Transcript Tawhid - Religious Education 4 U

Tawhid
Lesson Objective
To understand the concept of
Tawhid and the role of Allah as
creator, judge and guide
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Tawhid – unity or oneness
Polytheism – belief in different gods
Monotheism – belief in one God
Shirk – associating other beings with
God
• Jahannam – hell
• Yawmuddin – judgement day
Get these written in your glossary
Introduction
• In the two previous sessions we have looked at the
life and message of Muhammad and how Muslims
understand these to have been revealed and
preserved
• We saw how the cornerstone of Muhammad’s
message was the Oneness and Uniqueness of God
• We also saw how the Quran and Prophetic
Traditions attempt to relate this core teaching to the
vast range of human life and experience
• In this session, we will flesh out this account by
exploring what Islam says about the nature of God
and His activity in the world
• In other words, we will explore the Islamic
understanding of God as it is found in these primary
scriptural resources
• Or, you might say, we will explore how Islam views
the origins, history and ultimate destiny of the world
Tawhid: God in the singular
• Perhaps the most essential feature of the Islamic
picture of God is that of God’s Oneness
• In Arabic, this is known as tawhid (which literally
means ‘Oneness’)
• Tawhid has come to be synonymous with Islam itself
• Communicating and promulgating tawhid are thus the
entire purpose of Islam:
– ‘Allah witnesses that there is no Deity except Him, and [so
do] the angels and those of knowledge – [that He is]
maintaining [creation] in justice. There is no Deity except
Him, the Exalted in Might, the Wise’ (3:18)
– ‘Indeed I am Allah. There is no Deity except Me, so worship
Me and establish prayer for My remembrance’ (20:14)
• The entire purpose of life, according to Islam, is thus
to recognise Allah and to worship Him:
– ‘And I did not create the Jinn and Humankind except that
they should worship Me’ (51:56)
‘There is no God but God, and
Muhammad is the messenger of God”.
The Shahadah
What are Muslims saying about Allah when they
recite this?
You have 2 minutes to write down your answers.
Say, He is God, One
God eternal
He does not give birth, nor was He
born,
And there is none like unto Him
Surah 112
God has always been in existence
and always will be
This can be broken down into 5 points
1. The denial of polytheism
2. The denial of absolute loyalty to anything
other than Allah
3. The internal unity of Allah
4. The denial of the permanent reality of the
self
5. The declaration of the uniqueness of Allah
How is Tawhid directed
against the people of
Mecca?
• The importance of the belief in Tawhid for
Muslims can be seen in the fact that the
worst sin a Muslim can commit is Shirk
• Anyone who commits shirk is no longer
considered a Muslim and because it is an
unforgivable sin that person will
automatically go to Jahannam on
Yawmuddin
“God does not forgive
associating anything with
Him; anything else He
forgives according as He
wills”.
There are no pictures in a mosque and in
Sunni homes there are no pictures of the
prophet (pbuh) because of the risk of shirk.
• How is there a risk of shirk?
• How is this linked in to the Ka’ba in
Muhammad’s (pbuh) early life?
• For some Muslims the concept of shirk is so strong
that they oppose western capitalism as it leads to
Muslims worshipping their material possessions
rather than putting God first which is against the
concept of tawhid.
‘When a believer surrenders himself to Allah alone, he
can go forward without fear. But if he does not obey
Allah he has to obey false gods like the fear of
losing his job, fear of danger, fear of hunger and
the like”.
Ghulam
Sarwar
What ‘false gods’ do you think
people in modern Britain obey
because of their lack of faith in
Allah?
• If Allah is one and with no helpers, then
Muslims must believe that the world we live in
his creation.
• This means – if you believe in the oneness of
Allah then you believe that he is creator of all
things
You will see some verses from the Quran. We will
work out what each verse tells us about Allah.
Write these points down on your sheet
“It is He who created for you all things that are on
earth”.
Surah 2:29
“To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and
the earth: when He decreeth a matter, He saith to
it, ‘be’, and it is”.
Surah 2:117
“Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth,
and the alteration of the night and day, these are
indeed signs for men of understanding”.
Surah 3:190
99 Names of Allah
• Try to list 20 words that you would use
to describe God. If you don’t believe in
God, try to think of words that other
people might use. Start your list like
this…’ Words that I might use to
describe God are…’
Exam Objectives
• What do the 99 Names of Allah tell
Muslims about the Nature of God?
• Is it possible for humans to fully
understand God?
• Are there any names that highlight
contradictions in God’s nature?
99 Names Of Allah
• Pick out 10 names of Allah.
• Write a paragraph explaining what
these names tell you about what God
is like.
• No vision can grasp Him, but His
grasp is over all vision: He is above all
comprehension, yet is acquainted with
all things.
• Surah 6:103
• Early Muslims scholars did debate
about how literally Muslims should
treat the 99 Names of Allah.
• Are they to be used simply as
Metaphors?
99 Names of Allah
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Pick 10 of the names and explain
them in your own words
Choose the 10 names that you like
the most and create a poster. Your
poster should have the title ‘Some of
the 99 Names for God’. You should
include the English and the Arabic
translations and your own
explanations
“Recite in the name of
thy Lord who
created...’
• When does a Muslim first hear about
Tawhid?
• When is the last time a Muslim will speak of
their belief in Tawhid?
• Give two ways that Tawhid affects the life
of a Muslim
• How do we know of Allah’s role creator?
Give two examples