Introduction to Before you start learning, read this verse and

its interpretation in order to get the Barakah

Tawheed
(blesseings of seeking knowledge.)

[..And those who, when they are reminded of

the Aayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons,
﷽ sig ns, revelations, etc.) of their Lord, do not
fall upon them deaf and blind]
In the Name of Allaah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful [Al-Furqan : 73]
Kitabut-Tawheed

Meaning What is the subject of the book?

Tawheed means: The devotion of one's acts of worship to Allaah alone. • To explain the Tawheed that Allaah ‫ﷻ‬
Definition sent the Messengers to call for, with
evidences from the Qur'an and
At-Tawheed in the Arabic language means : make it one.
Sunnah.
In the Sharee'ah, it is to single out Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬with what is exclusive to Him of His
• Explain the great rewards of Tawheed.
Lordship (Ruboobiyyah), Divinity (Uloohiyyah), and His Names and Attributes.
• And to explain what could void
tawheed : Major Shirk (Polytheism).

The Three Kinds of Tawheed: • Or could void its perfection : Minor

Shirk.

Tawheed
• Or things that could lead to major or
minor shirk and therefore should be
avoided.

Tawheed Tawheed Tawheed

Ar-Ruboobiyyah Al-Uloohiyyah Al-Asmaa Was-Sifat What we will learn in this section
(Lordship) (Divinity) (Names & Attributes)
1. The meaning of Tawheed and its
categories.
To single out Allah ‫ ﷻ‬with Also called Tawheed Al-Ibadah. Affirm for Allaah‫ ﷻ‬all His Names
creation, ownership and To single out Allah ‫ ﷻ‬with all and Attributes which He affirmed 2. Wroship, its definition and
control. worship. for Himself in His Book or in the
Sunnah of His Prophet ‫ﷺ‬. conditions and how it is the purpose
And reject the likeness of the behind the creation of humans and
The firm belief that Allaah Attribute to any of the creation
alone is the Lord, Creator, Examples of Allaah ‫ﷻ‬. Jinn
Sustainer of every thing
that exists. And that Allaah
alone gives life and takes it,
• We worship no one We affirm the 3. The meaning of Taghut and how
the One in control of all the except Allaah ‫ﷻ‬ following verse with worship cannot be accepted until
affairs of His creation.
• We make a vow for regards to all the Taghut is rejected.
Exmaples no one except for Names and Attributes
4. The importance of Tawheed.
• No Creator except Allaah ‫ﷻ‬ of Allaah ‫ﷻ‬:
5. The dangers of Shirk, its definitions
Allaah ‫ﷻ‬ (There is nothing like
• We supplicate for and categories.
• No Sustainer except no one except to unto Him, and He is the
All-Hearer, the All-Seer)

!
Allaah ‫ﷻ‬ Allaah ‫ﷻ‬
[42:11]
• No one is in Control
of the universe except Attention: These three kinds of Tawheed are
Allaah ‫ﷻ‬ connected and a Muslim must believe in them all. Read Pages 11 - 18 in the
book

State which kind of Tawheed these statements refer to

Allaah is my Creator I worship Allaah Allaah the Merciful Allaah is the All-Hearer Sources

Tafseer Ibn Katheer from

I made a vow for Allaah heals my I prostrate for Allaah Allaah is in control of Google Play Store
Allaah illness Alone the universe

Allaah knows what Allaah sustains me Allaah the All-Powerful I fast for Allaah
Tafseer Ibn Katheer from
my intentions are
Apple Ios Store

