islam signifies? It signifies the Oneness of Lord God, without any partner, He is the Most Perfect, the Holiest, the Most Mighty, and the Most Just.

How do we perceive faith as muslims? We must have pure confidence in our soul and professing in our heart and orally the testimonial that there is no gods but only the God, and verbally display it with our acts. So from here we may proceed to arkaanul imaan or the pillars of creed.

The pillars of creed consists of six conclusion about the belief of a muslim which are:    

1. We believe in the only God without any partners nor mediators to pray to Him, Allah.

2. We believe in angels and each muslim must at least aware or recognize ten angels.

3. We believe in prophets and messengers appointed by Allah to teach his servants which are humans, each muslim must at least know 25 of the main prophets from Adam (as) to Muhammad (saw) with four of them are called as ulul 'azmi (prophets and messengers of God with great determination and preserverance).

4. We believe in celestial scriptures which are the scrolls given to our father Ibrahim (Abraham), the torah revealed to Musa (Moses), the zabur (psalmer) revealed to Dawud (David) the ewungal or injil (gospel) revealed in the heart of Isa the son of Maryam (Jesus), and the Quran as the conclusion of all scriptures revealed to prophet of this nation of the period near the end revealed in the heart and soul of our beloved prophet Muhammad (saw).

5. We believe in the Day promised by Lord God, which is also known as the Akhirat. Akhirat means the End which would happen just after the Resurrection or Yom al-Qiyamah.

6. We believe in the Qada' and Qadar. Qada' means the good divine pre-destination and Qadar means the evil divine pre-destination. Everything is in His wisdom.

So, this is how tauheed is related to the pillars of creed. We also touched some point of arkaanul islam which are also related to the tauheed. In Islam, there is also jinayat (criminal) component. A person who is known as muslim bounds to the Islamic way of life so this is the point that could not easily be understood by non-muslims.

A person who violates any component in the way of life would have to face consequences in criminal law. When a person violating his 'aqidah by being an apostate, he or she is also violating the law of life. Islam is the religion of nations and it builds up a society. It has nothing to do with fascism. Fascism was created by westerners and they became paranoid and obsessed with their own terms.

I wonder why people including some muslims who think that they are modernized when they followed others' way of life could easily understand civil law but when it comes to celestial law, it is different thing? I am aware that europe had banished death penalty because it is inhuman, but the United States which is among advanced countries still practising it. Till now, how many persons being killed by Syari'ah court? There is not any country with majority muslim population and with leaders identified as muslim in this world executing the way of life.  

In Malaysia nobody was killed because of apostacy. Instead, many had also won their case like the case of Lina Joy. In southern part of Thailand dominated by muslim malays, there are also remote cases of apostacy such as the case of Im Daoloth around 1960's who embraced buddhism to get incentives from central government as he was a government servant. He wasn't killed by syariah court but died in natural way.

A person who understands his or her own religion would never doing something out of ignorance. A bigot in the opposite showing their ignorance when they talk like they were tyrannized because their real god is not the God but others which only they could decipher who it is or who they are. This is just my personal opinion. As a person dependant to the God, I know where is my level and I am a lowly creature of Him. Not to persuade nor forcing anyone into Islam. I would also like to express gratitude if brothers and sisters in faith could help me correcting the notes about pillars of faith for everyone's benefit. And Allah knows well! 

Allahumma salli 'ala muhammad wa 'ala aali muhammad kamaa sallai-ta 'ala ibrahim, wa 'ala aali ibrahim. Allahumma baarik 'ala muhammad wa 'ala aali muhammad, kamaa barak-ta 'ala aali ibrahim wa 'ala aali ibrahim. Lord God our God be in connection with our prophet muhammad (saw) and his family, as You had been in connection with our father ibrahim (as) and his family. O Lord our God, please bless our prophet muhammad (saw) and his family as You had blessed our father ibrahim (as) and his family. May Allah guide us to the straight path. May there be light from His guidance in our life. Please forgive me my sins if I wrote something wrong, dear Lord. Sealed with prayers for peace and love.