Ep 10 — Tawhid in the Islamic Worldview

Session 8: Tawhid in the Islamic Worldview. delivered Thursday, 4 Mehr 1353 / 9 Ramadan al-Mubarak 1394 Surat al-Baqarah (2:255). God — there is no deity but He, the Living, the Self-Subsisting. Neither drowsiness nor sleep overtakes Him. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is there that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what lies before them and what lies behind them, and they encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills. His Throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and the guarding of them does not weary Him. He is the Most High, the Most Great. In brief, here is what we are setting out to do. We will single out the verses about tawhid in the Qur'an and translate them here for you, so that you yourselves may deduce two things: first, what tawhid means from the Qur'an's standpoint; and second, what commitment — what practical conduct in life — it implies. And you have not forgotten — and must not forget — our earlier discussions. There we laid down two things faith must be. First, faith in any idea, in any religious principle, must be conscious: it must rest upon understanding and insight, not be blind. Second, faith must be accompanied by commitment. Whatever we believe in inevitably lays a commitment upon our shoulders, in our lives and in our conduct — whether as individuals or as a society, whether it concerns our own person, our own community, humanity at large, or the future of history. With this introduction in mind, when we enter the discussion of tawhid, that discussion will naturally be, for us, one that imposes commitment. We will examine tawhid so that, first, we arrive at it consciously; and second, we see what commitments it places upon our shoulders. Is tawhid merely a kind of irresponsible, commitment-free understanding — a knowing of some truth that lays no obligation upon us? Or is it otherwise? Is tawhid a form of knowledge such that, once we know it, duties fall upon us? When we turn to the Qur'an, we will find the answer. The verses we have in view today, then, concern tawhid from one particular standpoint. Tomorrow the verses will again concern tawhid, but from a different standpoint; and in the coming days, again there will be verses about tawhid, each from a standpoint of its own. I do not claim that in a few days' discussion of tawhid, drawing upon the verses of the Qur'an, I can set forth every dimension of Quranic and Islamic tawhid. If some people were to turn to the Qur'an with a more precise eye, a clearer vision, and a more leisurely study, they would find a boundless ocean in the field of tawhid. I will speak only to the measure our time allows. Even all that we ourselves know about tawhid cannot be set forth in summary here — so I will speak only as far as our time and our gathering permit. There is one point I should mention beforehand. The discussion of tawhid, within the Quranic verses and in the style in which we will present it, may perhaps seem a bit heavy — more like a lesson than a lecture. But I have always thought, and still think, to myself: why must our public gatherings not have the character of a lesson? Why must a lecture be something other than a lesson? What objection is there if, in a public gathering, before a large crowd, the minds in the assembly are ready to listen — ready to hear difficult things that require reflection and thought, just as in a classroom? Why must the speaker feel obliged, especially in the days of Ramadan, when mouths are fasting, to present the material in a more entertaining, more pleasant way, mixed with more diversions? Why? How long must we, in our public gatherings, give up the hope of thinking better, higher, and deeper? Why should we give it up? So then: I do not know whether this material will strike you as heavy or not. It may seem heavy; it may seem quite ordinary. But if it does seem weighty and heavy to you, treat it as something that, in the end, must be understood. Think about it, study it. Mobilize all the power of your mind to grasp it. Keep the words in your mind and hold onto them; if it is difficult, raise it later with your friends. And if the discussion seems unfamiliar to your mind, do not push it away on the grounds that it is heavy — no, rather, work to make your mind familiar with it. And as we have said many times before: we never expect anyone, not a single person, to accept what we say one hundred percent and as a certainty — no. On the contrary, we ask this of you, at whatever level you are: whatever is given to you here as intellectual nourishment — even if you are not like this elsewhere, here be like this — place under the laboratory of your own perception, understanding, discernment, and independent judgment. Make yourselves an instance of that noble verse of the Qur'an, which says: So give good news to My servants — those who listen to the word and follow the best of it.) In any case, we will consider tawhid from two standpoints — though, as we arrange the material, other branches may perhaps come up that need mentioning. First, we consider tawhid within the worldview of Islam. Tawhid is most certainly present there. What is tawhid in the worldview of Islam, and what does it mean? And how does the verse of the Qur'an, in its eloquent and articulate language, expound the tawhid that figures within that worldview? Second, we consider