Allah, the Almighty, said:

{Allah witnesses that there is no deity except Him…} [Âl ‘Imrân 3:18]

Tawḥeed⁸⁴¹ is the exoneration of Allah above originated things.⁸⁴²The scholars spoke of that which they spoke of, and the verifiers pointed to that which they pointed to in this path for nothing other than to correct at-tawḥeed. Anything else, whether it is a state or a station, is all flawed.⁸⁴³ Tawḥeed is of three meanings:

1. the first is the tawḥeed of the public that gets rectified by the indicants


2. the second is the tawḥeed of the elite, which is confirmed by the realities


3. the third is the tawḥeed that is established from eternity, and this is the tawḥeed of the elite of the elite

As for the first tawḥeed, it is the testimony that there is no God but Allah, alone, no partner does He have, the Absolute, who neither begets nor is begotten, nor is there to Him any equivalent. This is the apparent, self-evident tawḥeed which wipes out the major shirk. It is the tawḥeed upon which the qiblah was set⁸⁴⁴ and allegiance is deserved;⁸⁴⁵ and for which life and property are spared;⁸⁴⁶ and the land of disbelief becomes separate from the land of Islam; and the religion of the public becomes validated, even if they cannot justify it with demonstrative proofs, ⁸⁴⁷ and this is after they become clear of misconception, ambivalence, and doubt, upon a truthful testimony that is validated by the acceptance of the heart. ⁸⁴⁸This is the tawḥeed of the public that is proven by the indicants, and the indicants are the message and the creations.⁸⁴⁹ It becomes binding by hearing [the message],⁸⁵⁰ it is attained by the Real’s display,⁸⁵¹ and it thrives on the demonstration of the indicants.⁸⁵²

As for the second tawḥeed, which is confirmed by [beholding] the realities, 853 it is the tawḥeed of the elite; it is the dropping of the apparent causes,⁸⁵⁴ ascending above the contentions of the intellects⁸⁵⁵ and reliance on the indicants.⁸⁵⁶ It is to not rely on the proofs in tawḥeed, the causes in reliance, or the means in salvation,⁸⁵⁷ so one would be beholding the antecedence of the Real with His wisdom and knowledge, and His placing things where they belong and making them contingent on their right times and hiding them in their forms. ⁸⁵⁸ [The seeker] would have mastered the recognition of the flaws⁸⁵⁹ and now looks beyond the originated matters. This is the tawḥeed of the elite, which is rectified by the knowledge of self-annihilation ⁸⁶⁰ and purified by the knowledge of union⁸⁶¹ and attracts to the tawḥeed of the masters of union.

As for the third tawḥeed, it is a tawḥeed that the Real kept for Himself.⁸⁶² He [alone] is entitled to it because of His majesty. He displayed a flash of it to the inner souls of His most chosen and He made them unable of describing it and communicating it.⁸⁶³This is what is referred to by the guides when they speak of dropping the originated and affirming the Pre-Eternal. However, this very metaphor is a flaw in this tawḥeed that must be dropped for its rectification. ⁸⁶⁴ This is the core of the metaphors used by the scholars of this path, no matter how they excel in describing it and classifying it, for this tawḥeed becomes only more concealed by explaining it and more evasive by describing it and more difficult by detailing it. On this tawḥeed the people of spiritual refinement and the possessors of [sublime] spiritual states fixate their gaze; it is what those who glorify [the Divine] seek and it is what the speakers about the essence of union refer to and concerning which the metaphors collapse. No tongue has ever depicted it and no expression has ever pointed to it, for tawḥeed is beyond being pointed to by the creatures, apprehended by the times, or carried by the causes. In the past, I answered an inquirer who asked me about the tawḥeed of the Sufis with the following verses of poetry:
No one ever singled the One out…for everyone who did is a denier ⁸⁶⁵
The tawḥeed of he who speaks of His nature…is but a loan that was dismissed by the One⁸⁶⁶
His singling out of Himself is the real tawḥeed of Him …and the descriptions of His describers is false. ⁸⁶⁷

⁸⁴¹ Tawḥeed is a transitive verbal noun. TawḥeedAllah (pronounced as tawḥeed-ullâh) means recognizing and declaring God as one and acting accordingly. Oneness does not capture all these meanings, neither does singling or monism (which also has some negative connotations). Unification also has negative connotations. We will use oneness here, but it is important to recognize that there is no perfect translation for the acquired meanings of ‘tawḥeed’ in our Islamic heritage.
^{842Ibn Ḥajar says:}

