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Qur’an uses
‘we’ for Allah.
Islam is a strictly monotheistic religion. It believes in
and adheres to uncompromising monotheism. It believes that God is one, and
unique in His attributes. In the Qur’an, God often refers to Himself using
the word ‘We’. But this does not mean that Islam believes in the existence
of more than one God.
Two types of plural
In several languages, there are two types of plurals, one
is a plural of numbers to refer to something that occurs in a quantity of
more than one. The other plural is a plural of respect.
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In the English language, the Queen of England refers
to herself as ‘We’ instead of ‘I’. This is known as the ‘royal plural’.
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Rajiv Gandhi, the ex-Prime Minister of India used to
say in Hindi "Hum dekhna chahte hain". "We want to see." ‘Hum’ means ‘We’
which is again a royal plural in Hindi.
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Similarly in Arabic, when Allah refers to Himself in
the Qur’an, He often uses Arabic word 'Nahnu' meaning ‘We’. It does not
indicate plural of number but plural of respect.
Tawheed or monotheism is one of the pillars of Islam. The
existence and uniqueness of one and only one God is mentioned several
times in the Qur’an. For instance in Surah Ikhlas, it says:
"Say He is Allah the One and Only." [Al-Qur’an 112:1]
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