tawhid in the ideology of Islam. I will give a brief explanation of the terms "worldview" and "ideology" for those who do not know them; for tawhid is part both of the worldview of Islam and of its life-constructing ideology. Beyond these, tawhid manifests and shows itself in every one of the subsidiary ordinances of Islam. Wherever you see a ruling, a law, or a command put forward in the name of religion in which tawhid limps — in which there is something anti-tawhid, and tawhid is absent — know that this is not from Islam. For tawhid is like a spirit within the body of all the ordinances of Islam. It is like a fine, subtle air present in every part of this edifice whose name is Islam. It is like pure, clean, fresh blood coursing through this whole body whose name is Islam and religion — present even in the smallest capillaries. You cannot find a single ruling in Islam that does not bear some color and trace of tawhid. So today's discussion is about tawhid in the worldview of Islam. What does the worldview of Islam mean? When you turn your own thought and your own perception to the universe, to the human being, to the world, you arrive at certain conceptions. Perhaps you have never given this any thought; but whoever does — whoever thinks about the world, about the human being, about the relationship between the two, about something beyond nature and beyond the human being and the world — arrives at a whole chain of conceptions and ideas. This is what we call a worldview. Every school of thought has its own particular vision, its own standpoint, its own way of seeing and understanding the world; and that particular understanding is the school's worldview. It is a term that has come to be seen and noticed in Persian only in the last several years. It does not mean breadth of outlook, in the sense colloquial speech gives it — "so-and-so is a person of worldview," meaning he is broad-minded — no; worldview does not mean that at all. In brief, it can be defined like this: a worldview is a human being's conception and understanding of the world, or of the human being himself. We said "a human being's conception"; but in place of "a human being," you may put a school, a creed, a religion, a social practice — each has a conception of the world, and that conception is its worldview. Islam has a worldview; Islam has a conception of the world. To the extent that it bears upon our discussion of tawhid, I will set forth that conception briefly. Islam holds that the whole of this aggregate we call "the world" is a servant — a thrall, a creature — dependent upon an exceedingly mighty power. From top to bottom, from the most insignificant and lowly beings to the great and conspicuous ones, from the basest living or lifeless thing to the noblest and most powerful of living beings possessed of intellect — that is, the human being — all of it, every part of it, every corner of this universe, depends upon that power. Beyond this surface that you and I see, beyond what the keen-sighted spectacles of empirical science can reach, beyond all the phenomena we can sense and touch, there is a truth higher than all truths — more exalted, nobler, dearer — and every one of these phenomena of the universe is made, fashioned, and brought into being by the hand of His power. To that higher power we give a name: its name is "God," its name is "Allah." So the world is a truth with no independence of its own. It did not bring itself into existence; it did not well up from within itself. Rather, a powerful hand created these various phenomena and brought them into being — phenomena that, with every passing day of advancing knowledge, show themselves more and more. It is a powerful hand that stirred up that tumult in the heart of the atom. And it is that same hand that brought into being the highest unknown worlds — the galaxies, and what lies beyond the galaxies, where there may be things to be discovered billions of times greater than everything we have discovered to this day. This factory has a maker; this apparatus has an originator; it is no matter of chance, and it is not self-existent. This is exactly how Islam regards the world. These are the materials of the Islamic worldview in the field of tawhid, which I am setting out just this way, little by little and briefly. Consider that God who is higher than the world and the worldly, that hand of power that turns all the beings of the universe. He made them, and moment by moment He has kept them enduring. And this powerful hand — whose name is Allah, whose name is God — is characterized, in an original and essential manner, with every good and good-creating attribute: He possesses knowledge, He possesses power, He possesses life, He possesses will and resolve, and all that springs from these. His life was not taken from anyone; His knowledge was not acquired from anywhere; and so on. He is the Sovereign of the universe. Who are the inhabitants of the universe? What are its particles in relation to Him? Once the particles of the universe have been made and fashioned by Him, did they then become separate — like a child that separates from its mother and is thereafter independent? No; the matter is not like that at all. At every moment, for their remaining and their being, they are in need of Him — in need of His power and His will; and all are His servants. All beings are His servants, His creatures, His handiwork. He can