Praise be to God! There is no other god except God. Verse 28:68 in the Quran says, “Your Lord is the One who creates whatever He wills, and chooses; no one else does any choosing. Glory be to GOD, the Most Exalted. He is far above needing partners.”
So, God creates and chooses, and let’s elaborate with examples what this verse means. So, what does it mean when the Quran says, “God creates and chooses.”?
Well, God created 200 billion trillion stars in this universe, and from all those stars he chose one – the sun.
He created the sun with many planets, and from all the planets he chose one – planet earth.
He created many living creatures on planet earth, and he chose only one of them – the human being. From all the human beings – he chose the believers.
From the believers, he chose messengers.
From all the messengers, he chose prophets.
From all prophets, he chose one – the Messiah, Jesus.
Messiah means “the chosen one”.
From all the females, he chose Mary.
From all the empires that ever existed, he chose to mention only the Roman empire in the Quran.
From all the countries, he chose to mention Egypt.
From all the nations, he chose the Children of Israel.
From all the religions, he chose submission for us.
From the days of the week, he chose Saturday. Muslim think it’s Friday, and Christians think it’s Sunday, but the chosen day is actually Saturday. The day when we get resurrected. Friday is when the world gets destroyed, but Saturday is when we get resurrected.
For the believers of the past, from the mountains, he chose Mount Sinai, from the valleys, he chose the sacred valley of Tuwa, and from the towns, Jerusalem.
Now, for believers of today, from the mountains, he chose Mount Arafat, from the valleys, Muzdelifa, and from the towns, Mecca, and
from all the masjids, he chose the Sacred Masjid in Mecca.
So, now the question is, “Why did God choose what he chose?” What’s so special about Mecca. It’s neither the biggest town, neither the prettiest town, neither the most fruitful town. On internet, you can find so many false theories trying to justify why Mecca was chosen, like some kind of light emanating from it, or some kind of magnet of the earth, or things like that, fake scientific theories with the intention, they think, to convince the scientists that some kind of physical phenomenon is going on there. In fact, these fake theories only drive away the scientists, because they can notice the fakery, and then Islam is forever steeped in problems, because the smart people are driven way, by fake religious people, wannabe scientists.
So what’s so special about Mecca? Well it’s not about what’s there. It’s about what it is meant to be used for. That’s what makes it special. In the next life, and this applies only for generations after the Quran, Mecca will be used as an entrance door for us to the city of believer, during the Messianic Age, when we get resurrected, while the believers of the past will enter through other doors. So, it’s not about what’s there. It’s about what God plans to use it for. And this same logic applies to all the things God chose. So, let’s apply this logic to the things which were already mentioned.
What’s so special about the sun? Why did God choose the sun? It’s neither the biggest star, neither the brightest star, neither the smallest star, neither the first star, neither the longest living star. It’s not special in any way compared to the other stars. What makes it special is that God planned it to use it for the Earth. As the sun was being created, the dust which remained from it was shaped into other planets, and one of them is earth. So, the sun was chosen by God, only because it was suitable to make Earth out of its remains.
But why did God choose planet earth? It’s not the biggest planet, or the innermost in the solar system, or the outermost in the solar system. What’s so special about it? Well, what makes it special is that God intended to use it to house the water in liquid form. The water mostly either evaporates or freezes in other planets, but on earth, the earth is located just far enough, or close enough from the sun to keep the water in liquid form.
But what’s so special about water? Well, not much really, except what God planned to use it for. God created every living creature on earth from water, and that makes it special. There is no living creature on earth which does not have water in it. Verse 24:45 says that God created every living creature from water.
But, what is so special about living creatures? Not much, except that they were meant to be used to prepare the habitat for humans, and some of them also as food for humans?
But why did God choose the humans? Well, he chose them as God’s representatives on Earth, and some of the humans are believers.
But, now the question follows, “Why did God chose us? Why did God choose you, to become a submitter, to become a believer?” It’s not because we are the best looking, or the smartest, or the strongest, or the most influential? It’s because of what he plans to use us for. All the believers who are reading this Friday Sermon right now have been chosen intentionally by God to be used by him for something special in his plan. All of us have a role in God’s plan. Those roles might be different, but all of us have a special role in God’s plan. Your value is in what God plans to use you for, and not necessarily what you have done so far. You have been chosen for your potential, not for your merits.
Some of us might have merits and some of us not as much, and if we don’t have merits and we are young, that’s mostly because of our parents. However, God did not choose us because of our merits, but because of our potential. He has a plan for all of us, and he knows who are the most suitable people for his plan, for whatever role they have to play, at any specific time. That time might be today, tomorrow, next year, after 10 years, or after decades, or whenever, but you are meant for something special, whatever it is. And there are many examples, from the past, of people chosen by God to be believers, so that God can use them in his plan.
One example is mentioned in the Gospel. According to the Gospel, there was a man called Simon, who had come all the way from Libya to Jerusalem for the Jewish feast, and it happened that at that time the Romans were preparing to crucify Jesus, and gave him the cross to carry all the way to the top of the hill where they planned to crucify him. On the way, Jesus was exhausted and fell, so the Romans chose Simon from the crowd to help Jesus carry the cross. Now, do you think Simon will go unrewarded for helping Jesus carry the cross? Never. He was chosen for a special purpose in this world, because of what God had planned for him.
Now, here is another example from the Quran: The wife of Pharaoh. She was a believer. Why did God choose her to be a believer? Well, he was going to use her for something special. When the mother of Moses threw Moses with that box in the river, it was the wife of Pharaoh who found him. She had a special role in God’s plan. Also, the sister of Moses. God chose her as a believer for her potential. He made her the right person for that circumstance. When she followed Moses in the river, and went to talk to the wife of Pharaoh to find a nursing mother for Moses, God made her the right age, most likely. Had the sister of Moses been too young, the wife of pharaoh would have doubted her abilities to find a nursing mother, and had the sister of Moses been a full grown-up, the wife of Pharaoh would doubt her intentions, but she was the right person, at the right age, for that moment, which is why God chose her to be among the believers.
And when God chose Moses, that’s because he was the right person for God’s plan, and God’s plan was to free the Children of Israel, who were the believing nation of the past. So, ultimately, God’s plan is to save us, and he has chosen each of us for specific roles in his grand plan. And those roles, can be one time roles, everyday roles, big roles, small roles, but we all have a role, and that’s why God chose you, and we should be happy to be at the service of God. There are big rewards waiting for us for being at the service of God.