KETAB AT-TAUHID

Emam Shaykh Mohummed ebn `Abdel-Wahhab

KETAB AT-TAUHID

Emam Shaykh Mohummed ebn `Abdel-Wahhab

Table of Contents

1. Chapter I.....On Tauhid

2. Chapter II....Virtues of Tauhid and the Many Sins for Which it Atones

3. Chapter III...Whoever Practices Tauhid Enters Paradise Without Reckoning

4. Chapter IV....Fear of Shirk

Chapter I -- "On Tauhid"

Allah--ta`ala--has said: "I have not created jinn and mankind except to serve Me . . . And to every people We sent a prophet to convey to them that they ought to serve Allah and avoid at-taghot. . . . Your Lord has decreed that you shall serve none but Him, and show kindness to your parents . . . Serve Allah and do not associate aught with Him . . . Come, let me tell you what your Lord has forbidden you; namely, that you do not associate aught with Him." (Qor'an 51:56, 16:36, 17:23, 4:36, 6:151-153) Ebn Mus`od said: "Whoever wishes to ascertain the will of the Prophet Mohummed--salla 'llaho `alayhi wasallam--a will on which the Prophet had set his seal, let him read the following words of Allah: 'Come, let me tell you what your Lord has forbidden you, namely, that you do not associate aught with Him . . . And that is My straight path." (Qor'an 6:151-153) Mo`ad ebn Jabal related: "I was riding behind the Prophet--salla 'llaho `alayhi wasallam--when he said to me: 'O Mo`ad! Do you know what is due to Allah from His creatures, and what is due them?' I responded: 'Allah and His Prophet know best.' He continued: 'What is due to Allah from His creatures is to serve Him alone and never to associate any other being with Him. What is due them is not to punish any person who does not associate aught with Him.' I said: 'O Prophet of Allah, may I not then give the glad tidings to the people?' He replied: 'No! Do not reassure them lest they rely on the promise and lapse in their service to Him.'" The foregoing hadith is reported in the two Sahihs. -- FURTHER ISSUES -- 1. The wisdom of creating jinn and mankind. 2. That service to Allah consists of tauhid. For, in the opposite of tauhid [i.e., associationism or polytheism] lies alienation from Allah. 3. That whoever does not fulfill the requirements of tauhid has not served Allah. For, only in tauhid may the meaning of the verse be sought: "Nor will you serve the god whom I serve." (Qor'an 109:3) 4. The wisdom of sending prophets. 5. That the message of prophecy has reached all the members of every people on earth. 6. That the religion of all the prophets is one and the same. 7. Important: That service to Allah is not complete except with the denunciation of at-taghot. Here lies the meaning of the verse, "Whoever denies at-taghot . . ." (Qor'an 2:256) 8. That generally, at-taghot is anything served other than Allah. 9. That the fathers have attached great importance to the above mentioned three unequivocal (mohkamat) verses from Sorat al-An`am (Qor'an 6:151-153), a fact which subsumes ten other problems, first of which is the prohibition of shirk or associationism. 10. The unequivocal verses of Sorat al-Esra' (Qor'an 17:22-39), and their implications, which are eighteen in number. The first is in the verse, "And do not set up with Allah another god, lest you be doomed to guilt and defeat." The last is the verse, "And do not set up with Allah another god lest you be consigned to Hell, guilty and vanquished." (Qor'an 17:39) Allah, sobhanaho, has called our attention to the gravity of these problems, in the verse, "That is wisdom which your Lord has revealed to you." (Qor'an 17:39) 11. The implication of the verse in Sorat an-Nesa', which is known as the verse of the ten duties of man, the start of which is: "And serve Allah alone. Do not associate aught with Him." (Qor'an 4:36) 12. Attention should be paid to the will of the Prophet of Allah--sa`aws--at his death. 13. Our duty to Allah. 14. Our right with Allah if we fulfill our duty to Him. 15. This last problem is unknown to most of the Prophet's companions. 16. Permissibility of keeping this matter secret in order to maximize men's service to Allah. 17. Worthiness of passing the glad tidings to the Moslem. 18. Fear of reliance on the promise of Allah's great mercy. 19. Responding to questions without knowledge of the answer, "Allah and His Prophet know best." 20. Possibility of granting knowledge to some and not to others. 21. The Prophet's modesty in mounting a donkey wih a second rider. 22. Legitimacy of two persons riding on the beast of burden. 23. The virtue of Mo`ad ebn Jabal. 24. The great importance of this matter.

