Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 59
59 Lastly, I shall refer to the attribute which is better known than any other attribute of God, but concerning which there is greater disagreement among the different religions than in the case of any other attribute, that is, the attribute of Unity. There is not a single religion in existence which teaches plurality of Gods: as a matter of principle all of them proclaim the Unity of God. Nay, the followers of one religion charge the followers of another religion with non-belief in a perfect Unity. I have seen it stated in some books written by Europeans that the Muslims are polytheists, and I am told that many people in Europe and America who are ignorant of Islamic teachings and literature, imagine that the Muslims worship the Holy Prophet sa. This indicates the general feeling that the doctrine of plurality of Gods is impossible of acceptance in this age. But notwithstand- ing the agreement of all religions in their professed belief in the Unity of God, everyone of them differs from the others in its interpretation of it, and many of them use the expression only as a cloak to hide their polytheistic beliefs. But Islam is wholly free from polytheistic conceptions and doctrines and has com- pletely uprooted all beliefs and practices which even remotely suggest such ideas. It has defined and ex- plained the doctrine of associating aught with God so exhaustively that nobody is left in any doubt concerning it. The Holy Quran classifies Shirk (or association of other gods with God) into four kinds. First, a belief in a plurality of gods. Second, a belief that any other being shares, in a greater or lesser degree, in God’s attributes,