Love is a powerful force, such that whatever a person loves enslaves and drives them. God wants us to love Him more than anything else. This isn't because He needs our love, but rather because God loves us. God is Al Ghani. He is free of want and need. If all humanity lovingly worshipped God, this would not benefit Him in the least. And all of humanity choosing disobedience would not bring Him the smallest harm. He wants us to love Him more than anyone and anything else to protect us from being enslaved to any person or object, including our own ego. His love for us is protective and nurturing.
Then, why not compel us to love Him? Since He has power over us, God can compel us. We are His universe, His property, and His creation. Because His love invites with beautiful wisdom but does not compel or force. Instead, we are free to choose out of love and conviction to know, obey, and seek Him.
God gives us the power and choice to disobey Him, and yet many lovingly choose to obey.
Fadwa Wazwaz was born into a family of 10 children in Jerusalem, Palestine. A mother of one daughter, she is a Palestinian Muslim American who was raised in Chicago, Illinois, who began her college years at Knoxville, Tennessee, and who graduated from the University of Minnesota. She has used her time in Minnesota to help build and strengthen the United States' Muslim communities, as well as those communities' ties to other marginalized groups. She co-founded an educational outreach organization, through which she gave talks to local groups, dispelling negative stereotypes about Islam and Muslims. She has also been trained in Restorative Justice at the Center for Spirituality and Healing and has given workshops to social workers on how to work effectively with youth and Muslim patients. In 2003, she was a community columnist for the Pioneer Press. In 2006, she helped start up a civil rights organization, through which she mentored young leaders. From 2008 to 2009, she was a policy fellow at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and, in 2009, she started as a blogger for the Star Tribune and worked on helping Minnesotans understand Islam and Muslims. Also in 2009, she and her siblings began a new journey, taking care of their mother, who had suffered a major stroke. In 2020, she published God Intervenes Between A Person and Their Heart.
