Al-Baqarah 127: At one time, Abraham and Ismaeel were raising the foundation of the House (of Allah) and prayed (saying), “oh our Lord! Accept this from us, indeed You are Samee (All-Hearing) and Aleem (All-Knowing).

We come to Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 127. Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 127. Once Abraham, together with Ishmael, were raising the foundations of the Baytullah and praying like this. Abraham and Ishmael: Allah Almighty said to Abraham (peace be upon him) and his son Ishmael: uncover My House. And again, as Gabriel (peace be upon him) showed them its places, they began to clear it of the sands. As they began clearing it of the sands, the Baytullah began to appear. With Noah's flood the Baytullah had remained under the sands. Yes.

Now Abraham and Ishmael are praying. Our Lord, accept this from us. Surely You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. They uncover it, and also: because of the service they did, accept this. Accept it. Saying 'accept this from us' means: accept what we did in Your court. We are doing it for You, O Allah. Let us attain Your mercy, they pray. Yes. According to the narrations about the building of the Kaaba, when Adam was taken out of Paradise and sent down to earth, taken out and sent down to earth, he meets our mother Eve at Arafat.

We tell this several times. It is useful to tell it here too. Together they go toward the west. When they come to the site of the present Baytullah, our father Adam wants to worship Allah. What does he say? He remembers the pillar of light he circled and worshipped at in Paradise, and asks our Lord to send this pillar to him. And Allah Almighty sends that pillar of light to our father Adam. The pillar of light. This pillar remains until the time of Seth. In the time of Seth this pillar of light disappears. A black stone remains in its place. Seth, in place of the pillar of light, builds a four-cornered building of the same size and puts that black stone in one of its corners.

That is the stone we now call the Hajar al-Aswad. The Rukn al-Yamani on one side, the Hajar al-Aswad stone on the other. As we enter there, we say: Rabbenâ âtinâ fi'd-dünyâ haseneten ve fi'l-âhireti haseneten ve kınâ azâbe'n-nâr ve edhılne'l-cennete mea'l-ebrâr, Ya Azîzü, Ya Gaffar, Ya Rabbel Alemin. That is how we enter. At that moment we come opposite the Hajar al-Aswad stone. We say Bismillah, Allahu Akbar, and raise our hand to it. Yes. So where do we enter when circling? Between the Rukn al-Yamani stone and the Hajar al-Aswad stone, from that side we enter; we walk to the right, in the direction where the Hajar al-Aswad stone is, say Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, raise our hand, and after that prayer we begin our circling.

That is the stone we now call the Hajar al-Aswad. Then, over time, Noah, and the Baytullah remains under the sands. After a long time, Allah sends Abraham to the place where the Baytullah is. Abraham, our mother Hagar and Ishmael settle there. Leaving Ishmael and our mother Hagar there, Abraham (peace be upon him) leaves there for a while. Our mother Hagar is left without water. She leaves Ishmael somewhere. When she comes to a place between two hills, so as not to lose sight of Ishmael she runs across it. A place between the present Safa and Marwa. Between two pillars; we do the same thing there anyway.

When we come there, we walk a bit faster. We cross that place running. Between Safa and Marwa. Meanwhile she looks whether the caravan coming has water — that is, is a caravan coming? With that caravan she will meet her need for water. Meanwhile Ishmael, still a child, as he kicks his feet, water starts to come out from between them. Water. When our mother Hagar sees this — she needs water anyway — she says zem zem zem zemzem. That is, in the sense of 'gather, gather, gather'. And that is where the present Zamzam well is. Allah our Lord increases (?). That (?) goes from Allah's tankers to Medina and is connected to the homes.

And the water has its own property. It turns all waters toward itself. It has such a property. Yes.

Abraham, our mother Hagar and Ishmael settle there; after a while Abraham and Ishmael together dig at the site of the present Baytullah and bring the Baytullah out of the sands. Of course, Ishmael is grown by now; after he has grown, together, out of the sands they bring it out. So, Abraham, together with Ishmael, rebuilds the Baytullah and they bring it to its present state. When I say present state, I don't mean the state where its surroundings are fully built and enclosed with stones; they bring out its four walls, and that place level. That is what I call its present state. After that they (?) the rest.

May Allah be pleased with them, they covered its surroundings with marble. They enlarged it. As people increased, they built those multi-storey buildings. And when people do not fit there, they also go around on top of those buildings. When it is time to pray, since the inside cannot hold them, they pray on the upper floors. I mean, it is a truly magnificent work.

When Abraham and Ishmael were raising the walls of the Baytullah, how does raising those walls happen? When they clear it of the sands, scatter the sands around, the Baytullah appears. Yes. (?), he entreats Allah Almighty. Our Lord! Accept this from us. That is, make the service we have done acceptable. This: when the place of the Baytullah, the Baytullah is uncovered, Abraham again rebuilds the Baytullah. Rebuilding. In that case stone is needed there. Where will he find the stone? Allah Almighty commands the mountains. Everything is under His command. When He says 'be', it will be. It is His will.

Stones, mountains begin to flow to the Baytullah. Meanwhile Arafat bursts too. It too is going to go there. Allah Almighty, with His command there: you stay there. My servants cannot become pilgrims without visiting you. You stay there. (?) bursts, like this; rocks burst, stones on top of each other. Yes, perhaps when Allah Almighty created this world they were created like that, you may say. What we tell, we too tell within a narration. That is, history; it may be history. There are truths in history too. Not all of history is entirely truth. But history records events relatively accurately and writes them down.

This too is history, the so-called narrations. Not all of them, but some.

Even those stones — while making the wall of stone, while laying it, the stone Abraham stood on served him as a lift. When Abraham took a stone in his arms, the stone he stood on, wherever it was to take him, wherever he wanted to go, wherever he would place that stone, lifted him there. And it protected him there, and Abraham protected it. And the footprints on that stone, opposite the golden door of the Baytullah, in a glass case, Ishmael's footprints are there, still there.

As Abraham and Ishmael raise the walls of the Baytullah, they entreat Allah Almighty. Our Lord, accept this from us. That is, make the service we did acceptable. Be pleased with us. Be content with us. We are content with You. You are the All-Hearing and All-Knowing, O Allah, they pray. What a beautiful service. They do the service and do not boast. When we do something, we boast. We did this. We directed this, like this, like that. We put this here like this. It is not like that. Look at them; couldn't they have boasted? Bringing the Baytullah into being as a work people will come to, until the Day of Judgement, they (?), they build it.

But look at the nafs. What a nafs. Within our Lord's command. Our Lord, You granted us these things. You could have granted it to someone else. Since You granted it to us, accept this from us, O Allah. Be pleased with us. We are pleased with You, he says. How beautifully they speak. Not about what they did. Within the service Allah gave him, in order to earn his Lord's pleasure, doing it in the best way, and when he has done it, praying such a beautiful prayer. This is the perfected nafs. The perfected nafs. A person's trust in Allah and being content with his Lord, that state. And in this state, Allah Almighty in the verse: O soul at rest! Your Lord pleased with you, pleased, enter among My servants, enter My Paradise — the souls of the people He means.

Yes.