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No religion has
interpreted monotheism in a more consequential and literal way
than Islam. According to Islamic doctrine the Christian dogma of
a trinitarian god is a form of tritheism--of a three-god belief.
There is no
issue upon which Islam is so intransigent as the one of
monotheism.
The
profession of faith, the first of the so-called Five Pillars of
Islam (the basic requirements for the faithful Muslim), states
clearly and unambiguously that "there is no God but
Allah," and in accordance with this principle the religion
knows no greater sin than compromise the monolithic monotheism
of Allah.
Polytheism,
or anything that may look like it, e.g., the notion of a divine
trinity, is the most serious of sins in Islam.
The Qur'an
declares: "Say: He, Allah, is one. Allah, the eternal.
Neither has he begotten, nor is he begotten. And no one is his
equal" (112).
This
profession of faith in Allah as the one god is encountered in a
more popular form, for example, in the stories of The Thousand
and One Nights: "There is no god except Allah alone, he has
no companions, to him belongs the power and he is to be praised,
he gives life and death and he is mighty over all things."
In
only one respect has the uncompromising monotheism of Islam
shown itself to be vulnerable; i.e., in the doctrine of the
Qur'an as uncreated and coeval with Allah himself.
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