Dr. Khalil Andani (Assistant Professor of Religion) has published a comprehensive article on Tawhid (Divine Unicity) in Islam in the St. Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. It is available online: https://www.saet.ac.uk/Islam/DivineUnicity and the PDF version is here.
In this article, Dr. Andani surveys over 10 different Muslim understandings of Tawhid including multiple Sunni, Sufi and Shi’i perspectives – Mu’tazilis, Ash’aris, Maturidis, Hanbalis, Ismailis, Philosophers (Ibn Sina), Sufis (Ibn Arabi), Twelver Shi’a, Indo-Muslim devotional literature (Ginans), and many others. There are also extensive quotations of untranslated primary sources and visual diagrams to make the knowledge accessible.
We encourage Ismaili RE and IIS Faculty to assign this article to Ismalii students as it will help them better situate Ismaili ideas within the broader Islamic civilizational diversity. The surveyed material includes Ismaili philosophers and Da’is, Ismaili Pirs and the Ginans, the writings of Pir Shihab al-Din Shah and the guidance of Mawlana Hazar Imam. The last part of the essay looks at the modern-day debate over intercessory prayer (istighatha) in the context of Muslims praying to the Prophet, Imams, and Saints.
Table of Contents:
- 1 Allāh the eternal maker: Sunnī kalām theology
- 2 Allāh without modality (bi-lā kayf): Ḥanbalī creeds
- 3 Allāh the necessary existence: Ibn Sīnā’s philosophy (falsafa)
- 4 Allāh beyond being: Shīʿī Ismāʿīlī philosophy (ḥikma)
- 5 Allāh the absolute existence: Ibn ʿArabī’s mystical thought
- 6 A return to divine simplicity: post-classical developments in theology and philosophy
- 7 Allāh as the transcendent beloved: tawḥīd in Indo-Muslim devotional literature
- 8 Contesting tawḥīd: intercessory prayer (istighātha) in Islam
- 9 Conclusion: ‘The Truth without trace or name’
Khalil Andani, CPA-CA, PhD (Islamic Studies, Harvard)
Assistant Professor of Religion
Augustana College
639 – 38th Street, Rock Island, IL
Ismailimail 