A belief in the existence of God, His Unity, His Absolute Power, and in the other essential attributes of an Eternal and Almighty Being, is the most important part of the Muslim religion, and is supposed to be expressed in the two clauses of the well-known formula:—
لااله الاالله
Lā ilāha Il-lā ʾl-lāhu.
There is no deity But Allāh.
The first clause, “There is no deity,” is known as the Nafī, or that which is rejected, and the second clause, “But Allāh,” as the Is̤bāt, or that which is established, the term Nafī wa-Is̤bāt being applied to the first two clauses of the Muslim’s Kalimah, or creed.
The teaching of Muḥammad in his Qurʾān as to the nature of God, forms such an important consideration in an exposition of Islām, that no apology is needed for full and lengthy quotations from that book on the subject.
The following verses are arranged in chronological order according to Jalālu ʾd-dīn as-Suyūt̤ī’s list:—
Sūratu ʾl-Ik͟hlāṣ. [Chapter cxiii].
(One of the earliest chapters of the Qurʾān)
“Say, He is God, One [God]
“He begetteth not nor is begotten,