The Meaning of Tawhid
Imam Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani
The orthodox `ulema explained tawhid to be the repudiation of the notion that Allah has any attribute which resembles the attributes of created things (tashbih), and of the notion that He does not possess those transcendent attributes which His perfection and majesty require (ta’til).
That is why al-Junayd in a report transmitted by al-Qushayri [in his al-risala] said:
“Al-tawhid consists in maintaining the uniqueness of the Unoriginated (qadim) with
respect to the originated (hadith).”
Abu Qasim al-Tamimi said in his book al-hujjah:
“Al-tawhid is the verbal noun (masdar) from which the past verb wahhada, and the present verb yuwahhidu are derived. The meaning of the sentence wahhadtu Allah is i`taqttu Allah munfaridan [that is, I declared categorically that Allah is unique in His person (dhat), and that in respect of His attributes (sifat) He has no likeness nor resemblance.] However, it has also been said that it means: ‘I acknowledge that He is one’, and likewise, that it means: ‘I deny Him all quality and quantity; for He is one in His Essence, indivisible; and one in His attributes; there is nothing which is like Him. He has no associate in His divinity, dominion, and providence. There is no other Lord than He, and no other Creator.’”
Ibn Battal said:
“The title that al-Bukhari has given the chapter [in his Hadith collection called al-sahih] implies that Allah is not a corporeal body because a corporeal body is composed of things and formed. And in this [section] there contains a refutation against the Jahmiyya in their claim that Allah is a corporeal body...”
This is how it was found and perhaps he meant to say the anthropomorphists. As for the Jahmiyya, no one who has composed works on the [beliefs of the sects] differed in [the opinion] that they [the Jahmiyya] denied the attributes to the point where they were ascribed with denial (ta`til). It has been established from Abu Hanifa that he said:
“Jahm [ibn Safwan] exaggerated in negating resemblance to the point that he said that Allah is nothing.”
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1 Ibn Hajar, fath al-bari (Beirut: Dar al-Ma`rifa) vol. 14, p. 344