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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values For Humanity CHAPTER ONE: ONE GOD, MANY PROPHETS The Unity of Truth and the Multiplicity of Revelations Say: He, God, is One, God the Self-Sufficient Besought of all. He begetteth not, nor is begotten, and none is like Him.

Quran 112: v.1-41 GOD THE ONE At the heart of Islam stands the reality of God, the One, the Absolute and the Infinite, the Infinitely Good and All-Merciful, the One Who is at once transcendent and immanent, greater than all we can conceive or imagine, yet, as the Quran, the sacred scripture of Islam, attests, closer to us than our jugular vein.

The One God, known by His Arabic Name, Allah , is the central reality of Islam in all of its facets, and attestation to this oneness, which is called tawhid, is the axis around which all that is Islamic revolves. Allah is beyond all duality and relationality, beyond the differences of gender and of all qualities that distinguish beings from each other in this world. Yet He is the source of all existence and all cosmic and human qualities as well as the End to Whom all things return.

To testify to this oneness lies at the heart of the credo of Islam, and the formula that expresses the truth of this oneness, La ilaha illa’Llah , “There is no god but God,” is the first of two testifications ( shahadahs ) by which a person bears witness to being a Muslim; the second is Muhammadun rasul Allah , “Muh.ammad is the messenger of God.” The oneness of God is for Muslims not only the heart of their religion, but that of every authentic religion.

It is a reassertion of the revelation of God to the Hebrew prophets and to Christ, whom Muslims also consider to be their prophets, the revelation of the truth that “The Lord is one,” the reconfirmation of that timeless truth that is also stated in the Catholic creed, Credo in unum Deum, “I believe in one God.” As the Quran states, “We have never sent a messenger before thee except that We revealed to him, saying, ‘There is no god but I, so worship Me’” (21:25).

Like countless Muslims, when I read the names of the prophets of old in the Quran or in the traditional prayers, I experience them as living realities in the Islamic universe, while being fully conscious of the fact that they are revered figures in Judaism and Christianity. I also remain fully aware that they are all speaking of the same God Who is One and not of some other deity. The One God, or Allah , is neither male nor female.