Today’s consideration is not exactly a book review but rather a synthesis of the ideas surrounding the Qur’an and Ibrahims’ academic work on tawhīd.
Wahid means “one” and the prefix ta- can make it a active form. See “ya rabb tabarakka muhammad, alī, fatima, hassan, husayn, etc.” (may God sustain them.)
Thus there is an active component with regards to the idea of tawhīd. Believers actively have to make their worship singular in direction.
Now today’s contribution is a study of how in the kalam allah this doctrine resurfaces also in other signs. Consider surah al-ankabut aya 3:
- “Wa laqad fatanaa allazeena min qablihim falayalmanaa allahu allazeena sadaqoo wa layalmanaa al kaadhibeen”
Notice on the one hand “allazeena sadaqoo” and on the other “al-kaadhibeen.” God distinguishes between “those who do good” and “the deniers.”
God could have distuingeshed between “al-sadiqeen” or rather “mutaṣaddiqīn”1 to be precise but no the example “those who … *verb*” is chosen. So this example shows how it is emphasized that the believers are actively in connection with their faith, as opposed to those who are merely referenced as a group.
Another thing to note is that in this aya God is literally close to the pious, notice “falayalmanaa allahu allazeena sadaqoo” in contrast to “wa layalmanaa al-kaadhibeen.” It could have been “wa allahu layalmanaa al kaadhibeen” but instead the kunya of the Omniscient is only used in the context of the pious.
To be fair this can be attributed to the language that is used throughout the Quran. The arabic quran is economical with its language.
- https://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=Sdq, accessed safar 18, 1448/2026. ↩︎
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