Anthropologists would have us believe that the concept of God in religion began with polytheism, that polytheism gradually developed into monotheism. That is, the concept of tawheed was an evolutionary feature of religion, which emerged at a later stage. But according to Islamic belief, tawheed has existed since the beginning of human life. The first man was also the first messenger who taught human beings the religion of tawheed.

It was in later generations that this system began to change. This happened principally because people began to make the assumption that divinity was inherent in natural phenomena. They wondered at the loftiness of the mountains, the unceasing flow of the rivers and the extraordinary brilliance of the sun and the moon, and took it to mean that things possessed of such awesome attributes must necessarily share in God’s divinity. Men gifted with special talents, likewise, came to be included in the category of the divine; they were supposed to be incarnations of God Himself. It was in this manner that polytheism crept into the religion.

In consonance with the view that human religions began with tawheed, and polytheism developed later, the basic mission of all the Prophets who appeared at different intervals in this world was to lead people away from the worship of many gods and back to the worship of the one God. In other words, to turn them away from the adulation of creatures and towards reverence for their Creator.