Chapter II -- Virtues of Tauhid and the Many Sins for Which it Atones

Allah--ta`ala--said: "Those who believed and mixed not their iman [faith] with injustice . . . " (Qor'an 6:82) It was related by `Obadat ebn as-Samet that the Prophet of Allah--sa`aws--said: "Whoever witnesses that there is no god but Allah, alone, without associate, and that Mohummed is His servant and apostle, that `Isa [Jesus] is the servant of Allah and His apostle, His command unto Mary and of His spirit, that Paradise and Hell are true, Allah would on that account enter him into Paradise." This hadith was reported in both Sahihs, which also recorded the report of `Etban that the Prophet said: "Allah will not permit to be consigned to Hell anyone who witnesses 'There is no god but Allah,' seeking thereby nothing but Allah's face." Abo Sa`id al-Khodri reported that the Prophet of Allah--sa`aws--said: "When Mosa [Moses] asked Allah to teach him a prayer to recite whenever he remembered or called upon Him, Allah answered: "Say, O Mosa, there is no god but Allah." Mosa said: "O Lord, all your servants say these words." Allah said: "O Mosa, if the seven heavens and all they hold, and the seven earths as well, if all these were weighed against this word of 'There is no god but Allah,' the latter would outweigh the former." Ebn Hebban also reported it and al-Hakem corrected its version. At-Termedi recorded, with some editing, the report of Anas that he heard the Prophet of Allah--sa`aws--say: "Allah said: 'O Man! Were you to come to Me with all the bags of the world full of your sins, but with the witnessing that you associate naught with Me, I would come to you with those bags full of mercy and forgiveness.'" --== FURTHER ISSUES ==-- 1. The comprehensiveness of Allah's mercy and favor. 2. The numerous rewards of tauhid granted by Allah. 3. Its atonement for sins. 4. Explanation of the verse in Sorat al-An`am. 5. The five questions in the hadith reported by `Obadat. 6. When joined to that of `Etban et al., `Obadat's hadith clarifies the meaning of "there is no god but Allah" and exposes the errors of the deluded. 7. Drawing attention to the condition in the hadith of `Etban. 8. The prophets' need for being reminded of the virtues of the witnessing "there is no god but Allah." 9. Explanation of its superiority in value to all of creation, despite the unimportance of some among those who profess it. 10. Textual evidence that there are seven earths as there are seven heavens. 11. That the seven earths have inhabitants of their own. 12. Confirmation of the divine attributes, unlike the claim of Ash`ariyat. 13. That if you understand the hadith of Anas, you would understand that of `Etban, viz., "Allah will not permit to be consigned to Hell anyone who witnesses, 'There is no god but Allah,' seeking thereby nothing but Allah's face." The Prophet meant the actual abandoning of shirk, not merely its verbal denial. 14. Joint description of `Isa and Mohummed as servants and messengers of Allah. 15. Predication of "the Word of God" to `Isa alone. 16. That `Isa is a spirit from God. 17. Virtue of belief in Paradise and Hell. 18. Relation of the deed of witnessing to the reward obtained, as affirmed in the hadith of `Obadat. 19. Weighing the two sides of the scale against each other. 20. Meaning of "God's face."

