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But it's the 17th definition of freedom that, in my opinion, is the most important one: the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint.
The power to make choices.
Although the word freedom is not literally in the Quran, the words—choose, chooses, chose, chosen—occur almost 100 times.
Many verses talk about things that God is choosing to do:
[2:105] … GOD showers His blessings upon whomever He chooses. …
[2:90, and many others] … He chooses from among His servants. …
[2:269] He bestows wisdom upon whomever He chooses …
[3:37] … GOD provides for whomever He chooses, without limits.”
[3:42] … O Mary, GOD has chosen you and purified you. He has chosen you from all the women.
[4:125] … GOD has chosen Abraham as a beloved friend.
[7:144] “O Moses, I have chosen you, out of all the people, with My messages and by speaking to you …
[29:62] … whomever He chooses from among His creatures …
[72:27] Only to a messenger that He chooses, does He reveal from the past and the future, specific news.
[34:39] … He increases the provisions for whomever He chooses from among His servants …
[40:15] … He sends inspiration, bearing His commands, to whomever He chooses from among His servants …
[28:68] 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.
No one else does any choosing! This could be considered a great paradox. But not so for the believers because we know that God is in full control.
[57:22] Anything that happens on earth, or to you, has already been recorded, even before the creation. This is easy for GOD to do.
So even though our eternal outcome has already been recorded as well as our minutest of actions in this life, we don’t know what that outcome is. So, we have to make choices … the correct choices to try and achieve the outcome we desire. And I think we can all agree that outcome is to make it to heaven. God gave us free will. The power to make our own choices to determine our eternal life. That is true freedom.
We made the choice eons ago to question God’s absolute authority. So now we are here trying to pass the ultimate test. And when we take a test, we have a choice to make, to study or not to study for that test. And if we don’t study there is a good chance we might fail the test.
[7:175] Recite for them the news of one who was given our proofs, but chose to disregard them. Consequently, the devil pursued him, until he became a strayer.
[10:45] … Losers indeed are those who disbelieved in meeting GOD; and chose to be misguided.
Pharaoh: [10:91] “Too late! For you have rebelled already, and chose to be a transgressor.
[2:108] … Anyone who chooses disbelief, instead of belief, has truly strayed off the right path
[3:177] Those who choose disbelief, instead of belief, do not hurt GOD in the least; they have incurred a painful retribution.
[35:39] He is the One who made you inheritors of the earth. Subsequently, whoever chooses to disbelieve does so to his own detriment. ...
[17:18] Anyone who chooses this fleeting life as his priority, we will rush to him what we decide to give him, then we commit him to Gehenna, where he suffers forever, despised and defeated.
I want to emphasize the power of choice. We need to put choice as an authorization, as a power that is so huge, that if I ran the world, I would make studying the power of choice part of every school curriculum. That everyone should learn that the power of the choices you make have eternal consequences. From the littlest choice to something that is huge. And here’s the paradox: you have no idea what is a little choice or a big choice.
What we are used to doing is believing that a big choice is an obvious one: buying a house, getting married, getting divorced. In fact, those are your small choices. The choices that actually matter when it comes to your health, when it comes to healing, when it comes to positioning yourself, empowering yourself, are the tiny but righteous ones that perhaps you think are insignificant. These are the most powerful choices of your life, that have the most powerful impact on your biology, on your soul, on your sense of who you are, on your well-being, on your whole life map.
We are born knowing certain things; we’re wired for it. People instinctively appreciate certain things across the world. For example, we are born knowing that choice is powerful. Choice is among the most powerful things we have got going for us in this world and we know it. Here are some choices that matter, that make a difference.
The first choice is the decision to actually live a righteous, integrous life. And when I say make a choice to do that, I’m talking full scale. I’m going to walk the way I talk. I’m actually going to do it. I’m actually going to tell the truth.
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