Aqeedah-e-Tawheed

Dr. Syed Aleem Ashraf Jaisi speech at Quran Foundation, Tolichowki, Hyderabad
An excerpt from this speech was published in Muslim Murasu, February 2012

Our primary objective is to set our lives according to the liking of Allah and His Prophet. Reforming ourselves is our topmost concern. If we give a speech or do some other work, we should not mistake that we have started correcting others. This is part of our training. A teacher has to learn as part of his job. We should not be carried away that we have become scholars and we are reforming others. Whatever we do should be part of our own refinement.
Sufis explain goodness and evil with similitude of crops and grass. Bad things are like grass and goodness is like crops. No one plants grass. But it grows all the same. People plant crops, sometimes it grows and other times it shows no results. One has to put efforts for goodness. It may bring fruits or go in vain. Evil grows everywhere. But goodness needs schools, madrasas and qanqas. We see that goodness is always in short supply and in shortage. This is because Allah has attached huge rewards in return for good deeds. One has to earn it through hard work. We cannot be complacent after eliminating evil. Grass will grow again and again without anyone’s help. You close one door for evil, but many new doors will keep opening.
We won’t gain anything if the whole world is on right path but we are astray. We won’t be at any loss if the whole world is on wrong path but we stay away from evil. We should pay full attention on self-reformation. The most effective method of Shaitan is to make us obsessive with finding faults in others. We spend most of our time thinking about follies in other communities, section and people. We are oblivious to our own mistakes. No doubt, we should worry about mistakes of others. But higher priority should be given to correct our own souls. We fall prey to Shaitan’s trap and we become experts in deficiencies of others. But we are ignorant of our own deficiencies. We will be held accountable to our deeds alone on the judgement day. No one will be spared on the basis that his neighbor was worse than him. Why do we relish when we find defects in others. This is because it feeds our Nafs (ego). Shaitan fuels this taste, because we will waste time in belittling others. We will forget God and become insensitive to our goal in that time. Shaitan will not attack us with Kufr or Shirk. A true Moomin is one who does not speak unnecessarily. Prophet has said to either speak good words or remain silent.
Our primary objective is to correct us. Reforming others is secondary. First step in reforming ourselves is to cleanse heart from evil and decorate it with good virtues. It is not wise to preach to others while being indifferent to those teachings. “Atahmaroona naasa wa tansawna anfusakum”.

We spend so much time in debating about Masael and are missing Farz and Wajib (duties, necessities). There is no point for a person to talk about wearing pant above ankle when he does not even establish regular prayers. We remember to take up every activity in life according to the priority and importance. But we don’t follow the same approach in religion.
Topmost priority in our religion is Tawheed. Every thought will have a base. The foundation of Islamic thought is Tawheed. This is our base. The target of Islamic revolution is Tawheed. Each one of us knows the importance of Tawheed. But we are afraid to talk about it, lest we may end up making some mistakes. It looks like Tawheed has become private property of some select group or section of the society. If Tawheed is truth, what is the problem in talking about it. Why should we ship the copyright for this to some particular group. Why are we not talking about importance, necessity and benefits of Tawheed. The base of the Aqeedah (creed) that we present is Tawheed. We wrongly yielded ownership to some others.
Sufis were called as ‘Ahle Tawheed’. They spent their life in fully realizing kalima. They went to such lengths that in their view, there was nothing left in the world except Tawheed. Sufis scaled such great heights in Tawheed. The problem is that we don’t follow their ways. But we ask Dua to them also for material benefits. Recently I went to an Urs of a Sufi. I asked how many people who have come here are aware of the life history of this Sufi. He was a king in Iran. He abandoned it and came here for religious mission. How many of us ask his prayer that Allah should make us like him. But we pray to become like Tatas and Ambanis. We declare love for Sufis but we are not prepared to tread their paths. There should not be any thought but about God. There should not be any talk but about God. Our attention should not turn to anything other than God. This was their principle. But in the past 50 or 60 years, it appears that this subject is reserved for some select group. We stopped talking about Tawheed. It became an accusation on us that we don’t even want to talk about Tawheed. We used to sing in our childhood days, ‘la maujooda illallah, la maqsooda illallah’. There is no Being but God, there is no purpose but God. Tawheed is the sole purpose for which Prophets and Messengers came to us.
The word ‘Tawheed’ is ‘to be’ verb of Arabic word ‘Wahada’. Its literal meaning is to believe something as one. Tawheed means to believe God is one and worship Him alone. Devotee should understand only one God worthy of worship. Worship, Sajda, is only for Him.
Tawheed is a tree that grows in our heart. Its branches are virtuous deeds. These are Namaz, fasting, Haj, Zakat, serving humanity, truth, honesty, faith in God, patience, gratitude. All these are branches of Tawheed. Fruit of this tree is blissful and bountiful life in paradise.

God is one. He is one in his Sifaath (attributes) and Afaal (activities). He has no equal, match or partner. He has no comparision or parallel. He is beyond comparision and pure from comparision. Quran says ‘laisa ka mislihi’. There is no one like him and even this thought has no point. ‘kaaf’ and ‘misl’ (alike) have same meaning. So it means He has no ‘misl’ and He has no ‘misl ka misl’. The thought about His ‘misl’ has no meaning.
Allah is ‘Wajibul vujood’. His existence does not fit into any time line. Allah is Vajood and we are Maujood. We came into existence after He created us. There is no meaning in the question of when Allah came into existence. Vajood is that which has existed always and will exist always. We are not Vajood, we are only Maujood. We can be created and we can be destroyed. ‘Wajibul vajood’ means His existence is certain and His absence is impossible.
We cannot know Him by our intelligence. Our mind has to encompass something to know it. For example, we have to see this microphone in its entirety to know about it. No one can encompass Allah and hence no one can know Allah through his intelligence. We see His activities and get some idea about His attributes and through His attributes we come to know a little about Him. No human being or creation, whatever height it scales in stature, can ever fully comprehend God. God has no boundary or limits (lamahdood). We can never know Him. Only He knows Himself. This explains Majesty of Allah. The knowledge of even our Prophet is not even a tiniest proportion of the knowledge of Allah. Because once you attribute any ratio, however small it is, to limitless, you make it limited.
‘la thudrikuhul absaar va huva yudrikul absaar’. No vision can reach Him. He is ‘kadeem’. He has existed always and exists forever. None other than Allah is kadeem. He knows everything. No one else knows everything. Only He is worthy and deserving of worship. ‘inna salaathi vanuski vamahyaya vamamaathi lillahi’.