THE CONCEPT OF GOD

According to Islam, God is the One who possesses uniqueness in every aspect and is entirely pure from all forms of participation in His essence and attributes. This is the concept of Tawheed or monotheism in Islam.

Believing in God is not as difficult for humans as arriving at a correct understanding of God. Throughout the ages, humans have continued to acknowledge the existence of God, and even today, a significant majority of the Earth’s population recognizes the existence of God as the Creator. However, the real challenge lies in that, despite believing in God, people associate beliefs with Him that make acceptance and rejection equivalent.

While believing in God, some express such attributes for Him that His separate and independent existence becomes doubtful. Others, having believed in God, associate with Him such partners or close associates that, after that, the divinity of God becomes meaningless.

The reason for man to deviate from the proper understanding of God has always been only one—that is, applying to their concept of God, features or attributes that they observe in the world of human beings. For instance, in this world, people have sons and daughters, and on this basis, it was assumed that God must also have sons and daughters, and this led to the creation of a sacred divine family.

Similarly, since the emperors of the world had some close associates and courtiers to whom they had given powers and listened, it was assumed that some people were very close to God, too, to whom He had given powers and whose views He heard. In this way, belief in the intermediaries to God came into existence. In this world, many forces are seen to be at work—for example, the sun and various stars—and so, it was assumed that these are all beings that partake of Divinity and are running the universe in conjunction with the Great God. In this way, the idea of co-functionaries to God came into being. And so on.

Similarly, the concept of monism was accepted. Monism was the philosophic concept of the singularity of existence in which God and creation have the same existence. It is the belief that God manifests Himself through His creation. Philosophers initially accepted this concept as the unity of existence or the unity of being, which later came to be accepted in religions.

This concept was developed when people saw the one universe filled with innumerable diverse things, from man to the stars, and they wanted to find unity in this diversity. And so, they said that the one Absolute God manifests Himself in different forms. In this way, the concept of God became like an abstract idea, a mere imagination devoid of any independent existence. It was accepted that everything emanates from it and, ultimately, after ending, merges back into it. It is this notion that produced the belief in ‘human gods.’ In monistic philosophy, salvation is understood as the merging of creation with the Creator, often achieved after one’s death, where the individual self dissolves into the ultimate oneness of existence.

However, all these concepts of God are mere hypothetical speculations. They have nothing to do with reality. Islam has kept the concept of God pure from all these hypothetical speculations. According to Islam, every such addition negates the pure concept of God.

According to Islam, God is the One who possesses uniqueness in every aspect and is entirely pure from all forms of participation in His essence and attributes. This is the concept of Tawheed or monotheism in Islam. In the Quran, this is stated thus:

“Say, ‘He is God, the One God, the Self-sufficient One. He does not give birth, nor was He born, and there is nothing like Him.’” (112:1-4)