1
 Importance of Tawheed
Tawheed is the reason behind the
1- creation of humans & Jinn
Key points and Principles
Worship if it lacks 1. The reason behind the creation is Tawheed.
Allaah the Almighty said:
sincerity then it 2. Worship, its definition, categories and
becomes showoff conditions.
which is minor Shirk.
(And I (Allaah) created not the jinn and mankind except And if it lacks Worship is much more than what you
that they should worship Me) . [51:56] following of the think!
Prophet ‫ﷺ‬then it
Some people think that the term worship applies
becomes Bid’aah
only to known rituals such as prayer, fasting, and
(innovation).
General meaning of the Verse hajj, and this is a limited understanding of worship.
Quiz: How is this Worship by definition includes all kinds of obediences
• The verse specifies the wisdom behind creating Jinn and related to the that Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬loves whether apparent or hidden.
humans. Unlike worldly masters, Almighty Allaah does not testimony of faith? Things like removing harm from the roads, visiting
sustain His servants in return for benefits, for He intends all La Ilaha Illa Allaah the sick and smiling in the face of another Muslim, are
good for them. and Muhammad is all considered worships in Islam.
• The verse illuminates the obligation of Tawheed since Allaah the Messenger of
Moreover, doing permissible things - with the
‫ ﷻ‬created the Jinn and mankind for fulfilling this objective
Allaah?
intention of empowering one’s self to do good in
only. [Sh. Saleh Al-Fouzan P.1] worship - could also included in this. Accordingly,
daily acts like sleeping, eating, selling and buying,
studying and working, could all be considered a kind
of worship if they are done with a good intention.
It becomes clear then, that worship includes all
Worship aspects of life; the set of beliefs, the five pillars, the
jurisprudence of financial interactions and business
deals, economy, politics, family, marriage, manners
and much more.
Definition Conditions
In order for the worship to be accepted by Does Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬need our worship?
Allaah it has to meet 2 conditions
“Al-‘Ibaadah” ‫العبادة‬ No!
(worship) in the
Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬said:
Arabic language
means: humility and 1. Sincerity to 2. Following • {I desire of them no provision, neither do I
submission. Allaah ‫ﷻ‬ the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬ desire that they should feed Me.} [51:57]

And in the the
Sharee›ah: it is a
comprehensive
term for everything
which Allaah loves
and is pleased with;
from statements
and actions, both
apparent and
hidden.”
Warship is
Tawqeefiyyah: This
means that It is based
on texts from Qur’an
and Sunnah. No one
is allowed to add or
remove from it.
• {And Musa (Moses) said: “If you disbelieve,
Failing to do so Failing to do so you and all on earth together, then verily!
leads to leads to Allaah is Rich (Free of all wants), Owner of
................................ ................................ all Praise.”} [14 : 8]
Kinds
• {If you disbelieve, then verily, Allaah is not
in need of you, He likes not disbelief for His
Worship of the Heart (Hidden)
slaves. And if you are grateful (by being
Love - Hope- Reliance -Fear of Allaah ‫ﷻ‬ believers), He is pleased therewith for you.}
[39 : 7]
(Worship of the Limbs) It is us who need Allaah and need to worship Him
alone (Tawheed). The more we fulfill this the more we
Prayer - Hajj- Jihad - Fasting will feel at peace, relaxed, content because we have
fulfilled the purpose of our creation.
(Verbal worship)
Read the interpretation of the verse from
Reciting Qur’an - Tasbeeh - Saying good
Tafseer Ibnu Katheer and write it down.
things to people
The meaning of this Ayah (51:56) is that, Allaah the
Exalted, the Blessed created ...
(Monetary worship)
............................................................................................................
Zakat - Charity - Building Masajid
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................

Tarbiyah (self improvement) ............................................................................................................

Everyone should look into his life and see if he has ............................................................................................................
fulfilled the objective of his creation or not. .................. their Creator and Provider.

2
 Key points and Principles
Allaah had sent in every nation a Messenger to call
2- them to Tawheed • The importance of monotheism, since Allaah
has made it obligatory upon every nation.

• The religion of all the prophets is one.

Allaah the Almighty said: • At-Taghut, its definitions and examples
{And verily, We have sent among every Ummah (community, nation) a Messenger • The worship of Allaah cannot occur except with
(proclaiming): "Worship Allaah (Alone), and avoid (or keep away from) Taghut} [16:36] rejection of At-Taghut.

