Tawheed [singling out Allah alone in what belongs to Him alone] is the first matter of this religion. It is the first obligation Allah laid on His servants, and it is the one call that every Messenger was sent with, to every nation. A person may hear the word often and still be unsure what it covers, so this page explains it slowly and from the books: what Tawheed means, the three forms it takes, why worship stands at its centre, and why it comes before everything else. The spine of the page is Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen’s Commentary on Kitab at-Tawheed, with one passage from Shaykh Abdur-Rahman as-Sa’di’s tafsir [explanation of the Qur’an]. Their words are quoted word for word. Everything else on this page is my own summary of what they say, and the references at the end show where each passage stands.
What Tawheed Means
The Shaykh begins his commentary by giving the word its meaning, first in the language and then in the Sharee’ah [the revealed law of Islam]. In the Sharee’ah, he says:
In the Sharee’ah, it is to single out Allah the Most High regarding what is exclusive to Him of ar-Ruboobiyyah (Lordship), al-Uloohiyyah (being the Only Deity) and His Names and Attributes.
Three things are named in that one sentence, and the Shaykh names them as the three forms of Tawheed: singling Allah out in His lordship, singling Him out in His being the only One worshipped, and singling Him out in His Names and Attributes. He also points to one verse that gathers all three forms together, the verse in Surah Maryam (19:65), where Allah is named as the Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, the One to be worshipped with patience upon His worship, and the One who has no equal and no namesake. Lordship, worship, and Names and Attributes stand side by side in that single verse, which is why the scholars treat the three forms as one Tawheed and not three separate subjects. In short: Tawheed means singling out Allah alone in what is exclusive to Him, in His lordship, His worship, and His Names and Attributes. Each form is now taken in its turn.
The First Form: Singling Allah Out in His Lordship
The First Category: at-Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyyah. This is to single out Allah the Mighty and Sublime with creation, ownership and control.
Creation, ownership, and control. Allah alone creates: He brought everything into being from nothing, and He alone owns all that He created, and He alone controls it and directs its affairs. What people call their own creating is something else, as the commentary explains on the same page: a man does not bring a thing out of nothing; he takes what Allah already created and changes it into another form. The making is a transformation of created material, and the One who created the material, owns it, and governs it is Allah alone. The commentary supports the definition from the Qur’an itself on the same page, at the verses of creation in Surah al-A’raf (7:54) and Surah Fatir (35:3). This is the first form, and it has to be understood clearly, because affirming it by itself does not make a person a Muslim. The polytheists of Makkah affirmed that Allah is the Creator, the Owner, and the Controller, and the commentary’s introduction records that they affirmed this lordship, yet they were not counted Muslims, because Tawheed is not complete with lordship alone. What was missing in them is the second form, and it is the form the whole call of the Messengers turned on.
The Second Form: Singling Allah Out in Worship
It is to single out Allah the Mighty and Sublime with worship.
That is the Shaykh’s definition of the second form, Tawheed al-Uloohiyyah, and this is the centre of the whole subject. Before a person can single Allah out with worship, he has to know what worship is, and on the same page the commentary gives the definition of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, quoted there: worship is a name that gathers in everything Allah loves and is pleased with, of words and deeds, the outward ones that are seen and the inward ones that are hidden. Prayer, supplication [calling upon Allah], reliance, sacrifice, hope, and fear all stand inside that gathering, and every one of them belongs to Allah alone. It is for this worship that Allah created the jinn and mankind, as He states in Surah adh-Dhariyat (51:56); this page does not treat the purpose of creation for its own sake, because that subject has its own page on this site, linked below. Here the verse’s work is simpler: worship is not one part of Tawheed among others. It is the heart of it.
This was not the call of one Messenger to one people. In the commentary’s treatment of the verse of Surah al-Anbiya (21:25), the words Allah revealed to every Messenger He sent are these:
none has the Right to be worshipped but I (Allah), so Worship Me (Alone and none else)
Shaykh as-Sa’di says the same at the verse of Surah an-Nahl (16:36), which he renders:
Indeed We sent to every nation a Messenger [saying]: Worship Allah [alone] and shun false gods
As-Sa’di explains that by this sending, Allah’s proof was established against all the nations: He sent a Messenger to every nation, the earlier ones and the later ones, and all of the Messengers brought the same call and the same religion, the worship of Allah alone, with no partner and no associate. Nation after nation, century after century, the call did not change, because its subject does not change. And the commentary adds a note that explains why this form is pressed so hard in the books. Many of the later authors, the Shaykh says, concentrated on the lordship side of Tawheed, yet the place where many Muslims actually fall short is here, in worship, where partners get associated with Allah. So this is the aspect that has to be made known and explained, again and again, and that is why this page gives it the centre.
The Third Form: His Names and Attributes
The third category, as the commentary names it on printed page 17, is Tawheed al-Asmaa was-Sifaat [singling Allah out in His Names and Attributes]. In the Shaykh’s explanation it means singling Allah out with the Names and Attributes that are His: affirming for Him what He affirmed for Himself in His Book, and what His Prophet ﷺ affirmed for Him in the Sunnah, and at the same time rejecting any likeness between Allah and His creation, for there is nothing like Him (42:11). What Allah affirmed is affirmed, as He affirmed it, and He is not made similar to anything He created. This page keeps the third form at its definition, deliberately. The detailed teaching on the Names and Attributes, the verses, and the rules the scholars laid down for affirming them soundly, stands on this site’s page on the Names and Attributes of Allah, linked below, and is not repeated here.
