Abstract

The Islamic concept of “tawḥīd” or Divine Unity is more than a simple affirmation that God is One. It lies at the heart of Islamic spirituality, thought, and practice. It is a concept with a rich semantic field and complex philosophical connotations. Tawḥīd affirms God’s incomparable unity in such a way as to embrace the plurality of existence and infuse it with life and meaning. Tawḥīd, in the context of Turkish Muslim thought, has functioned as a conceptual tool for addressing difference to suggest ways of engaging the challenges posed by skepticism and the truth-claims of other religions within an Islamic context. This chapter lays out various Turkish Muslim theological interpretations and applications of tawḥīd to the phenomena of religious pluralism and global diversity, and then turns to the work of theologian Şaban Ali Düzgün as a case study. The paper concludes with the observation that, in both Düzgün’s work and in Turkish discussions on pluralism more generally, tawḥīd serves as both a limit and a facilitator to pluralism.