• Divine Message has gone to all nations and

General Meaning of the Verse Allaah’s proof was established on all, so
According to this Verse, Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬sent Messengers for every nation and generation that no one may be excused on the Day of
inviting them to worship Allaah Alone and avoid false gods. Starting from the people Resurrection.
of Nuh, when the first instance of Shirk (polytheism) started until the final Prophet
Muhammad ‫ﷺ‬, all nations had received a Messenger to guide them. In explaining tawheed, one must
combine these two statements together:

Taghut Affirm the worship of Allaah & deny the

worship of any Taghut.

Negation & Affirmation

Definition Examples
At-Taghut: Every thing by which a
worshipper transgresses his limit,
Shaytan ‫ال إله‬ ‫إال الله‬
Fira'un (Pharaoh) La Ilaha Illa Allaah
whether it is something or someone
The stars Avoid At-Taghut Worship Allaah
that is worshipped, followed or
All false gods Alone
obeyed. Q. Is Jesus a taghut? And why?

At-Taghut is generally applicable to

all that is worshipped beside Allaah. What is the wisdom behind
sending Messengers?
Sh. Saleh Al-Fouzan : 1. As a mercy to mankind.
What is meant by At-Taghut here is all that is worshipped besides Allaah ‫ﷻ‬, such
2. To show the path that leads to Allaah ‫ﷻ‬
as idols, shrines, planets etc, all are called Taghut. However whoever is worshipped
as man can not know in detail what Allaah
without his consent is not called Taghut e.g. Jesus pbuh, Al-Hasan and Al-Husain and
wants from him except through the
the rest of Awlyaa’ who do not accept that they are worshipped with Allaah. Those
Messengers.
noble people are not called Taghut but the worship of them is called worship of
the Taghut who is Satan because it is he who orders people to do so. Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬says 3. To remove any excuse.
(interpretation of the meaning):
{And (remember) the Day when He will gather them all together, and then will say to the How did Shirk start on earth?
angels: “Was it you that these people used to worship?” They shall say: Glory be to You! You
are our Guardian, not they; Rather, they worshipped the jinn; most of them were believers in
them.}

Tawheed is the first obligation that Allaah decreed

3- upon His servants Key points and Principles

• Qada: means He has legislated,

Allaah the Almighty said:
And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him. And that you be dutiful to
your parents. [17:23]
With what did Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬start and end the orders in these noble verses?
Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬begins the 18 orders here with:
“Do not set up any other god with Allaah, or you
will sit down rebuked, forsaken” [17:22]
And ends them with :
“And do not set up any other god with Allaah
lest you be thrown into Hell, blameworthy and
rejected.” [17:39]
Our religion -Islam- is like a building. The
structure of the building is our Tawheed
(monotheism).
Every other worship or good deed is built on
this structure. If this structure is void or weak
all that is above it is void and will collapse.
Accordingly, if man is good to his parents but
he is not a monotheist (he has no Tawheed),
then this will not benefit him on the day of
judgment.
ordered, or He has instructed. [Ibn
Othaimeen]
• Tawheed (monotheism) is the
most assured right of Allaah and
the most binding duty on man, as
Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬prefaced the verse with
it, and priority is given to what is of
more importance.
• Parent’s rights is directly after the
rights of Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬and therefore
their due rights should be
respected. Being kind and treating
them with mercy is an obligation
and a right that man shall be held
accountable for on the day of
judgment.

