An-Nisa 1: Oh people! Fear your Lord who created you from one spirit (nafs), and from that created its spouse, and from both created many many men and women. Abstain from (Allah), whose name you chant while making wishes and prayers, and abstain from abandoning your responsibilities regarding your relatives. Undoubtedly, the Watcher over you is Allah!

We are beginning with Surah An-Nisa. Nisa means women. Surah An-Nisa speaks mostly about women. Because it speaks of their legal and social place and value in society, this surah was given this name, it is said.

Allah Almighty says to people: ya ayyuhan-nas, O people, fear your Lord who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate, and from the two of them brought forth many men and women. Fear Allah, in whose name you ask things of one another, and beware of disregarding the rights of kinship. Surely Allah is watching over you, He says.

As you see, the verse is not such a simple verse.

Let me first open up the meanings of the verse for you; then, I suppose, here too the same is written. We'll read those here too. O people! Who created you from a single soul, He says. They link this to Adam and our mother Eve. Who created us from a single soul. Adam and Eve are not a single soul. That makes two. Adam is one, and Eve is one.

Here there is a verse within the verse. O people, who created you from a single soul and created from it its mate, He says. Now look. What is a single soul? He created Adam. But this is the outward meaning. (?) In the first meaning, from a single soul: Adam. Then the one who created his mate. Who created his mate. And from the two of them brought forth many men and women, He says. In this case, if people think this verse began with Adam and Eve, people are very much mistaken.

Very much mistaken.

Spirit, soul and life are one. The bodies are separate. The bodies are separate. A person who doesn't know this knowledge says outwardly: we come from Adam. That is the single soul. The prophets too were created after Adam. That's how they understand it. Because He says: who created you from a single soul. Well, now I ask. When He created Adam's body, Allah Almighty did not say to Iblis and the angels "prostrate"; when He breathed the spirit into him, then He said "now prostrate". Well, where was the spirit? Since its spirit was created earlier, since it was created earlier, even though Allah Almighty created that body from clay, put it into human form and breathed the spirit into it, in fact the single soul is not that body.

The spirit in it is the owner of a soul. The owner of a soul. Where was this spirit created from? Where did it come from?

Since He created the worlds from the light of the Prophet, and the prophets too indirectly from his spirit, that is, not indirectly, but since He created their spirits from the spirit of the Prophet, and those spirits, since from the prophets' spirits the spirits of the peoples were created, Allah Almighty had already created them in the world of spirits or the world of lahut anyway. When He brings the soul and puts it into the body, He enables our propagation in the outward world. Bodily. He will also send us to the realm of mulk. He will send us to the (?) world, and, in that scenario, a written us (?), since events will appear in the way Allah Almighty willed, before creating Adam's body, first those souls were created, but in the world, since from the spirit of the Prophet the prophets' spirits were created, and from their spirits the peoples' spirits were created, here the single soul inwardly leads to the Prophet.

To the Prophet. If you go even deeper, the one who gave him that soul, Allah Almighty: when He says "who created from a single soul", it goes up to our Lord. So when we say people are a part from their Lord, they say this man has gone astray. He has not gone astray. You failed to grasp the verses. Because Allah did not give the universe to anyone; He gave a spirit to the human being. That spirit, the owner of the spirit, the universal spirit, is Allah Almighty. The universal soul and the universal life are Allah Almighty too. Don't say he has attributed qualities to Allah Almighty; you cannot make Allah Almighty lifeless.

Because He is living. Living, He speaks.

So when you say universal life, universal spirit, universal soul, why do you falter? If you use your reason: since He is living, since He is the universal spirit, you will grasp that He gave people a part from within, and that the human being is a part from Him. But people are created, separated from His essence. Accept it like this. I am a father. From my loins came children. I separated them from myself. But the knowledge is with me. The creating is with me. Everything is with me. And they all need me. Allah is like this too. He creates the whole universe. And everyone needs Him.

And since Allah Almighty willed that His essence be known, surely He did not will that His essence be known by animals or by another being unlike His essence; He willed that His essence be known by His essence. So people are a part from their Lord. The single soul goes up to Allah Almighty. Here. But people closed off these places. Because people misunderstand. What did we do? We derived Adam from Eve. Because He says: and from it He created its mate. But He says a single soul. Then He created its mate. It does not mention the spirits of that single soul. (?) After the spirits, Adam's body is created, and after that spirit entered the body, it emerged from there, and when He says "all from one another", it again goes up to the Prophet.