dispose over all of them. He created them all with a particular order, brought them all into being under regular and precise norms and laws. Today science is discovering these laws — though my discussion does not lie in this field. The argument for the existence of God and the proof of the Maker is not part of my discussion; there are abundant books in this field — go and read them. Still, it would not be amiss to recall one statement, on the authority of several scholars of the empirical sciences — not philosophers, but scholars whose work has to do precisely with the laboratory, with industry, with construction, and with such things. It comes from a book by several non-Iranian scholars and authors, which two or three accomplished Iranian translators have rendered into Persian, titled The Proof of the Existence of God — a good book, well worth consulting. In it, several scholars of today's empirical sciences say that, with the advance of knowledge, with penetration into the inmost nature of creatures and beings and the discovery of regular laws, we come to understand that the world has an originator. From the sheer extent to which we see order at work, the sheer extent to which discipline governs the affairs of the universe, we understand that the world has a Creator and a Maker. So then: all the beings of the universe are His servants, His originated ones, all under His authority and within the grip of His power — and a person too, like the rest of the other beings. In the worldview of Islam, tawhid is exactly such a thing. Tawhid means that the world has an Originator and a Maker, and, in a manner of speaking, has a pure and subtle spirit. The world has an originator, and every part of this universe counts as a servant, a being under the authority of that God and that Originator. This is what tawhid means in the worldview of Islam: when a Muslim looks upon this universe from the standpoint of Islam, he does not see it as an independent being, but as a being dependent upon a higher power. What effect does this have? What benefit? A remarkable one. In the later discussions we hold about tawhid, it will become clear what effect this vision, this particular worldview, this way of perceiving and conceiving the universe, has upon the building of life. We turn to the verses of the Qur'an, and we see that the Lord of the universe has stated precisely this same matter there. We have selected verses from two places in the Qur'an. The first is from Surat al-Baqarah, the verse famous as Ayat al-Kursi. Its opening part speaks to this very theme. It is verse 255. In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. God — there is no deity but He. "Allah" — this is a name for which no equivalent can be found, however we try to expound and explain it. What is "Allah"? It is God. And who is God? He is that being of whom it is said: La ilaha illa Huwa — there is no deity but He. Understand ilah as "object of worship." An ilah is any being a person submits to in the manner of sanctification, veneration, and reverence — hands over his own free will to, entrusts the reins of his life to, grants unrestrained authority over his own life. This, in Quranic terminology, is called ilah. Those who make their own desire hold the reins of their lives — their ilah is that desire. Those who grant a rebellious, transgressing person unrestricted authority over the affairs of their lives — their ilah is that very Satan. Those who submit, unconditionally and unreservedly, to hollow customs and beliefs — their ilah is that very hollow custom and belief. Whatever holds unconditional authority in a person's existence and life, whatever rules and dominates — that is an ilah. Here it says: La ilaha illa Huwa — there is no ilah, no object of worship, but He. What does "there is not" mean? Does it mean there is none in the world? There were thousands of objects of worship in the world; three hundred and sixty of them were hung and set up within the House of the Ka'ba itself — three hundred and sixty idols. And just as many living idols were ruling in the world besides. How, then, is there no ilah! So when it says La ilaha illa Huwa — "there is no ilah but He" — it means there is no true ilah but Him. That is, if you have accepted anyone other than Allah in divinity — in that sense of worship-worthiness which I described — you have committed a sin, you have done what is contrary to right. For other than Allah, no one is worthy of being an object of worship and of divinity. Allahu la ilaha illa Huwa — what is the distinctive quality of this Allah, this unique and single ilah? He enumerates some of His qualities: al-Hayy — He is the Living. All the others are dead beings, corpses; He is the Living. That the lifeless ones are dead is plain — but the living ones too are dead. A living thing that on one day did not exist and on another day will not exist; a creature whose very life is constantly under threat; a being whose life, with the movement of a single hair, with the stirring of the brain, is at any moment threatened with annihilation — what kind of life is this? The everlasting Living, the true Living, is the one to whom life truly belongs, whose gift it is to every living thing — and He is God. Al-Hayy — the Living. Al-Qayyum — the Enduring and Sustaining; the one whose life is permanent and eternal; the one by whose life the living are alive. Were He not, did He not will it, not