3
 Key Points and Principles
Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬started the orders of the due rights with
4- Tawheed and forbade its contradictory act which is Shirk Shirk (polytheism) means associating
partners with Allaah by ascribing to them
what is exclusively to Allaah ‫ﷻ‬.
Shirk has 2 kinds:
Allaah the Almighty said: Major Shirk: If one commits it then he
{Worship Allaah and do not associate any thing with Him} [4:36] will be outside the fold of Islam.
Minor Shirk: Will not remove one from
Islam, but it is still unforgivable and one
General meaning of the verse: will be punished for committing it. What
In this verse, Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬does not specifically enjoin a certain act of worship such is the proof? Verse [4: 48].......................
as prayer or supplication; this is to generally include all devotional acts. Likewise, .............................................................
Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬generally warns us against all forms and acts of polytheism. Therefore, .............................................................
He does not specifically prohibit certain acts or deeds of polytheism. All should be Lessons Drawn from the Verse
avoided.
• The prohibiton of ascribing partners
to Allaah, as it is the gravest and most
This verse is called: (The Verse of the 10 Due Rights) abominable sin.

{And serve Allaah and do not associate any thing with Him and be good to the • Avoidance of all forms and acts of Shirk
parents and to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the neighbor of (polytheism) is a prerequisite for the validity
(your) kin and the alien neighbor, and the companion in a journey and the wayfarer of Tawheed.
and those whom your right hands possess; surely Allaah does not love him who is • All kinds of Shirk (polytheism) according
proud, boastful} [4:36] to the Arabic context of the verse, are
categorically prohibited whether minor or
Read the noble verse and derive the 10 rights therein. major.
What is the first order and the first prohibition?
• It is not allowed to associate any parter
1
with Allaah no matter how noble they are,
2 whether an angel, a prophet, a righteous
3 person or an idol.
4
5 Worship without Tawheed is not
6 Valid
7 It is not enough to worship Allaah,
8 rather, they must not associate anyone
with Him. Because worship is not
9
considered worship truly except when it
10
is free from shirk.
Note that in the 9 rights Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬stated them alone but when Allaah stated As for worship that is contaminated with
Tawheed, He orderd it and forbade that which contradicts it shirk, then it is no longer called worship
of Allaah ‫ﷻ‬.
{Whoever hopes to meet his Lord, let him do
good deeds and not associate any one in the
worship of His Lord} [18:110]
State if the actions below are correct or not Shirk invalidates worship and no good
deed is accepted with it. No matter how
Action ( ) hard a person worships Allaah, if he has
some major shirk then his deeds are all
Offering sacrifice for Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬alone. void.
{And it was already revealed to you and to
Fearing the Jinn that they might harm them and those before you that if you should associate
offering some sacrifice to please them. [anything] with Allah, your work would
Fasting to please Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬alone. surely become worthless, and you would
surely be among the losers.} [39:65]
Fasting to loose some weight and to please Allaah
‫ﷻ‬

4
 5- Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬and His Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬declared Shirk the first
forbidden act

Ibn Mas’ud (May Allaah be pleased with him) said:

“Whoever wants to look at the will of Muhammad ‫ ﷺ‬upon
Allaah the Almighty said: which is his seal, let him read the statement of Allaah, the
{Say “O Muhammad”: “Come, I will recite what your Lord has most High:
prohibited you from: Join not anything in worship with Him; {Say “O Muhammad”: Come I will recite what your Lord has made
forbidden; that you do not associate anything as a partner with
Him and do good to your parents..}
Key Phrases:
General Meaning
Harrama (‫)حـرَّم‬: Made unlawful, forbidden (haram).
The forbidden act is the act which if one does it, he will be punished for He states that had the prophet made his will, he would have
committing it and if he avoids it he will be rewarded for avoiding it. instructed the aforementioned Qur’anic verse. This is inferred
from the concluding phrase of each Qur’anic verse which reads:
General Meaning of the verse “this has He instructed you” (‫)ذلكــم وصاكــم بــه‬.
Since the polytheists followed their whims and satanic insinuations, they
devoted their worship to deities other than Allaah, prohibited what Allaah
provided from them as lawful, and killed their children so as to draw Lessons Drawn from the 2 Verses
nearer to their false deities. Almighty Allaah commanded His Messenger to
inform them of what their Creator and Owner made absolutely prohibited • Commandments in the • Shirk is the gravest and
according to His revelations, not out of their speculation. These prohibited aforementioned Qur’anic most dangerous sin. That is
items are listed under the Ten Commandment stated in these verses.
verses which comprise why Allaah started with it.
These glorified verses comprise the whole of religion, which if man both the abandonment of
contemplated upon them and acted according to them, he will get the 3 • It is exclusively Allaah’s
prohibited acts particularly
attributes that each verse ended with: right to prohibit or make
polytheism and the
Understand / Remember / Be pious something lawful.
fulfillment of what Allaah
The first commandment is to avoid Shirk, because of its grave danger, for has enjoined particularly • The commandments of the
Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬will not accept from anyone any good deed if he is a polytheist. prophet are exactly those of
monotheism, constitute
So even if a person did those 10 commandments but did not leave Shirk
the straight path  the All-Mighty Allaah
then this will not benefit him.

