Al-Baqarah 29: Allah is the One (Creator) Who created everything on earth for you, and constructed the heavens in seven layers. Allah is knowledgeable about everything.

Yes, we come to verse 29.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Hüvellezî halaka leküm mâ fi'l-ardı cemîan sümmestevâ ile's-semâi fe sevvâhünne seb'a semâvât, ve hüve bi külli şey'in alîm. Now what does it say? It is Allah who created all of it for you. Then He arranged the heavens in seven layers. He is the Knower of all things. Hüvellezî. He is Allah. Halaka leküm. He created everything, it says. Mâ fi'l-ardı cemî'en. All of it, cemî'en, whatever there is. Sümme sebâ. Then (?). (?) semâi. Fe sevvâhünne seb'a semâvât. Allah, who created everything in the most beautiful way. all these created things were created for people, it says.

For people. Now it is necessary to open up this verse here a little. It is Allah who created all of it for you. Now look, when it says "He created for you", what does it say? (?) Then He arranged the heavens in seven layers. He is the Knower of all things. He created for you. Then He arranged the heavens in seven layers. Well, were these seven heavens created for us too? So do we benefit from them?

What are they?

Even if you do not see those places, even if you do not know them, even if you do not go up there, Allah Almighty creating these heavens as seven layers and, as proofs for us, presenting them before us, holding a light for us — this is to show us Allah's greatness. (?) To show us His greatness. So then it is created for us. Of course, what? His proving this to me (?), showing the existence of His Self in this way, that, beyond our power, beyond the power of created beings, He creates realms one after another as seven heavens — of course He created it for us, as a lesson for us. Yes. Then all created things were created for people.

Allah willed to send man to a realm where His Self is not seen. For this reason He created the earths, the heavens and what is between them. He set up an order in the universe and sent man to the world. Within the earth's crust all kinds of minerals, on top of the crust all kinds of living things and plants He placed at man's command, and the seas too He offered for people's benefit. Because Allah created people as vicegerents on earth. This is the earth. Allah Almighty speaks to us about the earth. So Allah Almighty would say (?). And the whole universe, you know, He would describe as inner and outer.

Is there an inner state here? Of course there is. What is it? If you reform your nafs, you rise to the realm of malakut. From there all the way to Sidrat al-Muntaha. Then you also see paradise and hell. Then in the presence of your Lord you also see many things.

Look how beautiful. Is there such a person? I always tell you that not believing does you no harm. I have seen and lived these things.

I have seen and lived them. Look, does my way of telling resemble the words of people at all? Does it resemble the words those people tell at all? Does what I tell resemble a sentence taken from any book?

When John went into prison, they say to John: O John, someone who speaks like you has appeared, they say. Praise be to Allah, my namesake has come, he says. About Jesus. So we are in an outward knowledge. We tell the knowledge of reality with wisdoms, with a knowledge that our Lord gave us, and with those visions.

But I always say it. Not believing does you no harm. But you too realize that we are telling the truth. Yes.

We come to it.

We continue with the verse. So when you do (?), you travel the realm of malakut, Sidrat al-Muntaha and those seven heavens too. You see those places. You go, and finally you also see paradise and hell. So everything is for us. Look, (?) Hodja, did you benefit from there? Yes, of course — look: knowledge, science. You developed yourself. By reforming your nafs. If I can attain my Lord's mercy, that is enough. Isn't this something? Isn't it a gain? Remember, we came to the world for trade. There is a material trade and there is a spiritual trade. Well, material trade will end one day anyway. But spiritual trade will come with you.

The heavens in seven layers He arranged. Everything He created, He made known to people through the Quran as proof of His existence. Allah truly knows what He created. Why He created and with what intent He created — this too is (?). The knowledge of all beings and of everything exists from His Self. The knowledge of all beings, of everything. There are many meanings here. Many meanings. These meanings, well — when I am tired I don't much want to open them up. Actually they need to be opened up. What does it say? What did He create and why? Now, my saying here "what did He create and why": He created these creatures on earth, the seventeen thousand realms, only for the (?) of the earth, He created them to complete one another.

And the order of this universe — based on which knowledge, within which knowledge, so that this universe can stand He created it. The knowledge of this too belongs to Allah alone, to Allah alone. Because Allah does nothing in vain, nothing He creates in vain, yes. What are we saying? He arranged the heavens in seven layers; everything He created, through the Quran, as proof of His existence He made known to people — to everything He created, living and lifeless. He had it prove His existence. The lifeless has no life. You know, in the one you say has no life, there is no life. Through His knowledge He made them too remember His Self.

He made the lifeless remember His Self. The nuclei in those atoms, those nuclei spinning around their axis — even if we do not hear it, they make a sound. That very sound remembers Allah. Why did He do that? Allah Almighty did it to prove that there is no creator other than Him. That is the verse: the heavens and the earth and what is between them have known the remembrance of their Lord. So why did He make them remember? To the human whom He took as His addressee on earth, that besides his Lord there is no god at all — as proof, He made this a sign for man. He made everything for man. So that He could take him as His addressee.

Because He took him so, He made it. Yes. These are the openings of the verses, the openings of my words. What did we say? Everything He created, through the Quran, as proof of His existence, He made known to people. Allah truly knows what He created. How is Allah the one who truly knows? Knowing everything He created in the most beautiful way, with the verse in which He says He has power over all things, the One who truly rules over everything. What did He create and why? And with what intent did He create? This too is (?). The knowledge of all beings and of everything exists in His Self. He need only will it. "When We will," He says, "We only say kun — kun, 'be'." And it comes to be. But people think this happens by sound and letter, and truly think themselves scholars, think themselves (?), and so they understand it that way.

Whereas, well, if it had come to be by saying kun, that is "be" — since Allah Almighty has told us that His verses do not contradict one another, here from what does such a proof come? That is, if it had been sound and letters — well, my Allah, You created the heavens in two days, the earths in two days, what is between them in two days, You created in six days; You said "be" and it did not come about. So when Allah Almighty says "be" — that is, kül is His will — it means "I create"; He creates, Allah creates. He creates what He wills. The art of creating, of the knowledge of creating — His knowing the secret of its secret.

It belongs to Him; creating belongs to Allah alone. When He says it — that is, when He wills it — He says "I create". He creates. Imam al-Ghazali says so too in Ihya Ulum al-Din. The foolish man says, he says. And he says it just like that. The foolish man says: Allah said "be", and "be" He said — that is, it simply came to be.

Nothing came to be through sound and letter. Yes. This is our Lord's knowledge, our Lord's having power over all things, our Lord, down to the finest detail, so that no being in any way, by virtue of its creation, in the acts it will perform suffers hardship — down to the finest detail calculating and creating it.

Yes.

Allah, exalted in glory, is great. Allah is all-knowing. He has power over all things. We have said.