Oneness (tawḥīd) is not only the outermost gate of entry to Islam, but also its deepest dimension because tawḥīd, which begins with accepting God as the only being worthy of worship, manifests itself in every aspect of existence. Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī’s (d. 333/944) masterpiece, Kitāb al-tawḥīd, is perhaps the oldest work available that deals with this comprehensive understanding of tawḥīd in Islam and traces it in all aspects of existence. Al-Māturīdī is important first and foremost due to his status as the eponym of one of the two main schools of Sunnī kalām. The Māturīdī tradition is a theological articulation of the Ḥanafī school of ethics and law, itself one of the oldest and largest such schools in the Muslim world. But al-Māturīdī also has a wider significance, reflecting the depth and subtlety of his theological and philosophical ideas, as well as the coherence of the resultant system. This elevates him to sit among both the great theologians of the Islamic tradition, and the great philosophers of religion. An English translation of al-Māturīdī’s Kitāb al-tawḥīd is a debt owed not just to the field of Islamic studies, but to the global Muslim community (umma), and ultimately world literature.