The Straight Path

The straight path of Allaah ‫ﷻ‬
Allaah ‫ﷻ‬, stresses that following the straight
path is to adhere to all commandments
elucidated in the aforementioned verses.
Such commandment, which comprise
both the abandonment of prohibited acts,
particularly Shirk, and the fulfillment of
what Allaah has enjoined, particularly
monotheism, constitue the straight path.
The believers are commanded to “..follow it
(the straight path) and do not follow (other)
ways.. which invoke innovation in the
The Messenger of Allaah drew a straight path
and said this is straight path of Allaah, and
on the right and left he drew several paths
and said and these are paths of satan on
every path there is a devil calling to enter it.
Satan’s paths
then he recited this Aayah. [Ahmad 4143]
Satan’s paths
Ibn ‘Abbas said these verses are decisive
and has not changed. Who ever comply
by them will enter paradise and who
Satan’s paths ever neglects them will enter hell fire.
Satan’s paths

religion and change so that “ .. you will be

separated from His way..” i.e. deviation from Tarbiyah
(self improvement)
the straight and righteous path.
Read the noble verses and then derive for your
self a plan to apply these orders of Allaah ‫ﷻ‬.

Narrated An-Nawwas bin Sam'an Al-Kilabi:

that the Messenger of Allah (‫ )ﷺ‬said: "Indeed Allah has made a parable of
the straight path: At the sides of the path there are walls with open doors,
each door having a curtain. There is a caller at the head of the path calling,
and a caller above it calling. And Allah invites to the abode of peace and
guides whomever He wills to the straight path. The doors which are on the
sides of the path are the Hudud (legal limitations) of Allah; no one breaches
the Hudud of Allah except that curtain is lifted, and the one calling from
above it is his Lord."
Jami` at-Tirmidhi Book 44, Hadith 3098 Grade Sahih
What are deviated paths of Satan?
Mujahid said: "they are the Bidaa' (innovation in the religion &
doubts." These paths include Judaism, Christianity, Magianism,
grave's worshippers and the rest of the deviated religions such
as Hinduism, Buddhism etc. Included with this is the way of Ahlul
Kalam who argue and reject the verses of Qur'an and Sunnah
based on their opinions.
Following these paths, deviate the Muslim from the straight path
into the path of misguided people, so one should be very careful
and stick to the path of the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬.

5
 6- Tawheed is the Right of Allaah upon His servants

Why is it the right of Allaah upon His slaves

It is narrated that Mu’ath bin Jabal (Radia-Allaahu ‘anhu) said: to worship Him alone?

