Risalat al-Tawhid (The Treatise on the Oneness of God)

"Risalat al-Tawhid" (The Treatise of Monotheism), a book on the science of divine unity written by Shaykh Muhammad Abduh. It is read here in the Dar al-Shuruq edition, introduced by Muhammad Imara. The editor describes its subject as theology: God, His attributes and His acts; humankind and its station; prophecy and messengership; the Qur'an as the miracle of Islam; and then the articles of belief and the foundations as they took shape in the law ¹.

The editor explains that the "Commentaries" dictated by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani on the commentary of al-Dawani on the Adudiyya articles of belief were the first modern text in theology to consider the beliefs of the community with an enlightened mind, but they remained for the circle of philosophers. He says the books in circulation in the Mamluk and Ottoman ages were texts and glosses for verbal dispute, so the treatise came to meet the needs of the general reader and of the researcher alike ^{3 4}.

The editor describes the book as one of the most important texts of Abduh, and says that its subject is "the science of divine unity," and that its style is accessible to the general reader and rich for the specialist ².

The editor reports from Abduh that Islam supports reason in order to defeat imitation, and that imitation weakened the spirit of initiative and creativity in the community. This is an opinion of Abduh, which he expresses forcefully, and it is presented here as his own view, not as the position of all Sunnis. The question of reason and imitation in the Sunni inheritance has several views ⁵.

Only the introduction has been read so far, and the text itself has not yet been read. The dates for Abduh given by the editor need a second source before they are relied on.