This short surah that expresses God's unity and transcendence is one of the passages that all Muslims are familiar with and that are often recited in prayer. It is said to contain "one third of the Qur'an" in concentrated form. In fact, proclaiming God's unity is one of the central tasks of all prophets and messengers. It is also expressed in the first part of the Islamic testimony of faith, la ilâha illAllâh, there is no god but (the One) God, an ilâh not only being a god in the theological sense that is worshipped and called upon but any power, authority or institutuion on which human beings feel dependent, which they fear or on which they set their hopes. All these powers are decidedly rejected; surrendering to the One means liberation from all of them. The text of this short Surah elaborates this idea: He is unique and beyond human control or description in terms of becoming and transistoriness within time and space. Therefore there are no concepts of "God's children" who could count on His special attention, or of God's "sons" or "daughters" who could be understood as mediators between God and human beings, or even of incarnation. Nothing and no one is His equal. Seen by itself, this text would strictly speaking leave hardly any space for theological work, and where realization is concerned, it could only point out what paths do not lead there. In all that is to follow here, this text should keep us aware that any theological statements cannot be more than preliminary, and realization can be true and genuine but never complete.

The Qur'an does not restrict itself to pointing our God's transcendence. It is a divine reveleation not only in istself but it means to be a key for other forms of revelation, a guidance for all those who consciously search for God (Surah 2:2) for their path towards him in this life on earth. Thus, we are taught to pray:

The path is an image that turns up again and again, be it Jihâd fi sabîli-llâh, struggle in God's path, be it in the term Sharî'a, the ethico-legal system, etymologically related to the word for road, or the Minhaj, the method of working with it (all this will be explained in detail later on, in sha'Allâh). In this context, another central term in the Qur'an is âya, translated as sign, originally a landmark in an otherwise monotonous wilderness from which travellers can find orientation and without which they would be likely to go astray - which in the experience of the Prophet (s) and his contemporaries would mean certain death. In this metaphorical sense, the signs are not "accidental" landmarks like trees, rocks, ruins of ancient buildings etc. but signs put by God, landmarks placed by Him on the path to Him though which He speaks to us if we try to understand and interpret them.

Thus, signs in this sense are the texts of the revealed scriptures: "These are the signs of the wise Scripture (Surah 10:1)"; "A Scripture the sighns of which are composed in wisdom and have been explained in detail ... (Surah 11:1)"; "These are the signs of the enlightening Scripture. We have revealed it as an Arabic recitation so that you may understand (Surah 12:1-2)"; etc.

However, the Qur'an itself speaks of other signs, asking us to investigate them: the signs in our environmen, nature, history etc. Some examples:

Of course we can read these passages as edifying texts and contemplate God's creative power and care gratefully. We can also read them with the eyes of a scientist and understand them as a challenge to investigate into some of the facts pointed out here - it is no coincidence that the text specially addresses people who reflect and understand. However, it talks about phenomena as signs of God, that is, besides what has been said about understanding them, there is the possibility to find out what God intends to tell us through them. There is already one hint in one of the passages: God revives the dead earth by means of the rain - in a similar way, dead human beings are brought back to life as is explained in another verse. Hints at a symbolic meaning are often already given in the text. By watching the phenomina and laws within creation we learn more about God's actions, e.g. devoloping, unfolding, taking away, reviving etc. but also about His attributes: mercy is often primarily experienced from our mother, wisdom perhaps from elderly people, protection in the circle of the family; justice is something we painfully miss when we are treated unjustly etc. Outside the direct statements within the Qur'an, we thus learn a lot that we can use to develop a theology provided we do not forget our own limitations.

