Basic · Knowing Allah · Faith & Theology · Ages 5–99
Allah Is One
Allah is One, with no partner and no equal, and we meet the Qur'an, Allah's book, and read Surah al-Ikhlas.
What you will learn
- Explain that Allah is One: there is no god but Allah, and Allah has no partner and no equal. This belief is called tawhid.
- Recognise the Qur'an as Allah's book, made up of surahs and ayahs, and read Surah al-Ikhlas as its words on Allah's oneness.
When did Allah begin?
Answer: Allah has no beginning
Everything else had a beginning. Allah has no beginning at all.
Which of these is true?
Answer: Everything needs Allah, and Allah needs nothing.
The world did not stop needing Allah once it began: it needs Allah at every moment. Only Allah needs nothing.
Look up at the sky by day. You see the sun. Look up at night. You see the moon and the stars. Allah alone made them all. Allah is One.
Who made the sun, the moon and the stars?
Answer: One maker made them all
Everything in the world fits together. The sun warms the earth. Rain waters the plants, and plants feed animals and people. It all works as one, because one Allah made all of it and looks after all of it. Allah is One, with no partner.
Could the world have more than one god?
Answer: No, Allah alone is God
Gravity works in a distant galaxy as it does here: one order runs through everything. Allah's book says that with gods besides Allah, the heavens and earth would fall apart. Reason shows why. Two gods would each be limited by the other, and a limited being is not God. So even gods who always agree could not all be God.
Suppose several gods always agreed with one another. Could the world's one order come from them?
Answer: No: gods like that could not all truly be God
Allah made the sun, the sea and you. Allah alone made it all. There is no other god. No one helped Allah make it.
Allah made the sun. Who made the sea?
Answer: Allah made the sea, too
There is only one God. So the sun and the sea have the same Maker.
Believing that Allah is One has a special name: tawhid. Tawhid means that Allah is the only God. No one shares in Allah's work, and nothing is equal to Allah.
A classmate helps you finish a drawing. Is Allah's creating like that?
Answer: No, Allah creates with no partner
People often need help to make things, but Allah makes everything with no partner at all.
The word for this belief is tawhid: Allah is One. This is not “one” in the sense that a person is one among billions of people. It means there is no second at all: no partner in creating or running the world, and nothing that is equal to Allah.
A person is one among many people. In what way is Allah One?
Answer: Allah has no second, in any sense at all
Every person is unique, yet still one of many. Allah has no second at all, so Allah is not one of any group.
True or false?
- Allah is One. — True
- Allah needs a helper to make the rain. — False
- There is no other god besides Allah. — True
True or false?
- Tawhid means believing that Allah is One. — True
- Allah made the sky, and another god made the sea. — False
- Allah has no partner. — True
- Allah needs helpers to look after the world. — False
True or false?
- Tawhid means that Allah has no partner in creating the world. — True
- Allah created the world and lets other powers run parts of it independently of Allah, by their own authority. — False
- Allah is the greatest of several gods. — False
- Nothing and no one is equal to Allah. — True
Allah has a book, the Qur'an. The Qur'an has many parts called surahs. Each surah has a name. A surah is made of ayahs. An ayah is one verse.
What is a surah?
Answer: A part of the Qur'an
A surah is bigger than an ayah. Ayahs together make one surah.
The Qur'an is Allah's book. It has 114 surahs, and each one has its own name. Every surah is made of ayahs, or verses. One of the shortest surahs, Surah al-Ikhlas, has only four ayahs.
Surah al-Ikhlas has four ayahs. What does that mean?
Answer: It is one surah made of four verses
An ayah is a single verse, so four of them make one short surah.
Muslims know the Qur'an as Allah's own word. It has 114 surahs, numbered from first to last, and each has its own name. Each surah is made of numbered ayahs, so 112:1 means surah 112, ayah 1. The word “ayah” means verse, and also sign: the same word the Qur'an uses for Allah's signs in the world.
Why is it fitting that a single word, “ayah”, means both a verse and a sign in the world?
Answer: Both lead whoever reflects on them to Allah
A verse does the same work as the signs in creation: each leads whoever reflects on it to Allah.
Match each word to what it means.
- The Qur'an — Allah's book
- A surah — A part of the Qur'an with its own name
- An ayah — One verse of a surah
قُلْ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ ٱللَّهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ
Say: He, Allah, is One. Allah is He on Whom all depend. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And none is like Him.
