Critique of the Concept of Union and Its Contradiction with Pure Monotheism (Tawhid)
The core of Islamic belief, and the central axis around which all religious teachings revolve, is pure monotheism (Tawhid). This necessarily requires affirming the absolute and essential distinction between the Creator and the created (the Creator–creation duality).
In Islam, Allah is completely independent of all creation, separate in His existence and essence, established above His Throne, distinct from His creation. He is neither indwelling within them, nor mixed with them, nor united with them at any ontological level.
The idea of pantheism (the unity of existence), or the complete identification between Atman (the individual soul) and Brahman (the Absolute), as presented in Advaita Vedanta, fundamentally contradicts both basic rational principles and the revealed teachings of Islam.
From a purely philosophical standpoint, if everything in the universe is God, and if the individual human soul is itself the divine Absolute, then this concept necessarily leads to the collapse of moral responsibility.
It results in a dangerous and absolute equivalence between good and evil, between the oppressor and the oppressed, and between purity and impurity, since all would be considered manifestations of the same divine reality.
Muslim scholars—both early and later—in their critiques of similar philosophies originating from Greek or Indian traditions, pointed out that the doctrine of “unity of existence” completely nullifies the meaning of worship and eliminates the concept of free will for the created being.
“Moreover, the concept of an Absolute stripped of all personal attributes (Nirguna Brahman) is, in reality, nothing more than an abstract mental idea. It is a purely conceptual entity with which a human being cannot form any emotional or personal relationship.