a single living thing and not a single manifestation of life would remain in the world. Al-Qayyum. La ta'khudhuhu sinatun wa-la nawm — neither drowsiness nor sleep takes hold of Him; light sleep, let alone heavy. It does not seize Him away from Himself. What does this mean? It means that a moment of heedlessness, a moment of inattention, has no way into His being and into His life. The other beings, the false lords, are heedless — of themselves, of the people under their authority, of the world that is in their grip. They are heedless from head to foot, constantly in heedlessness; and even where they claim awareness and knowledge, that awareness is false. What prevails over them is heedlessness and ignorance. Have you not seen those who exchanged the blessing of God for ingratitude, and brought their people down into the abode of ruin — Hell, which they will enter; and an evil place of settlement it is. It was this verse of the Qur'an that Musa ibn Ja'far (peace be upon him) recited to Harun al-Rashid. Musa ibn Ja'far (peace be upon him) was telling Harun, "You are among them." For if Harun is not heedless, why would he drag himself and his people into the Fire? So the other gods are heedless from head to foot. The One whom heedlessness never seizes is the real ruler of this world — that is, Allah. La ta'khudhuhu sinatun wa-la nawm. Do not imagine that stripping sina, meaning drowsiness, light sleep, and nawm, meaning ordinary or heavy sleep, away from God served no purpose here. It did, and the later discussions will show why. Every allusion in tawhid, every fine point of it, points to the negation of divinity in anything other than God, and to the deficiencies of everything other than God. What is affirmed of God is exactly what is negated of those who claim divinity. And what tawhid asserts is exactly what must show up in the practical lives of the monotheists, the worshippers of God. Every quality and fine detail of tawhid must have its instance in the lives of monotheist people — as the later discussions will bring out. So la ta'khudhuhu sinatun wa-la nawm points to the heedlessness, the slumbers, the lapses of the false lords and lordlings. La ta'khudhuhu sinatun wa-la nawm; lahu ma fi al-samawati wa-ma fi al-ard — His is whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth; it belongs to Him, it is His servant. Man dha alladhi yashfa'u 'indahu illa bi-idhnih — who is there that can intercede before Him, mediate, except by His permission? We know of no other power that could stand before God even to the measure of a single intercessor's strength. If anyone intercedes for others, he still does so by God's permission. The prophets who intercede; the saints, the Imams, the righteous, the believers, and the martyrs who intercede before God — none of them do so except by God's permission. So they too are not powers set up against the power of God, not rival shops opened against Him. They are not a separate establishment and apparatus set up against the establishment and apparatus of God — no. They are servants of God, only servants, objects of God's grace and love. Man dha alladhi yashfa'u 'indahu illa bi-idhnih — who is it that can intercede before Him except by His permission and leave? Ya'lamu ma bayna aydihim wa-ma khalfahum — whatever is before them and behind them, He knows; that is, He encompasses the whole life of human beings and of all beings. Wa-la yuhituna bi-shay'in min 'ilmihi illa bi-ma sha' — they do not encompass, their knowledge does not extend to anything of the Lord's knowledge, except what He Himself wills. See how He divides the whole universe into two ranks. One is the rank of God; the other is the rank of all other beings. In that second rank, every particle of the universe is a servant of God to a single degree. With respect to servanthood before God, no two beings in the universe differ. In this respect — that they are servants of God, under His power and within His grip — they are all alike, all of them! Even the greatest being in the universe, the dearest and most precious human being of history — the sacred person of the Noble Prophet (God's blessings be upon him and his household) — is, with respect to being a servant of God, under His authority, His slave, like every other particle of existence. To the same degree that they are under God's authority, the Prophet too is under God's authority. It is not that some prophet, some station, some great human being, because he is great, because he is select, because he is beloved and dear to God, gets some store of power set up against God — no. They are bound-handed servants, submitted to the Lord, and their very greatness lies in exactly this. In the tashahhud of the prayer you recite: Ashhadu anna Muhammadan 'abduhu wa-rasuluh — you name being a servant of God first: I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant — His slave — and His Messenger. Servanthood comes before Messengership. Wasi'a kursiyyuhu al-samawati wa-l-ard — His throne of power has spread wide over the heavens and the earth. Wa-la ya'uduhu hifzuhuma — safeguarding the heavens and the earth is no burden upon Him. Wa-Huwa al-'Aliyyu al-'Azim — He is the Most High and Most Honored in rank; He is the Great and Majestic. From these verses, what do you understand as a whole? Set aside the fine details in the verse, the subtleties and intricacies in every single sentence. You may grasp some