Al-Ikhlas · 1-4 · M. H. Shakir (Tanzil)
What do these ayahs say about Allah?
Answer: Allah is One, and no one is equal to Allah
“One” means that Allah is the only God. “None is like Him” means that no one is Allah's partner or rival.
قُلْ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ ٱللَّهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ
Say, ‘He is Allah, the One. Allah is the All-embracing. He neither begat, nor was begotten, nor has He any equal.’
Al-Ikhlas · 1-4 · Ali Quli Qara'i (Tanzil)
The surah opens with “He is Allah, the One” and ends with “nor has He any equal”. What does the ending add?
Answer: That nothing at all is equal to Allah in any way
“One” rules out a second god. “No equal” rules out anything matching Allah in any respect, whether rank or power. Together they make Allah's oneness complete.
tawhid tawhid
Believing that Allah is One, with no partner
The word comes from an Arabic root meaning “to make or declare one”. It is the first belief of Islam.
al-Ahad al-Ahad
The One, who has no partner and no equal
A name of Allah. Surah al-Ikhlas opens with it.
What does tawhid mean?
Answer: Believing that Allah is One
Tawhid is believing that Allah is One, with no partner, and needs no one's help.
tawhid tawhid
Believing that Allah is One, with no partner
The word comes from an Arabic root meaning “to make or declare one”. It is the first belief of Islam.
al-Ahad al-Ahad
The One, who has no partner and no equal
A name of Allah. Surah al-Ikhlas opens with it.
Tawhid comes from a root meaning “to make or declare one”. What does it mean to hold to tawhid?
Answer: Believing there is no god but Allah, and no partner beside Allah
To declare Allah One is to give no one and nothing a share in being God.
لَوْ كَانَ فِيهِمَآ ءَالِهَةٌ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ لَفَسَدَتَا فَسُبْحَٰنَ ٱللَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَرْشِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ
Had there been any gods in them other than Allah, they would surely have fallen apart. Clear is Allah, the Lord of the Throne, of what they allege [concerning Him].
Al-Anbiya · 22 · Ali Quli Qara'i (Tanzil)
According to this ayah, what would happen if there were other gods besides Allah?
Answer: The heavens and the earth would fall into ruin
Rival wills could never keep one order. The single order we see points to One Allah.
What is an ayah?
Answer: One verse of a surah
Ayahs are the verses that make up every surah, from the shortest to the longest.
A book quotes “Qur'an 112:1”. What do the two numbers mean?
Answer: Surah 112, ayah 1
The first number gives the surah, and the second gives the ayah within it. So 112:1 is the opening ayah of Surah al-Ikhlas: “Say, He is Allah, the One.”
Which of these belong to tawhid? Choose all that are true.
Answer: Allah is One. / Allah has no partner in creating. / Nothing and no one is equal to Allah.
Tawhid rules out any second god, any partner and any equal. Sharing the running of the world, or being the greatest of several gods, would both give Allah partners or rivals.
After the rain, you see a rainbow. Who made the rain, the sun and the rainbow?
Answer: Allah made the rain, the sun and the rainbow
The rain, the sun and the rainbow all have one Maker. That Maker is Allah.
In class, you learn that the sun, the rain and the soil work together to grow food. Which thought is right?
Answer: One Allah made them all, so they fit together.
They fit together so well because they all have one Maker, Allah, who has no partner.
For school, you read old myths with a god of the sea, a god of the sky and a god of war. Which thought is right?
Answer: The sea, the sky and everything else have one Creator, Allah, with no partner.
Tawhid leaves no part of the world, not the sea, not the sky, not anything else, to any other god.
A documentary you are watching says that “nature found a way” to let a desert plant survive. Which thought is right?
Answer: Nature is no second power: Allah alone made it and runs it.
The phrase is only a figure of speech. Nature is Allah's creation, not Allah's partner, and any way it seems to find is Allah's doing.
Suppose something you worked hard on for a long time turns out well, and some people put it down to luck. Which thought is right?
Answer: All the good came from Allah, who has no partner, through people and effort.
Luck and chance are not partners of Allah. Allah alone gives the good, often through other people and through effort.
Over many years you have watched the seasons turn, year after year. Which thought is right?
Answer: The same One Allah has brought every season, with no partner in the work.
Every season, every year, comes from the One Allah, who has no partner in bringing it.