”I was behind the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬on a donkey and he said to me : Read Surat Ash-Shu’araa’ [87-82] and write what
Ibraheem ‫ ﷺ‬stated as reasons to wroship Allaah
“O Mu’ath, do you know what is the right of Allaah upon His slaves and what is the right alone:
of the slaves upon Allaah?” I responded: Allaah and his Messenger know best.
He said: “The right of Allaah upon the slaves is that they worship Him (alone) and not 1- ...............................................
associate anything with Him. And the right of the slaves upon Allaah is that He does not
punish whoever does not associate anything with Him”. 2- ...............................................
I said: O Messenger of Allaah, shall I not give the glad tidings to the people? He replied:
“Do not inform them lest they depend” (on this promise absolutely and lapse in their 3- ...............................................
service to Him). [Bukhari & Muslim.]
4- ...............................................
Key Words and Phrases General Meaning of the Hadeeth
5- ...............................................
Allaah’s right on His servants: What According to the Hadeeth, the Prophet ‫ﷺ‬
Allaah deserves from His servants and emphasizes the obligation of Tawheed, and 6- ...............................................
make obligatory upon them. clarifies its virtues by raising a question,
so that he may grasp the attention of his 7- ...............................................
The right or servants on Allaah: It
audience. After the Prophet informed him
refers to Allaah’s promise to reward His What is the way of the Qur’an to prove
of the virtue of Tawheed, Mu’ath asked Allah’s rights to Tawheed Uloohiyyah?
obedient servants out of His bounty and
the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬permission to inform the
benevolence.
people of that glad tidings. However, the ................................................................................
Absolute Dependence: Excessive trust in Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬forbade him to convey such ................................................................................
Allaah’s mercy, which may lead people to news to people lest they should slack in ................................................................................
abandon competing in doing good and offering good deeds. ................................................................................
virtuous deeds.

Lessons Drawn from the Hadeeth

• It is important to know Allaah’s right
upon his servant, and the servant’s
rights upon Allaah.
• The greatest right is to worship Allaah
sincerely and shun all false deities.
• Do not depend on Allaah’s mercy and
neglect to do good.
• Not all knowledge is given to all the
people.
Why was Moua’th given this
knowledge and not others?
Because Moua’th was a scholar, and was
sent to Yemen to teach people, so he
understood the meaning of the promise
with the knowledge that he had.
Understand the meaning of this
promise.
“He does not punish whoever does not
associate anything with Him”
Does this mean that a person can kill and
steal and not be punished just because
he has Tawheed?
No!
Whoever is free from major and minor Shirk,
will be safe from torture and punishment.
However, if you combine this with other texts
that came with the warning for the disobedient
servants, then you shall say: Those who have
Tawheed and associate no partners with Allaah
‫ ﷻ‬but they do have sins below shirk, sins
that range from minor to major sins, these sins
deserve punishment, but their bearers will be
under the Will of Allaah; He might forgive them
and admit them into Paradise and He might
punish them according to their sins then they
will be taken out of Hell and admitted into
Paradise.
How would you reconcile between
this hadeeth and the hadeeth of this
chapter?
Narrated Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri:
Allah’s Messenger (‫ )ﷺ‬said, “When
the people of Paradise have entered
Paradise, and the people of the Fire
have entered the Fire, Allah will say.
‘Take out (of the Fire) whoever has
got faith equal to a mustard seed in
his heart.’ They will come out, and by
that time they would have burnt and
became like coal, and then they will
be thrown into the river of Al-Hayyat
(life) and they will spring up just as a
seed grows on the bank of a rainwater
stream.” The Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬said, “Don’t
you see that the germinating seed
comes out yellow and twisted?” [Sahih
al-Bukhari 6560]

So, what it means is: Allaah ‫ ﷻ‬will not
punish him eternally in Hellfire, although he
might enter it to be punished temporary, but
then will be taken out of fire and admitted
into Paradise. Why? Because this person has
Tawheed, and this is the promise of Allaah
to anyone who has Tawheed. He will not
be punished eternally in Hellfire. This is
the meaning of the rights of the slaves on
Allaah ‫ﷻ‬.
Misconception!
Someone sins and says, ‘I believe in Allaah and
He is the Most Merciful and He promised that
whoever has Tawheed, Allaah will not punish
him so He will not punish me!’
How do you answer her based on your
understanding of the evidence and
combining it with other evidences from
Qur’an and Sunnah?

6
.......................................................................................