Bismillah.
ذَٰلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَن يَشَاءُ ۚ وَاللَّهُ ذُو الْفَضْلِ الْعَظِيمِ
That is Allah’s grace, which He grants to whomever He wishes, and Allah is dispenser of a great grace.
(Sūrat al-Jumu‘ah No. 62, Āyat 4)
The above verse from Sūrat al-Jumu‘ah follows Allah’s mention of His favor upon the unlettered (ummiyyūn) Arabs—how He sent to them a messenger from among themselves, entrusted with reciting His verses, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom. In this verse, Allah ‘azza wajall explicitly describes this sending of the Prophet as a fadhl—a divine favor, surplus, or grace. He also makes it clear that this grace is granted to whomever He wills.
This notion of ‘Divine will’ is worthy of contemplation. The Will of Allah is neither arbitrary nor in conflict with human free will. Rather, human will function within the scope of Allah’s overarching will. Allah subhānahu wata‘ālā is He who created human beings and endowed them with the ability to choose. He created their intellect, circumstances, and the conditions necessary for choice and action. Therefore, while actions are rightly attributed to human beings, they can also be traced back to Allah (swt). This dual attribution is beautifully expressed in the words of Allah’s friend, Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him), who said:
وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَكُمْ وَمَا تَعْمَلُونَ
Allah has created you and whatever you do (Q 37:96)
Here, the verse attributes actions to the people Ibrāhīm is addressing, while simultaneously affirming that these actions are created by Allah.
Returning to the verse in Sūrat al-Jumu‘ah, prophethood is presented as a divine favor granted to a specific individual—Muhammad sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa-ālihi wasallam. While it is undoubtedly Allah’s grace, it is not random. It does not dismiss the profound worthiness of the Prophet (s), whose lineage was pure, whose moral character was unmatched, and who had the readiness to bear the weight of this divine responsibility. Almighty Allah, in His perfect knowledge and wisdom, chose the one most suited to receive the final revelation.
Similarly, if we understand the verse as referring to Allah’s favor upon the Arabs, we again witness both a divine gift and a demonstration of divine wisdom. The Arabs possessed a rich, eloquent language that became the perfect vehicle for the Qur’an’s unmatched expression. Although they lacked a developed civilization or structured culture and were, as the Qur’an describes, in “manifest error,” they were nevertheless ripe for transformation. In fact, it may have been their simplicity and lack of rigid cultural baggage that made them more capable of abandoning falsehood and wholeheartedly embracing the truth of Islam. In this way, they became the vessels for carrying the final message of Allah to the world.
We pray that Allah grants us the ability to embody the purity of this message in our own lives and to carry it forward with sincerity, just as those who did that during the lifetime of the Prophet (s).
Sources: Āyatullāh Khamenei, Tafsir-e Sūra-ye Jumu’eh.