If numerous gods ruled over the world and each of these gods...

If numerous gods ruled over the world and each of these gods acted and gave commands in accordance with his own will, the order of the universe would dissolve into anarchy. The Quran says: "If there were numerous gods other than the one true God" the order of the heavens and the earth would collapse. So exalted be the Lord of the Throne above what they say concerning Him."(21:22) If we say that God is one, it is because He is not a body.

A body is a compound of a series of different elements, the union of which causes it to come into being. Compounding, division and generation are all attributes of contingent beings and bodies; we, therefore, negate them in the case of God and assert that whatever has come into existence, as a result of compounding and generation, neither is God nor resembles Him. It is feasible to conceive of plurality within a given category once we speak of limitations such as quantity, quality, and time.

God, however, is not limited by any of these, and it is, therefore, impossible to conceive of Him having any like or congener. If we try to imagine the essence of water, without any limiting attribute, and repeat this exercise several times, nothing will be added to our original conception.

Because in the beginning we conceived of water in an absolute sense, not limited by any condition, quantity or quality, it is impossible that in our subsequent attempts to conceive of it, a new hypothesis should occur to us. But when we add to the essence of water certain limiting at tributes which are extrinsic to it, different forms and instances of water will appear and with them, plurality.

Examples of this would be rainwater, springwater, river water, sea water, all of these observed at different times and in different places, here and there. If we eliminate all these limiting attributes and look again at the fundamental essence of water, we will see that it is exempt from all duality and is a single essence.

We must be aware that any being which can be contained in a certain place necessarily has need of that place, and any being that be contained in a certain time owes its very existence to the defining conditions of that time: its existence will be realized only within the specific temporal framework where those conditions obtain.