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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Philosophical Instructions Lesson Sixty-Three: Tawhīd The Meaning of Tawhīd Tawḥīd and the oneness of God Almighty have various senses in philosophy, kalām (scholastic theology), and*‘irfān* (gnosis or mysticism). The most important of the philosophical meanings are as follows: 1. Tawḥīd in the necessity of existence, that is, no existent other than the sacred divine essence is essentially the Necessary Existent. 2.

Tawḥīd in the sense of simplicity and lack of composition, which has three subsidiary meanings: Absence of composition of actual parts. Absence of composition of potential parts. Absence of composition of whatness and existence. 3.

Tawḥīd in the sense of the negation of any difference between attributes and essence, that is, the attributes which are related to God Almighty are not like the attributes of material things, which are accidental, and do not occur in His essence, in technical terms, as ‘additions to essence’, but rather their instances are the same as the sacred divine essence, and they are all identical to one another and to the essence. 4.

Tawḥīd in being the Creator and Lord, that is, God the Almighty does not have partners in the creation and management of the universe. 5. Tawḥīd in true actuality, that is, every effect which emerges from an agent or cause, ultimately can be traced back to God, the Supreme, and no agent is independently influential: ‘There is no influence in existence, but Allah’ ( Lā mu’aththir fī al-wujūd illā Allāh ).

Tawhīd in the Necessity of Existence In order to prove the unity and oneness of the essence of the Necessary Existent, the metaphysicians have formulated some arguments, the most certain of which is formed with the employment of the Demonstration of the Sincere (in the version of Ṣadr al-Muta’allihīn), which may be presented as follows: Existence has a level than which it is not possible for there to be any more perfect one; that is, it possesses a limitless perfection, and such an entity cannot be numerous.

In technical terms, it possesses ‘ waḥdat ḥaqqah ḥaqīqiyyah ’ (lit. ‘a true real unity’). The conclusion is that the existence of God, the Supreme, cannot be multiple.