☪️ KNOWING ALLAH ☪️

KNOWING ALLAH

● Knowledge of Allah is essential to understand why He is worthy of our worship; we cannot worship something we are ignorant of.

● To know Allah means that we affirm He is the sole creator and maintainer of everything that

exists (known as Oneness of God’s Lordship).

● It also entails that we affirm His names and attributes in the context of recognising that they

are unique and that nothing can be compared to Him (known as Oneness of Allah’s Names

and Attributes).

● Knowledge of Allah also means that we must know that He is unique in His Divinity; He

alone is entitled to all acts of worship (known as Oneness of Allah’s Divinity).

● It is also critical to affirm that nothing whatsoever shares in Allah’s creative power and ability, names and attributes, and Divinity. All forms of anthropomorphism are completely

rejected. Allah is transcendent and maximally perfect – He has no imperfections.

● The concept of oneness of Allah is referred to as tawheed, which linguistically means to

affirm oneness or to make something one or unique.

☝️ Oneness of Lordship

● The oneness of Allah’s Lordship is to affirm and recognise that Allah is the sole creator,

master and owner of everything that exists. He is the One who sustains, takes care of, and

nourishes everything.

● Allah says, “Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is the Maintainer of everything”

(39:62) and “No calamity befalls ˹anyone˺ except by Allah’s Will.” (64:11)

● Anyone who denies this has associated partners with Allah, which is referred to as Shirk

(polytheism).

● Anyone who believes that these descriptions of Allah can be shared by any created thing

has deified that thing. Therefore, they have associated partners with Allah.

☝️ Oneness of God’s names and attributes

● The oneness of Allah’s names and attributes means to describe Allah only by the names and attributes that He has described Himself by in the Qur’an and Prophetic teachings.

● These names and attributes, such as The-Loving and The-Subtle, are affirmed but they are not comparable to creation.

● Allah’s names and attributes are perfect without any deficiency or flaws, as Allah says: “The most beautiful names belong to Allah: so call on Him by them.” (7:180) and & There is nothing like Him and He is hearer and seer of all. (42:11)

● Allah is maximally perfect. Therefore, the one who compares these names and attributes to

creation has committed humanisation, and has associated partners with Allah (Shirk).

● The one who compares any created thing to Allah has committed deification, which is also a

form of associating partners with Allah.

☝️ Oneness of God’s Divinity

● The oneness of Allah’s Divinity is that we must affirm that all acts of worship must be

directed to Him alone. Allah says ;I did not create the Jinn and Mankind except for My worship. (51:56)

● Someone who directs acts of worship to other than Allah, and the one who seeks reward

from other than Allah in any act of worship, has associated partners with Him.

Taken from iERA’s flagship da’wah training course. Introduction and opening statements. www.iera.org