Most people get outraged upon hearing this question. “Who is your God? The common answer provided for this question is, my God, is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.’
Most people will be shocked to find out that their proclamation that their God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth is no more than lip service, and that they are in fact destined for Hell (Qur’an 12:106).
Your God is whoever or whatever occupies your mind most of the time. Your God can be your children (Qur’an 7:190), your spouse (Qur’an 9:24), your business (Qur’an 18:35), or your ego (Qur’an 25:43). This is why one of the most important and most repeated commandments in the Quran is:
“O you who believe, you shall remember God frequently; glorify Him day and night.” [Qur’an 33:41]
To put this commandment into practice, one must establish certain habits whereby one guarantees that God occupies the mind more than anything else. The Quran helps establish such soul-saving habits:
1. The Constant Prayers (Salat): Those who observe the 5 daily prayers come a long way towards commemorating God a significant proportion of their waking hours. Salat helps us remember God not only during the few minutes of prayer but also throughout times of anticipation. At 11:00 AM, one may look at his or her watch to see if the noon prayer is due yet. This act causes one to think about God, and one is credited accordingly (Qur’an 20:14).
2. Commemorating God before eating: Qur’an 6:121 enjoins us to mention God’s name before we eat: “You shall not eat from that upon which God’s name has not been mentioned.” This indicates that the Muslim remembers God every time he puts something into his mouth to eat and this could be as many times in the day.
3. God Willing (In shaa Allah): Qur’an 18:23-24 proclaim to Muslims; “You shall not say, I will do this or that tomorrow,' without saying,God willing’ (IN SHAA ALLAH). If you forget to do this, then apologize and say, `May my Lord guide me to do better next time.'” This is a direct commandment that we, as Muslims must carry out, no matter who we are talking with.
4. God’s Gift (MAA SHAA ALLAH): To invoke God’s protection for our beloved objects – our children, our cars, our homes, etc. – we are enjoined in Qur’an 18:39 to say “MAA SHAA ALLAH” (This is God’s gift).
5. Glorify God day and night: When we eat anything, we shouldn’t be like animals; we must reflect on God’s creation of the food we are eating – the flavor, our enjoyment due to the senses God has given us, the perfect packaging of the banana or the orange, the varieties of sea foods created by God, etc. – and glorify Him as we enjoy His provisions. When we see beautiful flowers, animals, or sunsets, we must glorify God.
A Muslim must seize every possible opportunity to remember and glorify God, so that God may be our God.
6. First Utterance: A Muslim must make it a habit to always say: “In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. There is no other god besides God (Allah),” the moment one wakes up every morning. If a Muslim establishes this good habit, this is what he or she will utter when resurrected. Meaning, the person will resurrect remembering only God as he has done when alive.
So who do you worship and who occupies your mind the most? Qur’an 112:1-4 proclaims: “Say: He is Allah the One and Only; Allah is the Self-Sufficient (independent of all, while all are dependent on Him); He begets not, nor is He begotten; And there is none comparable to Him.”
Qur’an 39:67 proclaims that God’s greatness is far beyond human comprehension – the verse states that all seven universes are “folded within God’s hand.” (That befits His stature since He is not a human being)
Supported by the Qur’an’s formidable mathematical code, we are taught that our universe is the smallest and innermost of seven universes (Qur’an 41:12, 55:33, 67:5, & 72:8-12). Meanwhile, scientific advances have shown that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is 100,000 light-years across and that our universe contains a billion such galaxies and a billion trillion stars, plus countless decillions of heavenly bodies. Our universe is estimated to span distances in excess of 20,000,000,000 light years.
If we take only a quintillion [1,000,000,000,000,000,000] of the stars and simply count them [from zero to quintillion] one count per second, day and night, this will take 32 billion years (more than the age of the universe).
That is how long it will take to just “count” them, but God “created” them. Such is the greatness of God. We can appreciate the vastness of our universe if we imagine going on a space odyssey. When we leave the planet Earth towards the sun, at the speed of light, we reach the sun after 93,000,000 miles and eight minutes. It will take us more than 50,000 years at the speed of light to exit our galaxy. From the outer limit of the Milky Way, our planet Earth is invisible. Not even the most powerful telescope can detect our tiny “Earth.”
We have to spend more than 2,000,000 years at the speed of light to reach our next-door galaxy. At least 10,000,000,000 years, at the speed of light, must be spent to reach the outer limit of our universe. From the outer limit of our universe, even the Milky Way is like a speck of dust in a large room.
The second universe surrounds our universe. The third universe is larger than the second, and so on. More accurately, our universe should be considered the seventh universe, surrounded by the sixth universe, which is surrounded by the fifth universe, and so on. Can one imagine the vastness of the first, outermost universe? No number exists to describe the circumference of the first universe. This incomprehensible vastness is “within the fist of God.” From the outer limit of the outermost universe, where is the planet Earth? How significant is it?
On the infinitesimal mote called Earth, such minuscule creatures as Mary, Jesus, and Muhammad lived. Yet, some people set up these powerless humans as gods!
God’s greatness is represented not only by the fact that He holds the seven universes in His hand, but also by the fact that He fully controls every atom, even subatomic components, everywhere in the greater universe (Qur’an 6:59, 10:61, & 34:3).
