Traditions: Sikh Guru Nanak’s Mūl Mantar; Islamic Qur’an 112 Motif: Confession of divine uniqueness Connection verdict: Comparable declarations of divine uniqueness; direct textual borrowing not established Article status: Expanded Date: 2026-11-04
Summary
Both concise confessions insist on divine oneness and resist treating the divine as one peer among others.
Read the two scenes
The Sikh opening does more than say “one.” Its compact sequence joins oneness to creative agency, truthful name, freedom from fear and enmity, transcendence of birth, and the means of recognition through the Guru’s grace. Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ is also compact, but its movement is polemical: it commands “Say,” identifies God as one and al-ṣamad, and rejects both divine genealogy and any equal. Translators disagree on how to render al-ṣamad, which cautions against treating one English gloss as the verse’s entire meaning. These are powerful monotheistic declarations in historically connected worlds, not identical creeds or evidence of a particular borrowing chain.
What connects—and what does not
The Mūl Mantar names the One as creator, truth, without fear or enmity, beyond birth, and known by the Guru’s grace; Qur’an 112 commands proclamation that God is one, self-sufficient, neither begetting nor begotten, without equal.
The formulas have distinct literary and theological work; resemblance and broad historical proximity alone cannot identify a textual source for Guru Nanak.
Why read them side by side?
The comparison keeps a Sikh foundational formula and a Qur’anic sura distinct while recognizing a serious shared question about divine uniqueness.
Sources and reading notes
- Mūl Mantar, Guru Granth Sahib Ang 1, Gurmukhi and English; Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa English translation — Opening formula names Ik Oankar, true name, creator, without fear or enmity, beyond birth, self-existent, through Guru’s grace. Guru Nanak’s late-fifteenth/early-sixteenth-century composition in the Adi Granth compiled in 1604; online English has interpretive renderings.
- Qur’an 112:1–4, Quranic Arabic Corpus parallel English translations — The first verse links to the other three; checked all four separately. Multiple English translations show oneness, al-ṣamad, denial of begetting/being begotten, and incomparability. Seventh-century Arabic Qur’anic text; translation of al-ṣamad varies.
Research limit
A named parallel can establish literary reuse or related tradition; a general resemblance alone cannot prove borrowing. Linked editions and translations vary. Where a source is identified as secondary orientation, the comparison does not claim direct close reading of that tradition’s primary text.