THE term ‘Tawheed,’ in Arabic means attributing oneness to Allah and describing Him as being One and Unique, with no partner or peer in His attributes.

The Quran declares that “Nothing is like Him,” Allah is omniscience and all powerful. All of Allah’s attributes belongs to Him exclusively.

The word (Tawheed) and its derivates are used in the holy Qu’ran and Sunnah. For instance, “say,” He is Allah, (who is) one, Allah-us-samad) (Allah – the Self-Sufficient Master, whom all creatures need, (He neither eats nor drinks), He begets not, nor was He begotten, And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him.” (Al Ikhlas 112:1–4). “And your (god) is one God.

There is no deity (worthy of worship) except Him, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful (al-Baqarah 2:163).

There are many similar verses in the holy Quran that narrates the Oneness and affirmation of the Almighty Allah. In Sahee-al-Bukhari (7372) and Sahee-Mushim, (19), it was narrated that Ibn Abbaas (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

When the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sent Mu’aadth Ibn Jabal to Yemen, he said to him: “You are going to people from among the people of the Book, so let the first thing to which you call them be belief in Allah alone (Tawheed).

If they accept that, them tell them that Allah has enjoined on them Zakat, from their wealth, to be taken from their rich and given to their poor. If they agree to that then take it from them, but avoid the best of people’s wealth.”

The unity of  Allah is a magnificent and a beautiful concept and Muslims re-affirm their adherence to it many times a day.

To acknowledge the fact of the affirmation of oneness, Muslims, renew their faith by frequent recitation of “Lailahailallah” (there is no worthy of worship except Allah) will be the means to eradicate “Shrik” (Poly theism).

Tawheed is a powerful and effective concept for focusing and organising one’s world view and epitomising a religious and psychological orientation and authentically expression of an important fact of the spirit of Islam. However, it should be noted that scholars have divided Tawheed into categories, as follows:

(a) Tawheed al-Ruboobiyyah (Oneness of Divine Lordship): This means believing in Allah as One and Unique, with regard to His Actions, such as creation, sovereignty, control, giving life and death, etc. Whoever believes that there is any creator other than Allah or any sovereign controlling this universe and disposing its affairs other than Allah has denied this aspect of Tawheed and has disbelieved in Allah. However, whoever affirms Tawheed in the true sense must inevitably also affirm the Oneness of Allah’s Divinity.

Tawheed al-Rubiobiyyah was not claimed by anyone of the sons of Adam. No one says that the world has two creatures who are equal.

No one argued with the idea of Tawheed al-Rubiobiyyah except Pharaoh, who denied it out of arrogance and stubbornness and even claimed, may Allah curse him, to be the Lord. Allah says of him (interpretation of the meaning): “Saying:“I am your Lord most high.” (al-Naaziat 79:24) ‘I know not that you have an Ilaah (a god) other than me” (al-Qasas 28:38). This was arrogance on his part because he knew that the Lord was someone other than him.

Tawheed al-Uloohiyyah:- This means devoting all acts of worship, both inward and outward, in word and deed, to Allah Alone, and not worshipping anything or anyone other than Allah, no matter who he is Allah says (interpretation of the meaning). “And your lord has deemed that you worship none but Him.” (al-Isra ;17:23) “Worship Allah and join none with Him (in worship)” (al-Nisa 4:36). It is called Tawheed al-Ulrohiyaah, because , it is based on ta’allulililladh, which means worship and devotion of Allah, accompanied by love and veneration.

Tawheed al-Asma’ wa’l-sifaat (Oneness of the Divine Names and Attributes), this means affirming the names and believing that there is none like unto Allah in His names and attributes.

Tawheed al Itabaa. This means unity in the following the Prophet Muhammed (SAW) interpretation of the meaning) that Allah is the Omniscience creator and that Prophet Mohammed is truly the messenger of Allaah.

However, it is apparent that the term “Tawheed” expatiates on the affirmation of oneness and the unity of Allah in its most profound sense. The term “Shrik” is the vice that is opposed at the virtue of Tawheed” Shrik generally implies assigning partners or equals to God, and is considered to be the paramount sin in Islam. The central doctrine of Islam is “Taoheed” which (divine unity), which means that God does not need nor have partners to assist Him.

The Jahiliya period during the pre-Islamic period in Arabian country could be seen as an instance whereby people performed violatory and ignorance; governed by barbaric lawlessness and godlessness, and thus symbolises one of the world’s man evils; rebellion against God’s sovereignty on earth, plurality of wives and husbands was the order of the day, among others.

The reason that is important to know the full definition and categories of Tawheed is that, it guards Muslims against falling into the traps of deviant groups, for example, secularists want Muslims to reject the Sharia of Allah and they wanted to put their own laws in place of Allah’s Sharia which is clearly a contradiction to the second part of “Tawheed, and therefore what secularism calls for is “Sharia”, which is a sin and oppression not only because it is transgression of the rights of Allah and that it includes slander and insult but also a great transgression of the rights of the universe and all of the creatures.

Major Types of Shrik
•To leave Allah and to adore and worship living and non-living things other than Him.

•To believe in Allah but to associate partners with Him, that is, to believe that some other beings have the attributes  of divinity.

•To accept that the Creator is the creator of this world, but to worship non-living things like idols and sculptures in order to approach Him.

•The most common type of shirk is the one in which man obeys his own passion and desires blandly and see his desires as a divinity.

Lesser Shrik
This does not constitute apostasy, but can lead to greater shirk, such as, shirk which constitutes of utterances and actions that is wearing by other than Allaah; the Messenger of Allah (SAW), and while that of actions means wearing a ring or a threat to word off evil.

Also, acts performed to show off is considered shrik in Islam, that is, any religious deed done in order to gain praise, fame or for worldly purposes.

Whoever that is being inwardly dissatisfied with the inevitable condition that has been ordained for one by Allah; conscientiously lamenting that had you done or not done such or had you approached such, you would have had a better status is also consider as lesser shrik in Islam.

However, Muslims and non-Muslims must avoid shrik and pledge your total belief in Almighty Allah, to do so, grants your security and safety in the hereafter, and to be able to guard yourself from shrik, then you must correctly believe in Allah.

•Ismail, is a student of Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State.