Chapter III -- Whoever Practices Tauhid Enters Paradise Without Reckoning

Allah--ta`ala--said: "Ebrahim was indeed a model, devoutly obedient to Allah, a hanif. He was not an associationist." (Qor'an 16:120) [Allah called His servants] "those who associate naught with their Lord." (Qor'an 23:59) Hosayn ebn `Abder-Rahman reported: "Once, when I was at Sa`id ebn Jobayr's, I heard the Prophet ask: 'Who has seen the shooting star yesterday?' I answered: 'I did,' and explained that I was not at prayer at the time because I had been stung. He said: 'What did you then do?' I replied: 'I sought spiritual means (roqyat) to cure it.' He said: 'What compelled you to do that?' I said: 'A report I heard from ash-Sha`bi, which he related on behalf of Boraydat ebn al-Hosayb, who said: 'No roqyat or recourse for cure by spiritual means except from jealousy or a scorpion's sting.' He said: 'You did well to reach this knowledge.'" However, Ebn `Abbas reported: "The Prophet--sa`aws--said: 'All the nations were paraded in front of me, and I saw the prophets follow one another, the one with a large crowd, the other with two or three people, and one with none. There then appeared a large multitude of people which I took to be my people. But I was told that these were the people of Mosa. Later, a larger multitude appeared and I was told that those were my people. Among them were seventy thousand who would enter Paradise without reckoning or punishment.' The Prophet then left for his chambers, and the people began to surmise who of them would be in the Prophet's company on that day. Some said: 'Perhaps it would be the companions of the Prophet--sa`aws.' Others surmised it to be those who were born into Islam and therefore had never associated anything with Allah. The Prophet returned and found them still trying to guess. They asked him about the identity of the people, and he said: 'They are those who do not seek spiritual cures for physical ills, who do not practice cauterization, nor believe in omens, but depend totally on their Lord.' `Okashat ebn Mehsan rose and said: 'O Prophet, pray to Allah that I may be one of them.' The Prophet answered: 'You are indeed one of them.' When another person sought to repeat the request, the Prophet told him that `Okashat had beaten him to it. -- FURTHER ISSUES -- 1. The peoples' varying levels of tauhid. 2. Meaning of practicing tauhid. 3. Allah's praise of Ebrahim by describing him as "not an associationist." 4. Allah's praise of the great saints for their innocence of associationism. 5. Tauhid implies avoidance of cauterization and roqyat. 6. That these characteristics are all comprehended in tawakkol, or trusting reliance upon Allah. 7. The deep wisdom of the companions' conviction that such tawakkol would not exist without good deeds. 8. The companions' concern for doing the good. 9. The quantitative and qualitative excellence of this ommat. 10. The virtues of Mosa's companions. 11. Parade of the nations in front of the Prophet--sa`aws. 12. Every people will come separately to the Judgment with its own prophet. 13. Scarcity of those who responded favorably to the prophets. 14. The Prophet to whom nobody responded will come to the Judgment alone. 15. The moral of all these facts is that man should not be deluded by quantity, nor lose hope on account of scarcity. 16. Tolerance of roqyat in cases of jealousy and sting. 17. Commendation by the Prophet of the Companions' knowledge, as per the statement, "You did well to reach this knowledge." That the two hadiths are not contradictory. 18. Reluctance of the salaf to praise falsely. 19. The Prophet's judgment, "You are one of them," as a landmark of prophecy. 20. The virtue of `Okashat. 21. Use of examples. 22. The Prophet's impeccable character.

Chapter IV -- Fear of Shirk

Allah--may He be praised and glorified--said: "Allah will not forgive associating aught with Him; but He will forgive the lesser sins to whomsoever He pleases." (Qor'an 4:48, 116) Al-Khalil--`alayhis salam--said: "O Allah! Grant that neither I nor my descendants ever worship idols." (Qor'an 14:35) In the hadith we read: "What I fear most for you is the lesser shirk. When asked what it is, the Prophet answered, 'Hypocrisy.'" In al-Bokhari's Sahih, we read that Ebn Mus`od--radiya llaho `anho--reported: "The Prophet of Allah--sa`aws--said: 'Whoever dies while calling on associates to Allah shall enter Hell.'" In Moslem's Sahih we read: "Jaber--ra`a--reported that the Prophet of Allah--sa`aws--said: 'Whoever meets Allah on the Day of Judgment not having associated aught with Him, shall enter Paradise; and whoever meets Him having done the contrary shall be consigned to Hell.'" --FURTHER ISSUES-- 1. Fear of shirk. 2. That hypocrisy has the constituents of shirk. 3. That hypocrisy is a lesser kind of shirk. 4. That hypocrisy is the most fearful danger to threaten the righteous. 5. Nearness of Paradise and Hell. 6. Combination of the nearness of Paradise and that of Hell in the same hadith. 7. That whoever meets Allah on the Day of Judgment not associating aught with Him shall enter Paradise; and whoever meets Him differently shall enter Hell even though he might have been of the most pious. 8. The significant prayer of al-Khalil that he and his descendants be protected from idol worship. 9. His consideration of the fate of the majority of men, as in the verse, "O Lord! the idols have misguided numerous people" (Qor'an 14:36) indicates. 10. Interpretation of the witness "there is no god but Allah" as reported by al-Bokhari. 11. Virtue of the person who is free of shirk.




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