Tawhid (Sufism)

This direct personal experience of reality is said arise as a state of mind through practice of dhikr or remembrance. Inner repetition the phrase "la ilaha illallah" – there is no god but God – is practised until it becomes a permanent activity. Relation to the absolute is grasped and harmony with the universe maintained. As the quality of the Divine Presence is recognized in the heart, the illusion of separation is surrendered and the truth of unity – God's immanence and transcendence – experienced. Not simply monotheism, with only one God, or "unity of God", Sufism believes in total union and identity with God, "unification of God". The multiplicity of created things are seen to reflect that unity and material and spiritual worlds become one. Under the influence of tawhid, global and personal concerns become aligned. In the realization of God's consciousness, each individual is a source of transformation able to assist in creation of harmonious global institutions and restructuring of existing ones. The balance brought in tawhid assists in avoidance of common obstacles to progress – factionalism, idealism and ruthlessness.

In the all-pervading unicity of God there is no room for the individual self or ego. Individuality, even the individuality seeking unification, even the thought that unification has been achieved, conceals the infinite and maintains separation. Eventually the state of self annihilation is arrived at, through repentance, repentance of repentance and repentance of seeing one's own existence. The lower self is subjected through self-mortification, and eventually, through God's grace alone, there is only God in the heart. This perfect unity is attained as a favour of God granted to very few and is the goal of many Sufi paths of self mortification and mysticism. However, after the loss of personal attributes and total presence of God, the being present in God and absent to self, after the "drunkenness" of being overwhelmed by God, the Sufi comes to the "sobriety" to correctly assess everything in its right place. Having passed through fana his personal qualities persist and he becomes a pattern for the spiritual path of others.

The total obliteration of the self is the fourth kind of tawhid described by Junayd. There are lesser kinds: first, the tawhid of the common man is an awareness of union arising through belief in one God and Islam, and following the Prophet. The second is through following of shari'a, the law of religion; observance of the law and avoiding its prohibitions brings union. The third is the feeling of God in the heart, a personal experience of God and his uniqueness. But the fourth is absolute identification, with return to the state prior to existence. This is consistent with the view that unity of God (monotheism as opposed to polytheism) is to be distinguished from unification as absolute identity with God. In Islam, tawhid refers to the former and early Sufis would not use the term to refer to the absolute identity or mystic ecstasy not reached through knowledge but revealed.