What Muslims believe about God: His oneness, and why Tawheed is central to Islam.
Allah is the Arabic word for God — the same God worshipped, in the Islamic understanding, by earlier prophets such as Abraham, Moses and Jesus. It is not a name unique to Islam; Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews use the same word for God.
The single most concise statement of what Muslims believe about God is Surah Al-Ikhlas, a short chapter of the Qur’an often translated as “The Chapter of Sincerity” or “Purity [of Faith]”. It states that God is one, that He is not dependent on anything, that He was not born and does not give birth, and that nothing is comparable to Him.
This belief in God’s absolute oneness — without partners, without equals, without a physical form comparable to His creation — is called Tawheed, and it is the foundation of everything else in Islamic belief. The next lesson covers Tawheed in more detail.
Key points
- "Allah" is simply the Arabic word for God, used by Arabic-speaking Muslims, Christians and Jews alike.
- Muslims believe in one God with no partners, no equals and no physical form comparable to creation.
- Surah Al-Ikhlas (Qur'an 112) is the Qur'an's most concise statement of God's oneness.
- This belief in God's absolute oneness is called Tawheed, the foundation of Islamic belief.
Qur’an
“Say, "He is Allah, [who is] One. Allah, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent."”
Surah Al-Ikhlas (112) — 112:1-4
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