Hud 26: “Worship none but only Allah! Indeed, I fear for you the suffering of a day grievous.”

Surah Hud, verse 26: O my people! Do not worship anyone but Allah.

While a person is a human being, would he leave his mother and father and call someone else mother and father? Impossible. Because he knows his mother and father. Well, in this case, if a person, being human, does not deny his father — apart from those who do not know themselves; there are also those who deny Allah, for example — if he does not deny his father and mother, if he knows his father and mother, can a person deny the One who created the worlds and created him? Can he worship those other than Him? Since he does not go and call someone else father, does not call them mother, can a person, instead of Allah, go to Allah's creations and worship them?

This is nothing other than the shirk that people without sound reason, who do not use their reason, when they become hostile to Allah, ascribe to Allah. Yes — the one who denies his origin, he says, is ‘bloodless’. Bloodless. What is bloodless? It is a base person who does not know himself. Base. ‘They are like four-legged creatures roaming the earth,’ He says. ‘Even more astray in their way.’ Yes. So, O my people, do not worship anyone but Allah. They have neither benefit nor harm for themselves. Who? The idols. These — these too are Allah's created servants. All created beings are Allah's servants.

Because Allah created them. He is their owner. And since He is the owner, the other created beings are also Allah's servants. Allah is one in the worlds. If there were two, one would take what the other created. The other would take what it created itself. Everything would be (?). So if Allah is one, you cannot look for several gods. You cannot look for a Lord. The Creator is one. There is no creator other than Him. And He, self-subsisting by His Essence, of whom it says Hüve'l-evvelü ve'l-âhiru ve'z-zâhiru ve'l-bâtın, is our Lord, the Creator, who is none other than Allah. You cannot look for a god other than Him.

You cannot look for a Lord.

Allah created all this universe and the created beings. Allah is the owner of all these created beings. Yes. Now if we are to reflect a little on Allah's power and might — a little, compared to what? What do we say? He created all this universe and the created beings. Allah is the owner of all these created beings, we say. While we cannot own our children, while our children, or even some of our family members, we cannot own, while some people cannot even own themselves — man, in his helplessness — the owner of the heavens and the earth and what is between the two is Allah. Allah who owns all of it, Allah who exercises His power — it becomes clear that man, beside his Lord, cannot even be a speck of the oceans.

Because He owns all the worlds. Allah, who rules over them as far as His power reaches. Whereas we — over nothing; even if some among us can rule over very few people or a small circle, after that they remain helpless. In that case, since Allah is the owner of all these created beings, to anyone other than Allah we can neither offer worship nor associate partners with Him. So, let alone worshipping anyone other than Him or associating partners, we cannot step outside His command. People of sound reason know that they have an owner who created them, that this owner is Allah, that Allah addresses people in the universe, and that lastly, with (?), as a mercy to the worlds He sent the Prophet (peace be upon him), and with him, until the Day of Resurrection, He sent His sharia ruling, which will remain in force, with the Holy Quran; and that those who go outside it, (?) the eternal abode of bliss — those outside the command of Allah Almighty are seeking the eternal abode of punishment; that at the end of this world we will surely be called to account, and that our true home is the Hereafter; knowing this, people of sound reason act accordingly and strive accordingly to carry out Allah's command.

If people step outside this, misery takes hold of them. What misery, Hodja? I live in a bed of roses. Money, I have; property, I have; estate, I have; a yacht, I have; a palace, I have. Now I appeal to your conscience. I wonder, do you have peace?

Do you have peace?

You cannot find peace with money, nor with property, nor with estate. You find peace only by putting your trust in Allah. That's one. To find your own peace in the transient worldly realm, abandoning yourself to drink, gambling, adultery — in that abandonment, to satisfy your egoistic feelings, spending your existence, in this swamp of a world thinking you are living, without realizing that you live like animals, even lower, saying of people who carry out Allah's commands that they live a vegetative life, seeing people as poor — in the few hours' life of this transient world, at the moment of death, when the soul reaches the throat, when the doors of repentance are closed, that you will be subjected to a painful punishment; when the journey begins to a realm from which there is no return; when the Resurrection breaks out and you are called to account at the great court — saying ‘O Allah, send me back once more, see how I will worship You’ will be of no use to you.

Not that wealth and property of yours. Leave aside that wealth and property of yours; if this world were yours, if another world like this were yours too, you would want to give it to Allah as ransom and be saved. Yes. Then know to what an evil realm you sold your nafs, if you cannot know it now.

O people! If you distance yourselves from Allah and keep associating partners with Him, I fear for you the punishment of a coming grievous, painful day, he said. Although Noah tried to persuade his people, these people who would not listen turned their backs on Noah and never listened to him. They believed neither in Allah nor in the Hereafter. What happened in the end? As all of us know from history. Indeed — we study at middle school, we study at high school, we study at university, there we study history, we study civilization, we acquire knowledge about the histories of states, about their cultures we acquire knowledge; yet Allah Almighty, who created the worlds, created peoples — why do we not wonder about their cultures and what their end was and learn it?

This too is history. What a beautiful history. Our Lord makes it known.

What happened in the end? In the end, with the flood, Allah Almighty destroyed them. Why did He destroy them? These who would not understand. People who seek a god other than Allah, who turn their backs on His messengers, and who associate partners with Allah and transgress the limits — Allah Almighty, for the people coming after them, writes a history as a lesson. History. Yes.

There are some lazy students. You know? Lazy students. He reads but does not understand. He reads history but does not understand. ‘Son,’ he says, ‘tell me about these (?), these sunnahs, these things.’ He has read it but forgotten; he doesn't know it.

If a person is going to deny Allah like this, even though he reads this history he brushes it aside and does not listen.

Yes.