The first part of a beliver confession of faith should be to admit the existance of the creator. The Muslim bears witness that: "There is no god but God", or "no divinity but the (one) 'Divinity". The revealed Scripture of Islam; the- Qur'an, is like a vast commentary on this simple statement drawing from it allits implications for human life and thought.

This conception of the Deity is strictly monotheistic and unitarian. God alone has absolute being, totally independept and totally self-sufficient. Whatever exists or ever could exist does so by His will. He has no "partner" either in creating the universe or in maintaining it in existence. He is not only the "First Cause" but also ultimately, the only cause, and He is Himself uncaused. The Qur'an tells us: "Say: He is Allah, One, the utterly Self-sufficient; He begets not neither is He begotten, and there is nothing that is like unto Him". It tells us also that: 'When He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it - Be!; and it is".

A further implication of the first part of the shahada is that there can be no power, force or agency in the heavens or on earth which is independent of God. Everything that exists - and everything that happens - is subject to His control; there is nothing that can compete with Him or that escapes His grasp, nothing that does not bear witness to His creative power and majesty. "The seven heavens and the earth and all that is therein praise Him", says the Qur'an, "and there is not a thing that does not hymn His praise, though ye understand not their praise".
 

In the Islamic view, it is impossible for the human mind to form an adequate conception of God as He is in His eternal and absolute being. The creature cannot comprehend the Creator. According to the Qur'an, "No (human) vision encompasseth Him, yet He encompasseth (all) vision". But Islam does not demand blind belief. The Qur'an tells us a great deal about the nature of the Divine, and it describes God by a number of terms - called Hthe most beautiful NamesH - which help us to understand Him. The Qur'an tells us: Allah, there is no god but He, the Living, the eter- nally Self-subsistent. Slumber overtakes Him not nor sleep. To Him belong all that is in the heavens and all that is upon earth. Who is there than (can) intercede with Him except by His leave? He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they comprehend naught of His knowledge save what He pleases. His Throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and He is not wearied by preserving them; and He is the Most High, the Immense".
 

He is The One,(AL-AHAD) absolute unity. This is in sharp contrast to the Christian conception of the Trinity. The One cannot be divided, nor can it be diminished or "humanised" by incarnation in any created form. God does not become His own creature, in fact He does not "become" anything; He is. The Qur'an describes trim also as AI_cAli, the Most High, totally transcendent in relation to His own creations and therefore infinitely beyond all that we might attempt to associate with him. He is AI_cAziz, the Almighty, and AI-Jabbar, the Irresistible, for there is no one and nothing that could possibly resist His power, which governs and regulates all existence in accordance with a predetermined measure. It follows that there is no earthly power that is not derived from Him, no strength nor any virtue that is not loaned to us by Him; and no one can help us except by His will, nor can anyone harm us unless He permits them to do so (in which case this harm is a trial to be borne with patience)