Beliefs about God, compared
Islamic Studies · GCSE · The School
Tawhid stated precisely
Tawhid is the oneness of Allah: one in His lordship, one in His right to be worshipped, and unique in His names and attributes. Surah Al-Ikhlas states it in four ayat: He is One; the Eternal Refuge; He neither begets nor is born; and there is nothing comparable to Him. SHIRK — associating partners with Allah — is its opposite and the gravest wrong in Islam.
Comparing fairly
Christianity holds one God in three persons; Judaism holds a strict unity close to the Islamic position; Hinduism includes a range of positions from many deities to one reality behind many forms. A comparison that caricatures another belief is a weak answer as well as an unkind one — examiners mark accuracy about other traditions too.
What follows from tawhid
It is not an abstract doctrine: it grounds prayer directed to no one else, refusal to depict Allah, the rejection of intermediaries in worship, and a moral order in which one authority outranks every human one. When a question asks the significance of a belief, this is the kind of consequence it is looking for.
WEAK COMPARISON: "Christians believe in three gods, but Muslims believe in one." That misrepresents the doctrine and an examiner will see it. FAIR: "Christians hold that God is one being in three persons — a unity they do not describe as three gods. Muslims hold that God is one in a way that admits no internal distinction, and regard the Trinity as incompatible with tawhid." The disagreement is now real, and both sides are recognisable.
The names and attributes, and the limit that governs them
Allah is described in the Quran through names and attributes — the Merciful, the All-Knowing, the Just, the Sustainer — and these are how believers know Him. The governing principle is that nothing whatever is like Him, so the attributes are affirmed without being imagined in human terms. Muslim theologians have long discussed how far the language may be interpreted, and the schools differ; a GCSE answer should name the attribute, say what follows from it for a believer, and note that the manner of it is not claimed. Attributing a human form or limitation is the error to avoid.
Whether the question wants difference or similarity
Comparison questions come in two shapes and answering the wrong one is a common way to lose marks. 'Explain two similarities' wants genuine common ground stated fairly — that Judaism, Christianity and Islam all hold God to be the creator, and all hold that He communicates through prophets. 'Explain two differences' wants the actual points of disagreement, stated so that a believer of that tradition would recognise their own position. Read the command, and give the number asked for: three similarities on a two-mark-pair question wastes time you need for the evaluation.