An-Nahl 74: Do not fabricate similitudes for Allah. Verily, Allah knows (everything) but you do not know.

Surah An-Nahl, verse 74.

Do not invent likenesses for Allah. For Allah knows everything, but you cannot know. Now people, because they have no deep knowledge, measure some things against their short minds, and in that way they twist them and fall into misunderstanding. For example, we say that Allah has attributes of His essence. Attributes of His essence. In that case, about those who say this: yes, there are, but these people are giving Allah attributes, they say. Yet if Allah Almighty manifests Himself to a person, He does not manifest in a single attribute. Changing into many forms, young, old, bearded, beardless, He manifests. You behold this manifestation in the heart without it ever fading, before your eyes, that is, with the clarity of kashf.

Satan also manifests; Satan disappears, sinks into darkness, comes out again. It is clear that this is satanic. So when Allah Almighty says do not invent likenesses, Allah Almighty also, so that people do not say "look, it is like this", and so that those who see Him do not say "I saw Allah Almighty like this", Allah Almighty, apart from all the human forms He has created, and these human forms all come from His essence, apart from these human forms, abundantly, is the One who subsists by His essence and continually changes form. And His true form, His true form is, (?) in this book of His, the form in which He addressed us and appeared.

So when the verse says he rose up in that true form, those who say it is Gabriel, those who wrong themselves, reveal that they have no knowledge, they reveal their ignorance. What it calls the true form, it means what his eye saw; it says: what his heart saw, his eye did not deny. That is, what he saw in his heart in its true form, since with his eye too, in its true form, he saw it, it says: what his heart saw, his eye did not deny. Now some say the Prophet did not ascend on the Mi'raj in his body. Then where will you hide this verse? Where will you hide the verse that his eye did not deny what his heart saw?

Because people know nothing of the verses, they set about talking recklessly about the verses and fall into sins bigger than themselves. Having known this point so certainly, we will continue our lesson.

Do not invent for Allah any likenesses. For Allah knows everything, but you cannot know, it says.

People were sent in the realm of Mulk without knowledge.

Let us say "into the realm of Mulk" here; "were sent without knowledge in the realm of Mulk", we say. Here: they were sent into the realm of Mulk in a state without knowledge. Therefore they have no information about Allah. Because they are without knowledge. But Allah makes His essence known to people through prophets and books. But those people who want to leave Allah's mercy associate partners with Allah, liken them to beings they imagine, and worship them as gods. Now let us make a (?) distinction here. We say: but those people who want to leave Allah's mercy. Yes. Who are they? Idolaters. While in this world, one cannot leave Allah's mercy.

Why not? Because in the universe Allah's mercy is upon everyone. He will feed them, give them drink. Did you think you would die without proving what kind of person you are? According to this verse, no one will be able to leave Allah's mercy. In fact we had left this point open: but those people who want to leave Allah's mercy associate partners with Allah, liken them to beings they imagine, and worship them as gods; they want to leave, but they cannot. When will they go out of Allah's mercy? When? When Allah's command comes to pass and they are called to account in the hereafter, Allah will lift His mercy from them.

Then they will be left with no one and alone. There they will have left Allah's mercy. And they, by their own desires in the world, wanted to leave this mercy. Out of His mercy, Allah Almighty, so that they would prove what kind of persons they are, gave them their provision over a lifetime. He kept them under His mercy. Since you want to leave My mercy, He says, and you did not acknowledge Me as Lord, today your place is this fire, He says. He makes them people of Hell forever. The people He has removed from His mercy, that is, the people from whom He has lifted His mercy, no one will intercede for them, and there they will remain, with no one and alone, forever as people of Hell.

People who act this way are people who, chasing vain things without knowledge, grow weary and take on the burden of sin. Allah has no likeness. Those who restrict Allah's attributes by ascribing to Him one particular attribute accuse Him of deficiency. We already said this at the beginning of the lesson, that is, at the beginning of this verse, we said it. No one can ascribe a single form to Allah Almighty. Except the form He calls His true form, in which He created our souls in the realm of Lahut and said, I am your Lord; that form is excepted. Yes. We said this verse is a verse that needs much explanation.

We said that what I say here needs much explanation. But this verse is one that people with a certain level of knowledge of the Quran and the exceptional ones will understand. We said its outward, surface meaning is sufficient for people. That is, this part can suffice for people in this way. In the following verses we will try to explain some attributes of Allah Almighty in a limited way, we said. In a limited way. The verses of the Quran repeat one another. Since all the verses support one another, this verse contains what we have explained since the first volume. Therefore, if what has been written is read from the first volume on, people will gain knowledge.

They can then better sense the subtlety in this verse, we said.