An-Nahl 7: They carry the heavy loads to places you would struggle to reach on your own. With no doubt, your Lord is Raouf (Gracious) and Raheem (the One Who very generously accepts repentance).

These animals carry your loads to a land you could reach only with hardship, by enduring hardship. Surely your Lord is most compassionate, most merciful, it says. Most compassionate and most merciful. However much hardship these animals carry our goods with, He has given them to man's command, and has placed on man its rule too: do not load animals more than necessary.

Once upon a time a donkey says to a horse, I have, it says, a lot of load. Please, it says. Take some of this load. What's it to me, it says. My owner loaded it on you, it says. It doesn't concern me, it says. It goes on. When the donkey goes a little further, it says, look, I can't bear it any more. Take some of my load, and (?) a little relief, it says. It doesn't concern me, it says. It continues on its way. Then the donkey drops dead. This time (?) the donkey's load to the horse (?), it says. And the horse says, if only I had taken some of the donkey's load, then I wouldn't have had to carry so much load.

That's how people are, all their lives. Like this they eat and drink the blessings Allah gives. But they don't turn and look at that blessing. When the moment of death comes, the hereafter is shown to him. It comes to pass when he says, Send me back once more, see how I will worship. Then begins the journey to the realm of no return.

So life is a windfall for man. Lifetime is man's treasure. If he misuses this treasure, he travels to the hereafter like a merchant who has gone bankrupt. If he uses his lifetime well, like a merchant who has done his trade well, he passes to the hereafter with profit.

Allah Almighty created the animals He created to serve people. Their enabling people to carry their loads from one land to another, His giving these animals into the service of people, shows us how much He loves people. In times when this technology had not advanced, in the deserts, Mecca, Medina, or the places called the Silk Road, in the past, with camels, caravans, horses, mules, people travelled, on foot. Yes. Allah Almighty created man as the noblest of creatures. Moreover, by placing the created beings under people's command, He made people the caliphs of the earth. Every person on earth is a caliph.

Do you know what a caliph is? A caliph is one who stands in for someone. Isn't it? Who is my caliph? Ahmet, Mehmet. That is, the person who stands in for the Hodja. So in an unseen realm, an unseen realm where Allah Almighty is not seen, He created each of us on earth as a caliph. That is, within our Lord's command, obedient to His command, the creatures He has put under our command, that we use them within the rulings of the Sharia. If we go beyond this, we become sinners. Yes. We will heed the verse. They carry to lands you reach with hardship, He says. Man both rides on the animal's back and has it carry his load.

It does not say, for the animals, they carry your load with hardship. Considering the hardship man suffers on the road, His saying for man, they carry to a land you reach with hardship — that is, for man and also for the created beings, the giving of an honor in itself. If I go with hardship on an animal's back from one town to another, that animal, that animal carrying both my load and me, at that time (?) to think of its hardship.

That's why Allah is very compassionate and very merciful toward His creation. He also created these animals with His knowledge in such a way — people, compared to animals, in terms of strength are weak. In this respect, since animals will carry loads and goods and serve as mounts, His creating these animals so that they are not affected by hardship is in Allah's knowledge. Of course, man can be cruel. If he loads onto an animal a load it can't bear and drives it hard, that is the exception. Such people are cruel. They will give account to Allah for these animals on the Day of Judgment. In the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), when he began to rule with justice, hey, the polytheists say, now the slaves too, they say, are free. The same as the free, they say.

They have rights, they say. Then one of the polytheists says, soon, he says, the animals too, he says, I mean, he'll protect, he says. I mean, he'll bring justice to them too, he says. Yes. Yes, he says. He brought justice to them too, he says. (?) too much load, he says.

Yes.

The religion of Islam is a religion of mercy, compassion, love, brotherhood, togetherness. Yes. In a word, the religion of Islam is a religion that submits to one single god, that trusts, that prostrates.

There is no second way to it.