Yes. When He says "you are all from one another", doesn't it go to Allah Almighty? It does not. Why not? I separated them from my loins. They too separated from one another. They separated from one another. So they are all from one another. Because I separated them from myself.

Whom? His son? From him, (?)? You know, Eve gave birth to twins. Then He had already separated the spirit too. He creates from the Prophet's spirit. So they are all from one another. Here. The verses all support one another here anyway. We open it a bit more so that it is well understood. Yes.

What does He say? O people! Fear your Lord who created you from a single soul and created from it its mate and from the two of them brought forth many men and women.

Fear Allah, in whose name you ask things of one another, and beware of disregarding the rights of kinship. Surely Allah is watching over you, He says. In this verse, by "who created you from a single soul" is meant the one of wa ma arsalnaka illa rahmatan lil-alamin, Muhammad (peace be upon him); before the worlds were created, the Prophet (peace be upon him) was created, and then from his spirit the spirits of other people were created; these created spirits were given female and male, and Allah, who made a covenant with each spirit in the address Alastu bi-Rabbikum, raised these spirits to the waiting places, the graves of the spirits, called the world of barzakh.

In the realm of mulk, according to the order He set up, so that He could send these spirits He created and made covenant with to the realm of mulk, He created the body of our father Adam from clay and then gave him his spirit; thus our father Adam, the first human in the garb of a body, He brought into being. How clearly we say it here. Right? The first body.

Then, creating our mother Eve from the left rib of our father Adam, He gave her to our father Adam, and gave our mother Eve as a mate. As we explained in our earlier lessons, He created events for both of them and, taking them out of Paradise, sent them to the realm of mulk. Finally, by sending the spirits He created whose time had come, according to their wishes and desires, to the realm of mulk, He started the program of humanity, so that each person would complete in the realm of mulk the covenant he gave to Allah Almighty. In this case all people have multiplied from a single soul. In the world. Our father Adam and, in the world, our mother Eve.

In the world.

Allah Almighty made a covenant with our spirits in the world of the hereafter, in that address Alastu bi-Rabbikum. To each of our spirits, from time to time, He showed these worlds. The worlds to come. Like a project, our Lord shows them. Because He knows what people will do. Those people choose the time their own souls like. At that time they make a covenant with Allah Almighty: "Let me come at this time." So Allah Almighty, who put Adam into Paradise, since Paradise is forbidden to disbelievers, with an opportunity He gave to Satan, to Satan's game; had He wished, Allah would not have given him that opportunity.

With that opportunity Satan deceived Adam and caused him to leave Paradise. The scenario of that cause had already been written earlier. People will come to the world. In the realm of mulk, in a world called unseen, in a world where Allah Almighty is not seen, they will play, as actors, the scenario of the covenant they gave. So these places are all within these verses: when He says "from a single soul", how did we come, why did we come, why were we brought forth in the world?

Finally, by sending the spirits He created whose time had come, according to their wishes and desires, to the realm of mulk, He started the program of humanity, so that each person would complete in the realm of mulk the covenant he gave to Allah Almighty. In this case all people have multiplied from a single soul. Outwardly from our father Adam and our mother Eve. Before that, from the Prophet. Before that, Allah Almighty, who willed that His essence be known by His essence, gives the human being from His spirit.

Süleyman Çelebi also symbolizes this beautifully.

To see My essence in your essence, he says, mirat, mirat. I took My essence, your essence, as a mirat in the mirat. I took My essence as a mirat for your essence. What does it mean? Mirat, a mirror. Mirat, a mirror. I created you to see My essence in you, he says. In you. When a person looks in the mirror, doesn't he see himself? Well. Let's say the words of Süleyman Çelebi we do not accept. Accept it like this. You know, he says it in the Mevlid, and everyone has accepted it.

Is it "My essence" he says? I created you to take your essence too as a mirror. That is, I created you to see. Let's say we don't accept this. It's that person's words. If He gave from His spirit, if it is a part of His spirit, if that spirit is a universal attribute and its part is in the human being, He created it to see His essence in His essence.

He willed that His essence be known by His essence. He gave him from His spirit.

Yes. These places, because they are deep, and because the commentary is general, we did not open them much. Yes.

