Question
In a book that I was recently using for my research into the concept of monotheism, I ran across an interesting statement, which I was hoping to get some comment on.
The author was proposing that the mention of “there is no God but Allah” came into being in the Qur’an only in the verses revealed at Medinah and that initially this was not mentioned in Islam. He was suggesting that initially the notion of “Allah is Great”, was promoted so as to lift Allah above the other gods, but not to directly reject the other gods. He suggested that only after Muhammad (pbuh) gained power in Medinah did he utilize the monotheism to secure his power.
Is this true that the first part of the shahadah is not mentioned till later?
Reply
The referred contention of the author is without any basis. In fact, if we look closely at the Surahs revealed at Mekkah, we shall see that contrary to the contention of the author, the basic theme of these Surahs is to convince the addressees of the basic truth of Tawheed (monotheism) on the one hand and to admonish them of the dire consequences of rejecting this basic truth. One may have a look at the following Surahs as evidence of this fact:
Al-Faatihah (1), Al-An`aam (6), Al-Aa`raaf (7), Yunus (16) to Al-Muminoon (23), Al-Furqaan (25) to Al-Sajadah (32), Saba (34) to Al-Jaathiah (45), Qaaf (50) to Al-Waaqi`ah (56) and Al-Mulk (68) to Al-Ikhlaas (112).
These Surahs adequately evidence that the referred contention is absolutely baseless.
Hope this helps
UIUK team
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