When the mushrikin مشرکین ، (the associators) of Arabia heard the verse وَإِلَـٰهُكُمْ إِلَـٰهٌ وَاحِدٌ 'And your god is one God', all against their own belief, they were puzzled thinking how could there be just one single object of worship for the whole wide world. If this was a serious claim, there has to be some proof in support. That proof has been tersely encased in the present two verses.

Understanding Tauhid, the Oneness of Allah, in the wider sense:

Tauhid توحید ، the cardinal principle of Muslim faith as stated in Verse 163 has been proved repeatedly and variously, therefore, we limit ourselves at this point to a summary view of the principle as follows:

1. He is One in the state of His being, that is, there exists in the universe of His creation no entity like Him. He is without any duplicate or replica and without any equal or parallel. Such unshared and pristine is His station that He alone is deserving of being called the Wahid واحد ، the One.

2. He is One in claiming the right of being worshipped, that is, in view of the nature of His Being, the comprehensiveness of His most perfect attributes and the great charisma of His creation and its nurture, all human obedience, all ` ibadah عبادہ ، all worship has to be for Him alone.

3. He is One in being free of any conceivable composition, that is, He is free of segments and fragments, units and organs, substances and elements, atoms and particles. There is just no way He can be analyzed or divided or resolved.

4. He is One in being the anterior and the posterior, that is, He existed when nothing did and He will remain existing when nothing will. Who then, if not Him, shall be called the Wahid, the only One? (Jassas)