"O my people, worship Allah; you have no deity other than Him."

Al-Wahid Al-Ahad

Essam Aljawf
Seed
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From Allah’s beautiful names (Al-Asma’ Al-Husna): ٱلْوَٰحِدُ ٱلْأَحَد

Alhamdulillah, praise to Allah.

Al-Wahid Al-Ahad: He is the Unique who is singular in every perfection, majesty, grandeur, beauty, praise, wisdom, mercy, and all other attributes of perfection. There is none like Him, no equal, nor anything comparable to Him in any way. He is the One in His life, His self-subsistence, His knowledge, His power, His greatness, His majesty, His beauty, His praise, His wisdom, His mercy, and all His other attributes—described with the utmost perfection and the highest degree in every one of these qualities.1

Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, is described with oneness (al-ahadiyyah), which is an attribute of His essence. al-Wahid and al-Ahad are two of His names.

”Al-Wahid (the One), Al-Ahad (the Unique). He is the One Who is uniquely and utterly and perfectly One, with no partners in His Uniqueness. His slaves are obliged to believe in His Oneness, in belief and word and deed, by recognizing that He is absolutely perfect and is unique in His oneness, and by directing all kinds of worship to Him Alone.”2

  • Al-Ahad appears in the Qur’an only once, in Surat al-Ikhlas.
  • Al-Wahid is mentioned in the Qur’an more than twenty times.
  • The Name Al-Wahid is paired with His Name Al-Qahhar in several places in the Qur’an.
  • Al-Ahad is mentioned alongside His Name Al-Samad
    in Surat al-Ikhlas. This pairing also appears in the words of the Prophet ﷺ.
It was narrated from Buraydah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ heard a man saying: “O Allah, I ask You by the fact that You are Allah, Al-Ahad, Al-Samad, Who begets not nor was He begotten, and there is none comparable to Him.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then said: “He has asked Allah by His Greatest Name, for when He is asked by it, He grants, and when He is called upon by it, He responds.” (Sunan Abi Dawud 1493)
  1. Bahjat Qulub al-Abrar, Shaykh al-Sa‘di, p. 255, Arabic↩
  2. Some of the Names of Allah and their meanings↩
Al-Wahid Al-Ahad