Tawhid: the oneness of God
Islamic Studies · Key Stage 3 · The School
The central belief
TAWHID is the belief that God is one, without partner, parent or offspring, and unlike anything created. It is the first half of the shahadah and the idea every other Islamic belief is arranged around. Surah al-Ikhlas states it directly, and it is why Muslim theology insists God cannot be pictured or compared to created things.
What follows from it
Because God is unlike creation, Islamic art developed away from depicting God entirely, and much religious art turned to geometry, pattern and calligraphy. Because worship is owed to God alone, prayer is directed to no intermediary. Because God is one, the moral order is understood as one — the same standard applying everywhere rather than varying by place.
Shirk
SHIRK means associating partners with God, and in Islamic teaching it is the opposite of tawhid and the gravest wrong. It covers worshipping another being and also, in the discussion of scholars, treating anything as an equal object of ultimate devotion. Muslims disagree with other traditions on this point, and that disagreement is stated here as a difference of belief rather than settled.
Here is an imagined case with made-up details. Sami says God made the heavens and the earth. Even so, Sami trusts a lucky charm in his pocket to bring him good marks. Check his belief in two steps. Step one: who made everything? Sami says God, so this step fits tawhid. Step two: who does he rely on for his marks? God, and also a charm. Ibn Kathir read 1:5 as meaning that we worship God alone and rely on God alone. By that standard, step two does not fit. Ibn Kathir also wrote that the idol-worshippers in 31:25 agreed God alone was the Creator, yet worshipped others as well. So agreeing that God is the only Creator does not answer step two. An IslamWeb fatwa on amulets, objects worn or carried for luck or protection, calls it minor shirk to treat one as a cause of good when it is not. Ibn Rajab wrote that relying on God does not contradict using worldly means, such as revising for a test. So Sami revises as usual, relies on God for the result, and keeps the charm only as a keepsake.