Both these signs are not restricted to the Scriptures and our natural environment. We ourselves are not outside or opposite to creation but part of it. Therefore logically the Qur'an says,

Phenomena, potentials and laws within ourselves are part of God's signs just as the sighns in outward nature. Consequently it is worth the trouble to have a look into our selves. We will first find our bodily functions and realize that we breathe, that our heart beats and that our digestion works without any conscious contribution from our side. Then there are our impulses, instincts, feelings, wishes and dreams, the inner voice that enjoins us to do what is good and advises us to keep away from evil, the faculty for conceptual and contextual thought and many other aspects.

In search of unity, we are obviously first of all confronted with a complex multiplicity both inwardly and outwardly. Here the Qur'an is offered as a key and is therefore a "mercy for the worlds".

To gain a more structure overview, let us start with ourselves:

This is more than a logical experiment: you have jobs with various employers with conflicting interests; you follow conflicting goals that nevertheless seem equally important to you ... At some point a decision must be made in order to remedy the conflict and to gain a perspective that is necessary for setting priorities.

Now this is not simply achieved by making the decision, "From today on I will exclusively follow the perspective set by God," only to face the complexities of everyday life as rattled as before or to try extremes like asceticism or seclusion from the world in which our task lies. The latter may rid us of a lot of strain but does not replace diligent and patient work with ourselves. It is not a question of a magical change but of a gradual self-discovery and self-education.

In fact there are spiritual masters who, wanting to make things easy for their disciples, temporarily offer themselves as the pole of permanence and orientation instead of the Transcendent. Later on they gently detach their disciple from themselves like a mother weaning her child, directing him or her to the Prophet (s) and finally to God Himself. This may have therapeutic advantages but is not completely free of dangers, for 1. the master is a mortal human being who might have to leave his/her disciple at a critical point; 2. this method contains a certain burden and temptation for the master; and 3. this matter can develop into a borderline case of what is generally understood as "associating (shirk) of other beings (in this case the master) with God".

Let us turn back to our environment for the time being. According to the teachings of the Qur'an, God is the Creator of all things (cf. Surah 6:102); seen from the other side, all things can be traced back to the One origin, including all difference and variety. We have already been introduced to the "variety of languages and colours" as signs of God. Here are some more examples:

This means that human beings also come frome the same One origin. This is expressed symbolically in the story of Adam and Eve as First Parents of humankind. Being another sign of God, the variety among human beings is seen in a positive light (cf. Surah 30:20-25 und 35:27-28). The problem lies with disagreement, not with variety - even though variety is often taken to be the cause of conflict, different looks, different thoughts, different patterns of behaviour, a different mentality, a different religion etc. becoming a pretext for avoiding one's fellow human beings or to banisch them from one's neighbourhood.

The end of the verse points out that any disagreement can be solved by God's judgement. Another verse says that there will eventually be an enlightenment and a decision, and we are told how to handle variety in the meantime:

Thus, we see Unitiy at the source and Unity in the end. It is the variety in between we have causes problems with. However, when we look at it more closely, we find that the individual elements of variety are interdependent and complement each other. Perhaps we take this for granted and notice it only in cases of disaster, e.g. when damages to the natural enironment become obvious. If we try to see things in their context rather than just analyzing them or viewing them with their immediate utilization in mind, we will soon discover that there is Unity behind variety, or that Unity is expressed in variety. And finally, Islamic doctrine makes a variety of statements about God notwithstanding the central fact that He is One, Unique, and Transcendent. The Qur'an mentions God's names that are specified as the 99 Most Beautiful Names of God in tradition, even confronting us with the surprising discovery that there are names that seem to be opposites without being mutually exclusive or contradictory:

In ordinary logic, especially the last pair of opposites is completely absurd. For illustration, mystical literature often presents the image of a person who is both hidden and revealed by a veil: without the veil, an ordinary spectator would be dazzled by her beauty to the extent that he canot see anything at all - with the veil, he can at least see the outlines and is able to communicate with that person.

The following verses take us from Unity to variety step by step:

The first verse points to the level of transcendence. God is One, and He knows both the hidden potentialities and the manifest phenomena and events. But already on this level the Qur'an mentions His grace and mercy, two attributes that we find throughout the Qur'anic text. Grace and mercy are not at our disposal while at the same time they are the foundation for His relationship with all His creatures.

