Al-Baqarah 158: Verily, Safa and Marwa are among the signs of Allah. So, for those who visit the Kaaba for the purpose of obligatory or voluntary pilgrimage, there is no sin upon them when they perform the circumambulation of the Kaaba or walk between them (Safa and Marwa). Whoever performs a good deed, Allah is Shakir (the One rewarding gratefulness) and Aleem (All-Knowing).

Now to verse 158 of Surah Al-Baqarah — I don't know how long 6,600 verses will take to finish. I don't know whether my life will be enough.

Truly, Safa and Marwa are among the signs of Allah. So whoever visits the House with the intention of Hajj or Umrah, there is no sin for him in doing the circling and then running between these two. And whoever does a good deed, Allah is Appreciative. He gives its reward; He is All-Knowing, the One who knows everything.

Safa and Marwa are among the signs of Allah Almighty. When Abraham settled our mother Hagar with Ishmael in Mecca the Honoured, they stayed beside what are now Safa and Marwa. Let me tell you about this place. Rather than read it, let me tell it. When I tell it, it gets written down anyway.

Abraham (peace be upon him) comes with our mother Hagar to Mecca the Honoured and leaves them at a spot between Safa and Marwa, settles them, and he himself sets out on a (?) journey.

Ishmael is in the arms of our mother Hagar.

Meanwhile they look for water and cannot find any.

Our mother Hagar needs water. Food, drink — a person cannot live without water. Between Safa and Marwa — those who have been there know well — they have painted the space between two pillars green; a hollow, that place is a hollow. Ishmael (peace be upon him) is in that hollow; our mother Hagar, so as not to lose sight of Ishmael, would run back and forth through that hollow, running. She would both look at him and climb the hill, the hill: is a caravan coming? A caravan would come, there would be water in the caravan, she would benefit from that water.

Doing the movements the prophets made — though our mother Hagar is not a prophet, Ishmael, according to what our Lord says, is a prophet, the son of Abraham. Together they raised up Mecca. She too had a duty. And if she had a duty, everyone with a duty from our Lord is then of the kind of a prophet. Meanwhile Ishmael kicks his feet. He is a child, kicking his feet. From the spot his heels strike, water begins to come out.

When our mother Hagar sees this, she says zamzam, zamzam, zamzam. That means: gather, gather, she says.

So the running between Safa and Marwa, the sa'y, going there, is among Allah's wisdoms, He says. That is, to make them remembered. To make you live those states. Yes.

They are signs He set to remind people of the blessings He granted by bringing out the water, and also, by having people visit between these two hills, to remove their old false beliefs and make them remember Him and worship Him.

Before Islam there were idols on the hills of Safa and Marwa. Idolaters would go back and forth to these idols to worship them. From one side to the other.

With Islam these idols were made to be broken. The Muslims running between these two hills raised doubts in the hearts of some Muslims. Upon this, this verse comes down. Doubts arise among the Muslims.

Yes.

Whoever visits the Kaaba with the intention of Hajj or Umrah — now the verse comes for that. (?) Hajj or Umrah — whoever visits the Kaaba with that intention, there is no sin in doing the circling together with these two. Now, there were idols there, right; why does doubt come to the Muslims' hearts? Not because we broke the idols — God forbid, a Muslim never looks at that. These people went back and forth to the idols; doubt comes, are we too following them by going back and forth here? You know there are verses saying, do not resemble them; because they did this, doubt comes: are we too falling into sin?

(?) Allah Almighty says, We know the secrets of hearts. The secrets of hearts. Yes. What is needed by you and you cannot know, what is in the furthest corner of your heart, We know, He says. Why? Because according to my covenant, my aim — according to my aim, Allah Almighty, who wrote my destiny, gave me those characters. He gave them, but while I do not know one second ahead, my Lord knows everything in my whole life. Yes. Whoever visits the Kaaba with the intention of Hajj or Umrah, there is no sin in doing the circling together with these two. That is, after circling the House of Allah, the running between Safa and Marwa is done. We are not opening it much here.

Actually, if we opened it, this book would never end. It would never end. We wrote 3,954 pages. If we opened it knowingly (?), people would not read it, saying it is long, and it would take years. It would never end.

And whoever does a good deed, Allah is Appreciative. He gives its reward. Allah Almighty, whoever it may be, whether idolater or Magian, accepts in His sight the good deeds people have done.

Accepts them in His sight. And rewards them. However, if this person dies as an unbeliever, the good deeds he did will not benefit him. Allah Almighty says in a verse: all the fine deeds they did have gone to waste. So in the verse He is not speaking only to the Muslim. To all His creatures. Did the Quran (?) not come down to the worlds, did it not come down to people? Did the Quran come only to the Muslim? To all people.

I will write your speck of good. If He also says, I will write the speck of your evil, it means He accepts theirs too. He writes their evil and their good. Even if their good outweighs their evil — those I call non-Muslims — and let us say, if a Muslim did a good deed by which he would rise to the nafs al-mutmainna, and that non-Muslim did a good deed even above it, as long as he turns his back on Allah, all the fine deeds they did have gone to waste.

Why did they go to waste? Allah Almighty created people so that He would be known. He created people so that He would be known by their own will. Otherwise, He created all beings, programmed them in accordance with His aim. He left humans and jinn free in their own will, and over humans and jinn He created reward and sin. So a person who denies a single verse, denies it deliberately, who denies the Prophet (peace be upon him), who turns his back on Allah — not just as much as this world, even if he did good deeds as much as millions of worlds, the sins he took on by denying that verse, or denying the Prophet, or turning his back on Allah — those good deeds wipe them out.

Those sins wipe out these good deeds. So it does not benefit him.

Yes. Allah Almighty says in a verse: all the fine deeds they did have gone to waste. So, since the sins the unbeliever took on in his life are not offset by the good he did and he could not bring his nafs to perfection, even if they did good all their lives, as long as they deny Allah, the good they did cannot even be an atonement for their sins.

Yes.

All the good deeds he did have gone to waste, scattered like carded cotton. Allah is All-Knowing, the One who knows everything.

In my day there were wool mattresses, cotton mattresses. There were cotton carders, a bow like this with a string at the end — I don't know whether you have seen it, the old ones have — he would hold it like this and strike the string and make the cotton fly; that is how the sins are thrown and gone, like carded cotton. Allah Almighty is the One who brings into being from nothing; He has the power to create. And the One who has this power is of course All-Knowing, and the All-Knowing is the One who knows what He created in the best way.