Under the clear night sky, where silence is just as striking as darkness, Ibrahim stands alone, seeking answers. His people have long placed their trust in idols—objects crafted by their own hands—but Ibrahim feels a restlessness in his heart, a yearning for a truth that does not vanish with the rising sun. First, he turns to the stars, which shine brightly but then fade away. Then, he looks at the moon and the sun but realizes that even these celestial bodies are temporary and transient in their paths along the sky.
Finally, he proclaims:
“I have turned my face toward Him who created the heavens and the earth, without associating anything with Him.” (Quran, 6:79)
This realization leads Ibrahim to Tawhid, a complete acknowledgment of a single, universal God who transcends human will, embodies the eternal and unchangeable, and is the Creator of the stars, the moon, and the sun.
Through Tawhid, Ibrahim finds faith and a stable and everlasting order that gives him and his descendants a moral compass independent of humanity's fickle will. In this faith in God, Ibrahim becomes an example of ethical stability. As the Quran describes it:
"And We made him a leader for others and said to him, 'Do what is righteous, and entrust your affairs to God.'" (Quran, 21:73)
Ibrahim's faith is thus not a limitation but an anchoring—guidance that grants inner peace and a collective foundation for justice and social harmony.
Much later, on a mountain in Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, another solitary figure stands under the same sky but with a different quest in his heart. Zarathustra gazes out over the world and proclaims:
“God is dead!”
For him, there is no higher truth to discover; humanity's task is to create its meaning, free itself from every external moral structure, and become its own master. Zarathustra says:
“I teach you the Übermensch [Overman]. Man is something that must be overcome.”
Here, the Übermensch becomes a symbol of freedom from all external authorities—a vision of a new kind of human who creates their values and norms beyond God and traditional morality.
While Ibrahim finds his direction in divine unity, Zarathustra's philosophy leads humanity down an uncertain path. When humans become their creators, without turning to any higher order, their will can lose its firm foundation. Zarathustra's Übermensch is, at its core, a vision of independence. Still, this freedom risks becoming a source of egoism and moral relativism, where the individual's will replaces any collective morality. In this guidance, the common moral foundation breaks down, which can lead to the stronger dominating and the weaker when self-interest becomes law. This is something that Nietzsche recognized and warned for.
This danger became a reality during the dark chapters of the 20th century with the rise of Nazism and Fascism. The Nazis exploited Nietzsche's idea of the Übermensch. They transformed it into an ideology where people of Aryan or Germanic races was viewed as a higher, more valuable type of human with the right to oppress and annihilate others — the Untermenschen [“inferior humans”]. In Nietzsche's defense, it should be highlighted that he was critical of nationalism, anti-Semitism, and authoritarianism, all of which were core to Nazi ideology. After his death, Nietzsche’s philosophy was edited by others, including his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, to align with the beliefs he condemned. For the Nazis, the will to power became a legitimate excuse to exercise violence and oppression in the name of superior morality. This viewpoint, colored by Social Darwinism's ideas about the survival of the strongest, turned human will into a destructive force when it lost its anchoring in a shared moral code. Here, we have an example of when freedom from God and morality can result in nihilism and human devastation.
Nietzsche himself warned of this risk. As Zarathustra says:
“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”
Thus, Zarathustra's Übermensch highlights the danger of a morality without external anchoring—a morality that can transform the individual into a monster that destroys everything in its path.
Ibrahim offers a crucial counterpoint. With Tawhid, he finds guidance that does not originate from human caprice but from a God who stands beyond the limitations of the human ego. As the Quran describes it:
“When his Lord said to him, 'Submit,' he said, 'I have submitted to the Lord of the worlds.'” (Quran, 2:131)
For Ibrahim, faith means security in a universal truth that stands above himself. This stability, this moral anchoring, protects humans from becoming victims of their ambition and selfishness as long as they abide to its teachings.
History shows that when humanity turns away from a common moral foundation to create its own, it risks falling into a moral abyss. When humans become legislators, and their will is the highest principle, they eventually lose a direction that serves all of humanity.
In this light, belief in Tawhid offers a path that prevents the devastating forces of egoism and power. It is a way where freedom and order coexist, where each individual has a place in a more significant, eternal harmony.
Ibrahim and Zarathustra symbolize two fundamentally different views on humanity's role and goal. Zarathustra's path, where humanity abolishes God and creates its morality, may seem grand but risks becoming monstrous. In contrast, Ibrahim's path shows that true freedom does not lie in boundless independence but in being part of a higher, stable order. As the Quran says about Ibrahim's faith:
“This is My path, straight. So follow it and do not follow other ways.” (Quran, 6:153)
Divine guidance thus becomes salvation for humanity, allowing it to escape its darkness and find the light that leads to peace and justice.