Allah, the One

At the heart of Islam is one truth: there is no god worthy of worship except Allah. This belief in His oneness is called tawhid. Allah describes Himself in Surat al-Ikhlas: ﴿قُلْ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ﴾ (“Say, He is Allah, One.”) ﴿ٱللَّهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ﴾ (“Allah, the Eternal Refuge, whom all need.”) ﴿لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ﴾ (“He neither begets nor was He begotten.”) ﴿وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌۢ﴾ (“And there is none comparable to Him.”) (112:1-4).

Allah alone created everything, provides for everything and runs every affair, and He alone deserves worship. So a Muslim prays to Him, calls on Him and relies on Him directly, with no one in between, saying in every prayer: ﴿إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ﴾ (“You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help”) (1:5). Allah says He is near and answers whoever calls on Him (2:186). Nothing in creation resembles Him: ﴿لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِۦ شَىْءٌ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْبَصِيرُ﴾ (“There is nothing like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing”) (42:11).

Because He is One, a Muslim gives no worship to anyone or anything else: not to a prophet, an angel, a saint, an idol or any part of creation. Giving Allah's right to another is called shirk (associating partners with Allah), and the Qur'an calls it the gravest wrong: ﴿إِنَّ ٱلشِّرْكَ لَظُلْمٌ عَظِيمٌ﴾ (“Indeed, associating partners with Allah is a tremendous wrong”) (31:13).