The Four Layers Of Declaring Divine Oneness (TAWHID)

A page from a translation from Imam Al Ghazali’s Ihya’ Ulum al-Din, translated by Nasir Abdussalam

Bismillāhir-Raḥmānir-Raḥīm…In this article, I wanted to share the four levels of Tawhid described by Imam Al Ghazali and how they manifest themselves in a person.

We will start first by asking what does the belief in the Oneness of God (Tawhid) actually mean? Imam Ghazali describes the belief in Tawhid, or the Oneness of God, by saying that when a person truly believes in Tawhid, he sees no actor besides Allah (SWT). The statement, “There is nothing worthy of worship except Allah, alone without partner,” becomes an inextricable part of his character and remains dominant in his heart.

This belief in oneness of God has four layers:

The first is the statement of the tongue: “There is nothing worthy of worship except Allah, alone without partner. All dominion belongs to Him, and all praise is due to Him. He is Powerful over all things.” This is the lowest level of belief and is the faith of the hypocrites.

The second is a decisive belief in the heart, which is the level of the generality of creation and the theologians. They are not distinguished from laypeople except by their ability to respond to and refute the misconceptions and confusions of innovators regarding these beliefs.

The third — which is the core — is when the reality of declaring this Divine Oneness and its true secret is revealed to a person through the light of Allah (SWT). This means that he sees many things yet knows that they all emanate from a single Actor according to a divine order. He realizes the chain of causes, how they are sequenced, and the connection of the beginning of the chain to the Causer of Causes. A person at this station is nevertheless still in a state of separation because he sees actions, their multiplicity, and their connection to the Actor.

The fourth — which is the core of the core — is when a person sees nothing in existence except the One and knows that, in reality, only the One truly exists. Any plurality is only in relation to the perception of one whose awareness is divided. For example: a person who sees a person from his leg, then his arm, then his face, then his head would be overcome by his plurality. Yet, if a person were to see someone all at once, each individual part would not occur to him; rather, he would perceive all the parts as a single person. The same goes for a person who declares divine Oneness.

These are the four levels of Tawhid that Imam Al Ghazali has mentioned in his book Ihya’ Ulum al-Din in chapter on Tawakkul. Once you read these four levels of Tawhid my suggestion would be to pause and reflect and expand on each of these levels to really understand what they meant.