This relationship is in the centre of the second level introduced in the next verse where, starting from the One, a wide spectrum unfolds that is nevertheless closely connected with Him and must be clearly differentiated from ideas that are thought as separate from Him and worshipped in His place or associated with Him.

The last verse deals with the level of what could be called God's kingdom: in this sphere, He is the Creator who brings His creatures into existence, nourishes them, shapes them, unfolds them and educates them step by step. It is through them that He naifests His Most Beautiful Names, and all created beings glorify Him. This is especially true of the human being who has realized his/her value and task, having matured to full humanity as God's representative on earth.

We can then outline the concept of unity as follows:

First and foremost, unity is God's unity and uniqueness, the foundation and source of all being and the end of everything that exists. This unity is manifested in variety that constitutes an organic whole whoch is a mirror image of the original Unity.

Vis a vis God's unity there is the unity of the human individual that is made up of a variety of different potentials and capacities that are to be unfolded and harmonized. A mature whole person has the human greatness that is able to glorify the Creator and to bear witness to His works and His names.

Vis a vis God's unity there is further the unity of the human society where there is space and meaning for each individual. This cannot be a uniform unity; the "equality" of its members is not an equality of characteristics and shapes but an equality of value as very special created beings (it is not up to us to give a final judgement). Again and again the outward differences of the individual members of society - language, colour, gender, religion, special skills and abilities etc. - must be harmonized so that they interact and complement each other. In this process, not only individuals must be considered but also small groups, and harmony cannot be established by imposing any uniformity whatsoever but only with mutual acceptance and through joint efforts to build on common grounds and to use the dynamics of the differences in a constructive manner.

Moreover, there is the unity in creation, an organic whole of heavenly bodies and molecules, plants and animals, phenomena and natural laws that seems to be too self-evident to be noticed except when disturbed by an ecologic disaster. In fact, human beings are able to cause considerable disturbances if they do not behave according to their status of God's representative but assume the role of an autocrat, when they confront creation rather than seeing themselves as part of it (in the long run, the perpetrator is then bound to suffer most from the consequendes)

Considering all that has been said about creation and revelation as well as about the manifestation of God's names in creation, mystics like Ibn al-'Arabi do not talk about a polarity of God and humankind, God and creation etc. For the, God is the final reality that is hidden and transcentdent and at the same time manifested and present in the ever-changing forms of creation. In this context, they use the term Unity of Being (wahdat al-wujûd) where creation cannot be considered separate from the Creator and His revelation. Nevertheless it is not identical with the Creator as it is imagined in patheist and monist thought. On the other hand, creation receives its reality from Him, that is, it is not a mere illusion.

Now discussing all this does not make us mystics even if we keep it in mind carefully and think about it, and especially not if we ethusiastically proclaim it a dogma. It remains theoretical theology and philosophy unless we find ways to have our own experiences along these lines, and then it is quite possible that we express them in a completely different way, creatively contributing to the variety of expressions by Muslim mystics, as it were. Studies of mystical theology and philosophy in theory is like reading a travel report - something that can be thoroughly enjoyed but is completely different from the journey itself the impressions of which are much stronger and more genuine but also demand some serious effort.

Therefore neither the Qur'an nor the mystics deal with the so-called "proofs of God's existence" that used to be popular in scholastic philosophy. Either there is a relationship with God deep in a person's heart, then no "proof" is necessary, and he/she might even recognizes signs of God's presence in all things, or the attempt to "prove" triggers defiant questions and is taken as a challenge to "disprove" it - which would be no problem for an expereinced thinker. The Qur'an points to one's own inner experience and calls us to discover our relationship with God and to cultivate it step by step: You were dead (matter), then He gave you life." Look into your own selves, look for your own core. Discover the signs in Scripture, in creation and in yourselves.

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