One God. Tawḥīd.

Four short verses that describe God

Belief in one God, called tawḥīd, is the foundation of everything else in Islam. The Prophet described this short chapter of the Qur’an, Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ (Chapter 112), as worth a third of the whole Qur’an.

1. Say: He is God, the One.
2. God, the Self-Sufficient, on whom everything depends.
3. He has no child, and He was not born.
4. And there is nothing like Him.

The most beautiful names

We cannot see God, but we can come to know Him through His qualities. The Qur’an says, “To God belong the most beautiful names, so call on Him by them” (7:180).

Muslims traditionally speak of 99 names. Each one opens a window onto God: the Merciful when we need forgiveness, the Provider when we worry about tomorrow, the Light when we feel lost.

Almost every chapter of the Qur’an opens “In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful.”

• Ar-Raḥmān — Most Merciful; Ar-Raḥīm — Especially Merciful.
• Al-Malik — The King; As-Salām — Source of Peace.
• Al-Khāliq — The Creator; Al-Ghaffār — Ever-Forgiving.
• Ar-Razzāq — The Provider; Al-ʿAlīm — All-Knowing.
• Al-Wadūd — The Loving; Al-Ḥakīm — The Wise.
• Al-Qādir — All-Powerful; An-Nūr — The Light.

Why belief in God feels natural

The Qur’an teaches that every person is born with a fiṭra, an inner sense that points toward one Creator (30:30). Faith is a homecoming, not something foreign.

Before we were born, every soul was asked, “Am I not your Lord?” and every soul answered “Yes” (7:172). Life is a chance to remember that answer.

God has no body, no beginning, no end and no equal. He is not limited by place or time, yet He is closer to us than anything else.

“The beginning of religion is to know Him, and the perfection of knowing Him is to affirm that He is One.”

Imam ʿAlī (ʿa) · Nahj al-Balāgha, Sermon 1

Part 2 of 9·All nine Discovering Islam articles