In the realm of mulk, through our mother Eve and our father Adam, the spirits, as male and female, clothing themselves in bodies is their beginning, in this garb of flesh, to multiply in the world. In fact it is a program prepared so that these spirits, created female and male in the world of lahut, could come to the realm of mulk. So the one who created this order, and the Quran: Allah Almighty commands, "Beware of Me." If Allah, who has such power to create, makes known His essence and His exaltedness in this way, then beware of Me. Though you are all created as a part of My essence, My might and power are enough for all of you, He says.

If mankind and jinn gathered, they could not harm Allah. So He is able over what He created, and what He created is under His rule. In this case we, the created parts, of course, since we are in need of our Lord, must fear Him and be wary of Him. When you use Allah Almighty's name and promise one another something in Allah's name, or make a pledge, keep your pledge. Don't take Allah lightly, don't make Him a toy in your mouth, fear Him so that you attain salvation. Yes, both taking Allah as witness and taking Allah lightly, do not go back on your promise; keep your word, fulfil your word.

What does the Prophet say? Take on the character of Allah.

What does Allah Almighty say? Who is more faithful to his promise than Allah? So, although we were created very honoured, although we were created above the worlds, although created above the worlds, and although we are a being our Lord created honoured, if we act in a way unworthy of Allah Almighty's glory, we become subject to the verse: "They are like four-legged ones roaming the earth," He says. So every person will know his place and behave in a way that does not stain Allah's glory. Just as a child strives to protect his father's honour, for example the son of a minister, a prime minister, a president, to protect his father's position, doesn't go and sit with people here and there and talk.

He has a circle suited to him. So we, with our most exalted creation, must act in a way befitting the glory of Allah, the owner of the worlds, so that we fit the purpose for which Allah created us.

If we act like (?), like non-Muslims, like those with scattered and restless hearts, like lying machines who don't know themselves, we ruin both ourselves and our world. We will have wronged our own selves.

And do not disregard the rights of kinship. Because they have rights over you. Don't say, "What right, Hodja? I'm the one working." If there is kinship, Allah Almighty gives to you for their sake too. Think of the workers you employ. He gives you those workers' provision. If you cut off those workers' provision, you will have done injustice. On the Day of Judgement you will be asked about that worker's right. So in the bonds of kinship too, Allah Almighty perhaps gives you that person's right as well. When he falls into hardship, you will stand by him.

Surely Allah does not love the one who cuts ties with his relatives. There is sila-i rahim. What is sila-i rahim? It is visiting your spouse, friends and relatives. On earth, He says, if you have no relatives left, visit their graves, He says. Another beautiful side of sila-i rahim: it develops a person's mind and opens his insight. Sila-i rahim.

Because they are relatives, and because of their rights and claims and closeness to one another, they have rights over one another.

Even if a person has no relatives left in the world, visiting his relatives or his mother and father's graves, and also doing sila-i rahim, is a right of the relatives over people.

Yes, how beautifully everything is written here.

So beware of disregarding these rights, because Islam is unity and togetherness. Those who cut ties with their relatives, who don't talk with their close ones, also do not observe the unity and togetherness of Islam. Pay attention: a person who doesn't talk with his relatives, caught up in a struggle of ego, cannot easily keep up dialogue with those around him either.

In this way people both break away from their brothers in Islam and move away from Islam. Yes.

Therefore, if we can first establish unity and togetherness with our close ones and learn to get along well with them, we can more easily build dialogue with other people and live with them in unity and togetherness. Surely Allah is a watcher over us. He is Sami, He says, He hears; Basir, He sees. He encompasses and perceives all eyes. Therefore, in the pitch darkness of night, on a pitch-black stone, of a pitch-black ant, both the walking and the sound of its (?) knowing, Allah Almighty, who knows what is in the remotest corner of the universe, His being able to do all things proves anyway. There is not a single atom outside His view at all. If there were such a thing, Allah would be unjust.

That atom would suffer injustice, and since Allah would be unaware of what He created, Allah Almighty would be given attributes. So this is how Allah is, anyway. How is He? He will be able over what He created, and see them and watch over them. So when the Prophet was ascending in the Miraj: "Stop, O Muhammad, your Lord is performing salat," and "O Muhammad, why didn't you ask this?" "My Lord," he says, "everything is clear to You." "I have no need of salat," He says. That is, I have no need of prayer. It is My being on duty every moment towards My creation. Creating causes according to their wishes and desires.

Managing them beyond their own strength: that is the state of salat, He says. A duty. Yes.

There is not a single atom that is not under Allah's view. So if a person grasps that Allah sees him at every moment, he behaves accordingly and obeys Allah.