Why Tawheed Comes First
Tawheed is not only the centre of the religion; it is its door, and the books place it before everything else. When the Prophet ﷺ sent Mu’adh ibn Jabal to Yemen, he ordered him to begin with Tawheed before prayer, before charity, before anything. Drawing the lessons of that sending, Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen lists among the matters of the hadith:
The seventh matter: That Tawheed is the first obligation
The Shaykh takes that from the Prophet’s ﷺ own words to Mu’adh, “invite them first to the testimony that there is no deity worthy of worship in truth except Allah”. A view was put forward that the first obligation on a person is to meditate and reason his way to knowing his Lord; the Shaykh names it and sets it aside. The correct position, he says, is that the first obligation is Tawheed itself, because knowing the Lord is something the natural instinct already points to. The matters that follow in his list hold the same line: a person begins with Tawheed before anything else, and the command “that they should worship Allah alone” carries the very meaning of the testimony. Nothing is built in this religion until this is in place, and whatever is built is built on it.
The same hadith of Mu’adh carries the weight of the subject from the other side, in the rights it names. The commentary prints it in full:
Mu’aadh bn Jabal said: “I was riding behind the Prophet ﷺ on a donkey when he said me: ‘O Mu’aadh! Do you know the right of Allah over the servants and the right of the servants with Allah?’ I said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He said: ‘The right of Allah over the servants is that they should worship Him and not associate any partner with Him, and the right of the servants with Allah is that He will not punish anyone who does not associate any partner with Him in worship.’ I asked: ‘O Messenger of Allah! Shall I not give the glad tidings to the people?’ He answered: ‘Do not give them the glad tidings so that they do not relax.’” They both recorded it in their Saheehs.
The commentary gives the hadith’s reference with it: recorded by al-Bukhari (Book of Dressing, 4/84) and Muslim (Book of Faith, 1/58). Look at what the hadith joins together: the first obligation from the sending to Yemen, and the promise of safety from punishment, both hang on the same thing, worshipping Allah with no partner associated with Him. That is Tawheed, stated as a right Allah has over every servant.
What Stands Against Tawheed
The opposite of Tawheed is shirk [associating partners with Allah in what is His alone], and it is the greatest sin by which Allah is disobeyed. A person does not guard Tawheed without knowing what breaks it, so shirk is learned about in order to be avoided, the way a traveller learns where the edge of the road is. This page does not treat shirk itself; that subject is handled in full on this site’s page What Is Shirk?, and the acts that take a person out of Islam altogether are listed and explained on the page Nullifiers of Islam. Both are linked again below.
So, What Is Tawheed?
Tawheed is singling out Allah alone in what is exclusive to Him: in His lordship, for He alone creates, owns, and controls; in His worship, for He alone is worshipped, and no act of worship is directed to anyone besides Him; and in His Names and Attributes, which are affirmed for Him as He affirmed them, with no likeness to His creation. It is the first obligation on every servant, the one call of every Messenger to every nation, and the right of Allah over His servants. Whoever holds it whole holds the foundation of the religion; everything else in Islam is built on it and returns to it.
References
Commentary on Kitab at-Tawheed: Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen; Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, Riyadh, 2014, translated by Abu Naasir Ibrahim Abdur-Rauf, Volume 1 (definition of Tawheed and its three forms, printed p. 10; the first category, printed p. 11; the second form and the meaning of worship, printed p. 15; the third category and the call of every Messenger, printed p. 17; the hadith of Mu’adh and its reference, printed pp. 47-48; the matters drawn from the sending of Mu’adh to Yemen, printed p. 148).
Tafsir as-Sa’di: Shaykh Abdur-Rahman ibn Nasir as-Sa’di; International Islamic Publishing House, English Edition 1, 2018, translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab (Vol. 5, Surah an-Nahl 16:36, printed p. 202).
The two books this page is built from are the commentary above and, for further study, Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen’s Explanation of Al-Aqeedah al-Wasitiyyah, on the creed of Ibn Taymiyyah; both are held in the library and listed in the Book Library.
Further Reading
- Who is Allah: the first of the Three Fundamental Principles: who our Lord is, and the worship He is worshipped with.
- Names and Attributes of Allah (Asma wa Sifat): the third form of Tawheed treated in full: the Names and Attributes, and the rules for affirming them soundly.
- What Is Shirk?: the opposite of Tawheed: what shirk is, its kinds, and why Tawheed cannot be known without knowing it.
- Nullifiers of Islam: the acts that nullify a person’s Islam, explained one by one.
- Pillars of Faith (Iman): the six pillars of faith, of which belief in Allah, comprising the three forms of Tawheed, is the first.
- What Is the Purpose of Life in Islam?: why Allah created the jinn and mankind: the verse of Surah adh-Dhariyat (51:56) treated on its own page.
Verified on 2026-10-24 against the books listed above.