part of them, or I may, and there are tens or hundreds of other subtleties that no one understands except the chosen servants of God. From the phrase Allahu la ilaha illa Huwa, Imam al-Sajjad grasps subtleties and fine points that you and I do not. So set all this aside — the subtleties, the fine points, the social and doctrinal matters present here — and ask: taken whole, what does it tell you? Taken whole, it gives you the vision of Islam concerning God. And what is that vision? Throughout the entire domain of existence there is one power, named God — one center of power, one focus of knowledge, life, and force, named God. And on the opposite side stand all the phenomena, facing that mighty and majestic power in a state of destitution, in a state of servitude, in a state of servanthood — all of them, all of them. Nor is there any difference among the phenomena of the universe with respect to servitude before that center of power. From a tiny particle to a mighty galaxy, from a believing human being to a disbelieving one, from a worthless being to a worthy human being — all, before that being, are bound-handed and submitted, slaves and servants and thralls; whatever expression you wish to use. Understanding this has effects in how we recognize the ideology of Islam and its practical programs for society. Let me give an example — I point it out now so that a flash of lightning may strike in your minds, so you know we do not wish to engage in philosophical hairsplitting. Once we have understood that all human beings are, in sum, equal before this power and this center of force, then it no longer makes sense for the emperor of Rome — Valerian, for instance — in his pride and arrogance, to have his statue built there with a slave fallen at his feet. We ask: why? On what grounds? Has this exalted emperor found some rank beyond the rank of the servants of God? And the human being who has fallen at the emperor's feet, prostrating himself, bowing and abasing himself before him — has he found some lower, baser rank beneath the rank of servant? Are the two of them not both attached to one and the same rank? Then why this situation? Consider: were it not for this vision of the world, the tyrants would be free to claim a separate rank for themselves. The emperors of the universe, the bullies of history, the great landowners and aristocrats who existed throughout history — those who had thousands and millions of servants and captives of power, obedient to their every command — these could say, "Sir, I am a thing apart, woven from a different cloth; I am other than that one; he must fall at my feet, I must set my foot upon his head; I was created to give commands, he was created to obey; I was created to live as a lord, he was made to be wretched; I am the servant of a god whose power is greater, he is the servant of a god whose power is less." This is like what the Children of Israel used to say — that our God, the God of the universe, is Yahweh, and that Yahweh's favor toward the Children of Israel is greater. The idol-worshipping polytheists of India used to say that society is divided into four classes, each class having a particular god of its own, and that each was created from a particular place. But the pure tawhidi Islamic vision says that all existents and beings were fashioned from one place, from one origin, from one hand of power. All are servants before Him; all are captives of His power; all must obey His command. No one has the right to lay his head at the feet of another, just as no one has the right to set his foot upon the head of another. Just as you have no right to set your foot upon someone's head, you have no right to lay your head at someone's feet. And why? Because in either case you have acted contrary to right and truth. The one mounted upon a horse, with servants writhing beneath its hooves, is no different from those he tramples. Man dha alladhi yashfa'u 'indahu illa bi-idhnih — who is closer to Him? Who holds any power before Him? Who can lay claim, before Him, to any sense of self-importance? Yes — illa bi-idhnih: some can intercede, but only by His own permission. He never grants that permission to tyrants; He grants it to the Imams. He never grants the corrupt the permission of nearness and the leave of intercession. It is the prophets, the saints, the righteous, the martyrs, the high-stationed humble ones who can — those servants for whom worldly life passed bitterly and poisonously, yet whose spirits grew strong; who moved along the path of duty, who were hard and severe upon themselves so that they might draw one step nearer toward it. They can intercede before God. And even they are able to intercede only because they performed the servanthood of God more fully, placing themselves more fully under His power. In the time of the Prophet, no one served God as the Prophet of God did; in the time of the Commander of the Faithful, no one served God as the Commander of the Faithful did; in the time of Imam al-Sajjad, no one served God as Imam al-Sajjad did. That the Prophet is the highest of people, that 'Ali is the highest of people, that Imam al-Sajjad is the highest of people — this is not a matter of, say, pitting a man of Shushtar against a man of Dezful. Their station is higher and more honored because they performed the servanthood of God more fully. From the whole thrust of this verse — Ayat al-Kursi — one meaning