Is it possible for someone to be a Muslim but not a monotheist?
“In the name of God, the beneficent, the merciful”
“Is it possible for someone to be a Muslim but not a monotheist?”
Yes, one may be a Muslim but not a Monotheist.
A narration in “Tawhid Al-Saduq” says: Amir Al-Mu’minin (A) was going to the market of Kufa (in Iraq), a young man who was behind him and was talking to another person, said; I swear by the One who is behind the seven heavens. The Imam slapped him on the shoulder and said, who do you swear to? said ; swear to God ! Imam said, God does not hide behind the seven heavens. He is God in the heaven and God in the earth. The person said, Do I have to pay atonement for this swear? Imam said, you did not swear to God at all, what you said is not God.
So, it means that there are many who are not monotheist at all, despite being Muslims, do not know who God is. First principle of religious is knowing God.
“There is nothing like Him. He is the Hearer, the Seer” (Ash-Shura 11). So, when there is nothing like him, then he has no face like us, then he has no limit. This verse is one of the profound monotheistic verses. Because it is comprehensive of simile and purification. He hears and sees, this is similarity because creations hear and see So, God also hears and sees, but the previous part of the verse says; There is nothing like Him which is purification. So, the second part is simile, but first part is purification! True translation is: “God is the hearer and seer but not like us”!
God is higher than those who describe Him. Those who compare God to His creation are lying to God!. God Almighty is higher than can be described. Amir Al-Mu’minin Ali (A) said: Whoever describes God has limited him, and whoever limits God has numbered him, and whoever counts God has nullified God’s primacy.
God is limitless, God cannot be counted to say one God. Invalidation of God’s primacy make him occur and make him similar to Hid creations. So, whoever describe God make him similar to His Creations.
“Exaltations to Allah above what they describe, (159) except for the sincere worshipers of Allah” (As-Saffat 159-160). A narration from infallible Imams says: “They describe God as God has described himself”
That is why they are an exception. Now who are these sincere worshipers ? What is sincerity here?
This is what Amir Al-Mu’minin (S) said ：”and the perfection of sincerity is denying the attributes from Him”. Each of our infallible Imams, who have discussed monotheism and it has reached us, have insisted on the fact that God has no limit.
If one understands this then a lot of content opens here.
Mohammad Mahdi Me’marian
All praise is to God to the extent that He deserves it.