Oneness

Why is God's oneness and uniqueness so many times repeated in the Quran? Why is its cognition been made the cardinal, supreme postulate in His final message to us? By declaring and repeatedly stressing His Own oneness and uniqueness, God offers a threefold benefit upon us: He endows us with spiritual dignity and freedom and gives us the conviction that all creation, and therefore human life as well, is not an outcome of a play of blind forces. It has a definite meaning and a definite purpose -- a cognition which enables us to be at peace with our own destiny and thus, with God. Furthermore, we are made to realise that there is no inherent contradiction between the physical and the spiritual aspects of our own lives--and so we are enabled to achieve peace within ourselves. And thirdly, we are made truly aware that it is virtue alone and not birth or social function which makes one person superior to another, and that our endeavour to achieve social justice must be a reflection, however pale and inadequate, of the absolute, transcendental justice inherent in the concept of God's uniqueness of wisdom. And, finally, even as in our individual lives we are called upon to keep a just balance between extremes, rejecting both licentiousness and exaggerated self-denial. We are reminded that, in order to be Islamic, our social life, too, must be subordinated to the principle of moderation and equity, a just balance between what is due and necessary to oneself and what is due to others. Thus the individual is shown a way to attaining to abiding peace. This threefold message of truth and peace--our peace with God, peace with ourselves and peace with our social environment--is summarised, as it were, in these words of the Quran: "Thus have We willed you to be a community of the middle way, so that you might bear witness to the truth before mankind, and that the Messenger might bear witness to it before you." 2:143.