IS THE CATEGORIES OF TAWHEED A BID'AH?

the word At-Tawheed was not used at the time of our righteous Prophet SAWS. This terminology was later adapted by the scholars. However when the prophet sent Muadh ibn Jabal as governor of Yemen in 9 AH, he told him, “ You will be going to Christians and Jews ( Ahlul-Kitab), so the first thing you should invite them is the assertation of the oneness of Allah ( Yuwahhidoollah)”. Bukhari And Muslim

Therefore if the division of Tawheed into different Components would be an innovation, then this would also fall into this category. And it is well known that this terminology has been accepted by consensus.

As for the division of Tawheed into different components, it was also not done in the time of the Prophet SAWS nor by the companions RAA, as there was no necessity to explain Tawheed in this fashion, since everyone was upon the same aqeedah as taught by the Prophet SAWS.

The necessity for this analytical approach to the principal of tawheed arose after the different deviant sects arose such as the Mu’ tazilah, who affirmed the names of Allah, but denied the attributes of Allah, describing Him with Nothingness and believed that the Qur‘an is created.

Also amongst those Sects are the Jahmiyyah which gave rise to the mentioned above sect. They denied Allah’s names as well as His attributes.

Therefore this categorization was introduced by the scholars of that particular time to clarify the correct Aqeedah, and refute the heretics.

Imam Aboo Haneefah An-Nu’maan Ibn Thaabit ( rahimahullah) said in his book Al-Fiqul-Absat “ And Allah is to be called upon upwards, not downwards, because lowness is not from the description of ar-Ruboobiyyah and Uloohiyyah at all”.

So Aboo Haneefah’s statement, “…is to be called upwards, not downwards…” contains affirmation of the highness ( ‘uluww) for Allah. And that is from Tawheedul-Asmaa’ was-Siffaat. And therein lies s refutation of the Jahmiyyah, the Mu’tazilah, and other than them from the deniers of al-’uluww ( the attribute of highness of Allah).

And his statement, “…from the description of ar-Ruboobiyyah…” contains affirmation of Tawheedur-Ruboobiyyah.

And his statement, “…and al-Uloohiyyah…” contains an affirmation of Tawheedul-Uloohiyyah.

Therefore this categorization is not a newly invented matter. Many other scholars from the Salaf has used this categorization. For more information in this matter I refer the book below:

“The Beneficial Summary In Clarifying The Evidences For the Categories of Tawheed”By The Noble Sheikh Dr. ’Abdur-Razzaaq Ibn ’Abdul-Muhsin al-’Abbaad.