As for Ahl as-Sunnah, they explained tawḥeed to be the rejection of assimilation and negation (likening God to His creations or stripping Him of His attributes), and this is why al-Junayd said, according to what Abu al-Qâsim al-Qushayri reported, “At-tawḥeed is separating between the Eternal and the originated.” (Fatḥ al-Bâri, 13/344)
Knowing the difference between the eternal Creator and the originated creation is at the foundation of tawḥeed, and it would then require separating between His attributes and theirs and His rights and theirs, and singling Him out as the one Lord and only deity worthy or worship.
⁸⁴³ We have discussed the different flaws of the varied stations before. It seems that the sheikh means to say that they are all flawed because they still entail some self-awareness or recognition. To him, complete deliverance from the self and the siwâ (that which is other than Allah) is necessary. We explained previously that the awareness is not blameworthy except when it detracts from our focus on Allah (exalted is He) and devotion to Him.
⁸⁴⁴ To unite those who profess this tawḥeed.
⁸⁴⁵which life and property are spared;
⁸⁴⁶ The combatant enemies spare their lives by the utterance of the testimony of faith. This is not to mean that the life and property of those who do not profess that testimony are not sacred; if they are not combatant enemies, their mere peacefulness renders their lives and property sacred.
⁸⁴⁷ People with natural and experiential faith may not always be capable of debating disbelievers and proving their convictions with demonstrative proofs. God does not demand that of them.
⁸⁴⁸ The testimony of the tongue coupled with the acceptance of the heart makes a person a believer.
⁸⁴⁹ The signs Allah provided for us in His Book and through His creations. They all point to His oneness and uniqueness.
⁸⁵⁰ Anyone who is capable of understanding the message of the Qur’an becomes liable upon hearing it.
⁸⁵¹ Those to whom Allah shows the realities will see them.
⁸⁵² The more signs one observes, the more certainty they develop, as in the evidentialist faith acquisition.
⁸⁵³ Refer to the section on The Realities in this book.
⁸⁵⁴ Dropping them does not mean denying them but focusing on their Creator (exalted is He).
⁸⁵⁵ To accept what Allah tells us as the ultimate truth and to conform to what He commands us. There is never an intractable conflict between pure reason and established revelation. The apparent conflicts result either from error or from overconfidence in our intellects.
⁸⁵⁶ Evidentialist faith may be superseded by natural and experiential faith, but it is an integral part of faith that should not be neglected. The whole universe points to God. The messages of the messengers point to Him. Most importantly, He points to Himself. The sheikh means to say that when you reach your destination, you do not need the signposts. This is true, but at the same time, you do not deny the signposts that led you to your destination; you continue to appreciate their role and point them out to those who may benefit from them.
⁸⁵⁷ While realizing that the causes are means to their ends by the creation of Allah, that faith and obedience are means to salvation by the grace of Allah, and by engaging the causes and adhering to faith, you keep your focus on the Creator and the Bestower of graces.
⁸⁵⁸ You behold His beginning-less knowledge and infinite wisdom in creating all those causes and causal relationships. Those deprived of insight see nothing beyond these forms and causal relationships. They do not see the pre-eternal decree of the First preceding all of this.
⁸⁵⁹ People who are blessed with beholding the realities will see through all of the stations on the path and recognize the flaws that are encountered in each of them.
⁸⁶⁰ For the complete mental focus on the One, even the self must be driven away from the focus.
⁸⁶¹ See the previous station (99).
⁸⁶²This section has some ambiguous statements that could easily be misunderstood. Our knowledge of the sheikh’s uprightness and compliance with the Shari‘ah in creed and practice gives us the right to give them the best interpretation that could be understood from them. There is no doubt that the prophets and messengers, particularly the greatest of them, have established the tawḥeed of Allah required of His servants, and many of His righteous servants have also done so. However, the greatest muwaḥḥid (ﷺ) said: I cannot praise You enough, You are as You have praised yourself.” (Muslim)

In light of this, we will attempt to understand what the sheikh means in this section.
⁸⁶³ If this means that they cannot describe the proper tawḥeed, then it is problematic. The books of Allah were all revealed to detail it and His messengers all clarified it. The greatest of them, Muhammad ﷺ, explained it in the most perfect way possible. However, if the sheikh means that they cannot describe the nature of al-Wâḥid (the One), then of course it is true.
⁸⁶⁴ The sheikh probably means that the mere mental recognition of the originated matters is a flaw, of which one needs to be cured. We have explained before that the awareness of the realities as they exist, which does not cause tafarruq (dispersion) of the heart, is the way of the Prophet ﷺand his Companions (see the previous station). The sheikh was a strict Hanbali faqeeh and scripturalist theologian. The philosophical taṣawwuf of the Divine indwelling and ontological union cannot hijack his legacy. Additionally, ontological union has nothing to do with the pure taṣawwuf of Islam, but has been corrupted by the imported concepts of emanationism, pantheism, and monism. Finally, it has nothing to do with reason, because the denial of one’s existence, while it may look intellectual, is entirely incoherent. David Hume, a famous philosopher, said, “Be a philosopher, but amidst all your philosophy be still a man.”
<⁸⁶⁵ We should understand this to mean that no one gives Him His due right, and anyone who thinks they can is a denier of His majesty and ineffable nature that only He knows and only He can tell us enough about, within our categories of understanding, to recognize Him.
⁸⁶⁶ This would be best understood to mean that even our actions and devotion are nothing but His creations; this includes our very tawḥeed of Him. Again, this does not mean that humans have no agency at all, however; they must recognize that Allah created them and their agency and actions.
⁸⁶⁷ The way we may give this verse a proper interpretation, as Imam Ibn al-Qayyim says, is to say that any description of Him other than what He described Himself with is a deviation; it may also be said that He alone knows the quiddity of His essence and attributes, so while we ought to describe Him as He described Himself, we must be certain that we cannot conceive His majestic essence.