emerges: the Lord of the universe is that absolute power, and before Him all created beings, the whole universe, stand as servants, obedient, bound-handed, submitted. Whoever wishes to draw nearer to Him must be more fully His servant. That is the first verse. The second is in Surat Maryam; we have taken verse 88 onward: And they said, 'The Most Merciful has taken a son.' They said that the Merciful God has chosen a son for Himself. The disbelievers voiced this claim in various forms — the Christians one way, the Jews another, the polytheists of Quraysh and of Arabia another, the polytheists elsewhere in yet another. Some said God has a daughter; some, a son; some, a daughter and a son; some, a single child; some, an infinite number — a whole household! In any case, they said: Ittakhadha al-Rahmanu walada — God has a child. And from what angle did they say it? Note the point carefully: their claim that God has a child — the claim of a group of polytheists, or Christians, or Jews — meant that among the creatures of the universe there is one individual whose relation to God is not the relation of a servant but the relation of a child. He is a young lord's son, not a bondsman; though he is not the lord himself. The Jews, who used to say 'Uzayr ibn Allah — that the prophet 'Uzayr is the son of God — meant that even if all the beings of the universe are servants of God, 'Uzayr stands outside that category; he is no longer God's servant but God's young lord's son, the light of God's eye. So too the Christians, who voiced this claim about the Messiah; and the disbelievers who said of al-Lat, Manat, and al-'Uzza that these are the daughters of God; and the polytheists of Greece and Rome, who likewise held that God had numerous god-sons and lordly sons — all of them held this same view. In reality, the two ranks we have considered — the rank of God, and the rank of all the servants and beings humbled before Him — these two they were turning into three. They said: God; the servants; and, in between, an elite — a child, a young lord's son, a god-son, something. The verses of Surat Maryam negate this. Follow them closely to the end. And they said, 'The Most Merciful has taken a son.' Surely you have brought forth a monstrous, grievous thing. The heavens are nearly torn apart by it, and the earth split asunder, and the mountains brought down in collapse — that they should ascribe a son to the Most Merciful. Wa-qalu ittakhadha al-Rahmanu walada — they said that the Merciful God has chosen and taken a son; laqad ji'tum shay'an idda — you have indeed brought forth an awful and weighty saying. See what expression God uses: a weighty saying, an awful saying, a very dangerous belief you have advanced. Laqad ji'tum shay'an idda — truly a heavy and awful saying you have brought forth. Takadu al-samawatu yatafattarna minhu wa-tanshaqqu al-ardu wa-takhirru al-jibalu hadda — the heavens were near to bursting apart from one another, to splitting open, the earth to rending asunder, and the mountains to crumbling down in ruin. An da'aw li-l-Rahmani walada — all this because they called upon the Merciful a son and held a son for Him. It is plain that the matter is very grave. God is not such that some obscenity, some bad word, would offend Him; the Lord of the universe is not subject to feelings. What He gives the people as a belief is what has a part in securing the divine aims. And what He rejects as a corrupt belief is what, once believed, has a part in securing the corruption of society. To negate a corrupt belief is to sever a vein of corruption in human society. The belief that God has offspring — that He has a god-son and a lordly son, that He has a child, that there is an intermediary between God and humankind, a separating link — this belief has corrupting effects in society. Those corruptions will become clear gradually, in the course of the tawhidi discussions. In reality it is a pretext for the servants: beyond becoming the servant of God, they become the servant of yet another as well. And it does not befit the Most Merciful that He should take a son. There is none in the heavens and the earth but that he comes to the Most Merciful as a servant. He has indeed counted them and numbered them, numbering. Wa-ma yanbaghi li-l-Rahmani an yattakhidha walada — it does not befit the Merciful that He should take a son. In kullu man fi al-samawati wa-l-ardi illa ati al-Rahmani 'abda — all who are in the heavens and the earth are nothing but ones who come before God in servitude; every one of them is God's servant. Laqad ahsahum wa-'addahum 'adda — He has enumerated them, taken them in His grip and counted them, a thorough counting. This too is from Surat Maryam. So, in brief, here is what today's discussion amounted to: what tawhid means in the worldview of Islam, and what it is. That was the examination of tawhid as one of the materials of the principles of the worldview. Tomorrow, God willing, we will take up tawhid as one of the materials of the principles of the ideology of Islam. See how the two differ: the worldview is the introduction to the ideology, the ground on which it stands. This is the Islamic vision; this is how it sees the world, the universe, the whole realm of existence. Now — what does this vision inspire in us? What course, what plan, what design for life does it set forth? What role does tawhid play there? That is "Tawhid in the ideology of Islam."