Young Explorers · ages 7–11
Counting to One
Young Explorers · Counting to One
Next: Who holds the birds up? (children) →الْوَاحِدُ · الْأَحَدُ
al-Wāḥid and al-Aḥad · The One, and the One without parts
Let’s play a counting game. Look around the room you are in.
How many chairs can you see? How many books? How many socks are on the floor? Lots of things come in twos, or fives, or hundreds.
Now look for things that there is only one of. Maybe one door. One clock. One you.
But wait. Is there really only one door in the whole world? No. There are millions of doors. This is just one of them. Is there only one sun? We have one Sun, but out in space it is one star among billions. Even you, wonderful as you are, are one person among billions of people.
Everything we call “one” is really one of many.
Now let’s play a second game. It is called Can you split it?
Build a tower out of building bricks. Now take it apart. It comes into pieces. What about a biscuit? Snap it in half. Two pieces. What about a drop of water? Even a drop of water is made of tiny, tiny parts called molecules. Each molecule is made of even tinier parts called atoms. Scientists can even split atoms.
Everything in the world is made of parts. And anything made of parts can come apart.
Muslims believe there is One who is different. Not one of many, and not made of parts. They have two Names for this.
The first Name is al-Wāḥid, the One. There is no second, no rival, no one else like Him.
The second Name is al-Aḥad, the One who has no parts. He cannot be split, or built, or taken to pieces, because He is not made of anything.
Many Muslim children learn a short chapter of the Qur’an very early, sometimes before they can read. It begins: “Say: He is God, One.”
Jewish people have a prayer that is very old. Many say it every morning and every night: “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
Christians believe in one God too. They know Him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and they say this is still one God, not three.
So the next time you count, count right down to one. And remember the One who is not one of many.
Wonder with us
Everything we know is made of parts. What do you think it means for God to have none?
Collect a few things: a building-brick tower, a biscuit, a piece of paper, a grape. One by one, ask: can this be split into parts? Try it gently, then put the bricks back in the box and share the biscuit. Talk about it: is there anything that cannot be split at all?
Watch together
What everything is made of: molecules and atoms, explained for children.
For grown-ups
Al-Wāḥid (’the One’) is in the Qur’an at 13:16, 14:48 and 39:4; al-Aḥad (’the One, indivisible’) is at 112:1, the opening of Surah al-Ikhlāṣ, which many Muslim children learn first (in brief). Classical scholars distinguished the two: wāḥid as one without a second, aḥad as one without parts. The Jewish line is the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4 (JPS 1917). Christians describe one God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (the Trinity), in their own words; Muslims and Jews understand God’s oneness differently, and we say so plainly rather than blur it. Atoms really can be split, as John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton did in Cambridge in 1932. This story does not claim that science proves God is One; it uses the world to help children wonder. A question to share: what makes something truly one?
Watch more: Counting to One
6 films and talks, chosen for this page. They play here.
Everything Belongs to Allah | Omar and Hana | Official Video
Zain Bhikha · 4 min
Allah Made Everything | Zain Bhikha feat. Omar Regan & Islamia School | Official Video
Zain Bhikha · 6 min
Zain Bhikha's song: everything recognises its one Maker.
Allah Created Everything | Song by Zaky
One4kids · 4 min
Who is Allah? in 15 seconds
whoisallah.org.uk · 1 min
Learn the 99 Names of ALLAH with Zaky (1 to 33)
One4kids · 10 min
Surah Al-fatihah and The Four Quls| Islamic Series & Songs For Kids | Omar & Hana English
Omar & Hana - Islamic Cartoons for Kids · 6 min