Tawheed According to Ahl al-Kalaam (People of Rhetoric)

[Shehzad Sattar]

There are those who say: There is only one type of Tawheed, Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyyah (singling out Allaah for His Lordship), and that is recognition of Allaah being the Creator, the Sustainer, the One who gives life and death, and the rest of all the actions and qualities of Allaah, the Most High and Supreme.

Those who are upon this are all the scholars of rhetoric and theory, those who have built their ‘Aqeedah (beliefs) upon knowledge of rhetoric and logic. Their beliefs are present, and if you read their books you will not find anything (about Tawheed) except affirmation of Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyyah. And anyone who acknowledges it (Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyyah) is a Muwahhid (monotheist) according to them. They do not have with them Tawheed al-Uloohiyyah (singling out Allaah for worship) nor do they have Tawheed al-Asmaa was-Sifaat (singling out Allaah for His Names and Attributes). Therefore, they do not consider worshipping of the graves and calling upon the dead to be Shirk; rather the likes of them say: This is directing oneself to other than Allah and this is wrong. But they do not say this is Shirk.

And some of them say: Verily these people who call upon the deceased and seek aid from the inhabitants of the graves, they are not Mushrikoon (polytheists), because they do not believe that the deceased or those that they worship create, provide, sustain and dispose of affairs alongside Allaah. So as long as they do not believe in that they are not Mushrikoon (polytheists).

And they (the people of rhetoric) do not consider this action of theirs (worshipping other than Allaah) to be Shirk, but rather they consider them to have merely taken these things as intermediaries and as a means of intercession between them and Allaah!

These are there statements just as the Mushrikoon (polytheists) used to say before:
“We only worship them that they may bring us nearer to Allah in position.” (az-Zumar:3)

And Allaah said about them:
‘And they worship other than Allah that which neither harms them nor benefits them, and they say, “These are our intercessors with Allah.”' (Yoonus:18)

The scholars of rhetoric and logic (also) say: Verily the worshipping of graves and having a connection with the deceased and seeking aid from them is not Shirk, but rather it is a means of seeking intercession and taking intermediaries to get (closer) to Allaah. And it is not considered Shirk unless they believe that these (intermediaries) create, provide, sustain, and arrange and dispose of affairs alongside Allaah!! This is what is in their books and in their speech.

And those from the people of rhetoric that denounce what these people (grave worshippers etc) fall into, they say: This is from error, and these people are ignorant and they fall into this out of ignorance and not intent.

However most of them (the people of rhetoric and logic) do not denounce them (those who worship other than Allaah). Rather they say: This is considered to be taking intermediaries as a means of intercession with Allaah and not Shirk.

I do not quote from people that which they do not say, rather this is what is found in their books which are written in response (and opposition) to the people of Tawheed and in their defence of the people of Shirk.

As for (singling out Allaah for His Names and Attributes), then affirmation (of the Names and Attributes of Allaah) is tantamount to resemblance (of Allaah) to the creation, according to them. And thus they negate it from Allaah. These people are the Jahmiyyah, Mu’tazilah, Ashaa’irah, Maatureediyyah (deviated sects of Islaam); and all of them negate Tawheed al-Asmaa was-Sifaat out of their perception of being cautious in resembling Allaah to the creation. So thus for them, Tawheed has become confined to Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyyah only, and they do not have Tawheed al-Uloohiyyah nor do they have Tawheed al-Asmaa was-Sifaat.

And they denounce the one who divides Tawheed into three types, to such an extent that one of their contemporary writers said: Dividing Tawheed into three types is from Trinity! This insolence of his was so exaggerated, that he went on to say that it resembles Christianity. And we seek refuge with Allaah.

(Lessons from the Noble Qur’aan by Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan, pages 15-18)

By Ash-Shaykh al-‘Allaamah Saalih ibn Fawzaan al-Fawzaan

(Translation and additional comments by Ibn Hussain for Markaz-us-Sunnah Leicester, 1434)