The first maqām (spiritual station) is the annihilation of thoughts in the qalb (the heart) related to created things, such that only Allah remains. According to him, the first sign of tawhid (the oneness of God) is that the servant withdraws from everything and entrusts all things to the One who governs all. In this way, the one who is governed (the servant) looks at things through the One who governs them, subsists with things by means of Him, and, again by His means, becomes among those who are steadfast regarding things (when every state is with Allah, one becomes indifferent to things). Thus, Allah conceals them from themselves and, by causing them to die to themselves, makes them belong exclusively to His Essence. This, in view of the eternal manifestation of tawhid, is the first step in entering tawhid. (Luma', 53)
Shiblī said: The tawhid of one whose negation does not entail affirmation is not sound. When asked, "What is affirmation?" he replied: "It is the nullification of the yā's (the Arabic pronoun indicating selfhood)." Its meaning—Allah knows best—is this: The true muwahhid (one who affirms the oneness of God) negates self-assertion, that is, removes all traces of self and nafs (the lower self) from his heart in all things. He abandons words like "I," "to me," "me," "with me," "about me," "from me." Even if such words come from his tongue, there is no claim of selfhood or existence in his heart.
Shiblī also says: Whoever is privy to even an atom's weight of the knowledge of tawhid becomes so weakened by the burden of this knowledge that he cannot bear even the weight of an ant. On another occasion, he said: Whoever is privy to even an atom's weight of the knowledge of tawhid can bear the heavens and the earth with the eyelashes of his eyelids. Allah knows best, but the meaning of this is: When this servant witnesses tawhid, which is of the lights of Allah's majesty, with his heart, the heavens, the earth, and all that Allah has created become insignificant in his eyes. (Luma', 54)
Tawhid-i khāṣṣa (the tawhid of the elect), as we mentioned earlier, is the existence of Allah Most High's oneness and majesty. The ḥaqīqa (inner reality) of His nearness is that, in the place willed by Allah, the servant's perception and movement are annihilated due to their subsistence with Allah.
It is related that in a gathering where tawhid was being discussed, Shiblī said to someone: "This is your tawhid." The man replied: "What else could it be, in my view?" Shiblī responded: "Tawhid is the tawhid of the Muwahhad (the One who is made one, i.e., Allah), that is, Allah making you a muwahhid with that tawhid, singling you out in that tawhid, making you unique, causing you to witness it, and, through that tawhid, causing you to become absent from what you see. This is the attribute of the tawhid of the elect. (Luma', 424)
Tajrīd (divestment), tafrīd (singling out), and tawhid are different terms with the same meaning. Their details are as many as the realities and ishārāt (spiritual indications) that come to those who possess wajd (spiritual ecstasy). Someone has said:
Truth is the reality of the True One.
Truly, no one who is not a person of tajrīd
The pillars of tawhid are seven: To distinguish the Pre-eternal (Qadīm) from the originated (ḥādith, that which is not pre-eternal but created later); to declare the Pre-eternal free from the thought that the originated can comprehend Him; not to equate the attributes of the Pre-eternal and the originated; to remove causality from Lordship (rubūbiyya); to know that acts brought about by the power of created beings cannot affect or change the exalted tawhid of Allah; to refrain from thinking about Him.