Al-Furqan 21: Those who don’t anticipate to meet Us, said; “Angels should have been sent down to Us, or we should see (plain in sight) our Lord .” Verily, they have shown arrogance amongst themselves and fell towards a great transgression.

We have come to verse 21 of Surah Al-Furqan.

Those who, meeting Us, coming into Our presence one day, do not hope for, those who, meeting Us, coming into Our presence one day, do not hope for — that is, those who say, after death who has gone and seen those places; those who say there is no resurrection after death — this addresses them: those who do not hope to meet Us, to come into Our presence one day: either angels should have been sent down to us, or we should have seen our Lord, they said. By oath, they have become arrogant about themselves and gone very far in insolence, it says. Because such people, at the address 'Alastu bi Rabbikum' too, because they saw Allah Almighty in the form of a human like themselves, waited for the Lord of their own imagination and, out of arrogance and pride toward Allah Almighty, out of their self-importance, denied their Lord.

So they took the name of denying unbelievers. Let us read the verse once more, then move on to its answer. Those who do not hope to meet Us, to come into Our presence one day, said: Either angels should have been sent down to us, or we should have seen our Lord. By oath, they have become arrogant about themselves and gone very far in insolence. In the verse: those who do not hope to meet Us, to come into Our presence one day — this verse describes the address 'Alastu bi Rabbikum'. Allah Almighty showed His essence to the spirits He created, and in response to His saying, I am your Lord, people did not believe that Allah Almighty had created them.

The reason for this, as we explained in many verses, is that since people were waiting for the Allah they had conceived in their own minds, they could not believe in the Allah who created us. That is, as I said a moment ago, Allah Almighty — to the people He created, that is, to our spirits there — which is our original homeland, our original being. Because with death our spirit will be stripped from the body; we are twice brought to life and twice made to die. The first coming to life is in the body in this world; the first death is in the body, again in the world. The second coming to life, with Israfil blowing the Trumpet, in the realm of the hereafter; after the reckoning, after giving account before our Lord at the great court, at the second death, again there, with 'you are returned to the One who first created', our Lord makes our body die a second time, and since spirit, nafs and life are one, they will go either to paradise or to hell according to their reckoning.

Once their reckoning is done, everyone will be sent to their places. But unfortunately people who still think themselves scholars and learned, with bodies, put people into paradise. Yet since the spirit is luminous, paradise is luminous too. If we enter paradise with bodies, we will soil those places too. Because in paradise there is no relieving oneself. We eat, together with sweat. It flies away. The thing one plucks comes back to its place. There is no sleep there either. Because there is no idle time there. No sleep either. Well. In that case we will say, in the world we were doing something, but what were we doing, we will say.

Well. Even those people who think themselves scholars and see themselves in very high ranks — although the angels, 'you today have come here completely pure', call out to those entering paradise — at the gate of paradise invent a pool. They wash them there and bring them in spotless. Let's say (?). Yes. Simple people, pure people believe it that way. But the words of Yunus Emre come to my mind. We say — the blessed one says: knowledge is knowing, knowledge is knowing oneself. If you don't know yourself, what kind of knowledge is this? Put water on a black stone, he says, boil it forty years, it is still stone, still stone, he says, it won't soften. 'Behil' is like this, he says — that is, the ignorant are like that too.

We want the Muslim to be intelligent. That is, to use his mind. To be far-sighted.

To keep up with his time. Technology — to keep up with technology. Today many people our age don't know how to use the phone to talk. They just open and close it. If someone had this phone of mine registered, he wouldn't know that either. If you live in your time, you are obliged to keep up with the time. Yes.

So they did not believe that Allah Almighty had created them. The reason for this, as we explained in many verses, is that people, in their own minds, waiting for the Allah they had conceived, in the Allah who created us could not believe.

In that case the person, since he waits for a Lord in his own imagination — Allah Almighty to them: they will not see their Lord. It says — they cannot know the meaning of this verse either. Like Allah Almighty being seen in paradise; some said, Allah Almighty will not be seen and so on, or appearing like a moon, like something. All these come from people being unaware of their verses.

When it says, they will not see their Lord, here that there is no god but Allah — La ilaha illallah, that is, there being no Lord other than our Lord, no god other than Allah, absolute owner and power of the worlds — there is no god besides that God such that they could see their Lord. (?). In this case, one fears — if they cannot grasp that the verse 'they will not see their Lord' symbolizes tawhid — since they don't know it, everyone says a word according to their own mind. Says something. Yes.

Because Allah gave humanity of His spirit. Although the attribute of essence is unique to Allah, with the spirit He gave to the human He did not distinguish the human from Himself; for this reason, since from His forms He gave a part to the human too, humans also became inclined toward the attribute of essence. So the Allah who created the human this close to Himself — the deniers, using their minds, could not recognize Him. In the continuation of the verse it says that these, falling into arrogance, went far in insolence. So they became rebellious against Allah. As they did not believe in Allah, our Lord, who introduced His essence as Allah — that they would come into His presence again, they did not consider likely either.

Yes.

So these denying unbelievers and polytheists, not believing in the prophethood of the Prophet (peace be upon him), in his prophethood, said: either angels should have been sent down to us, or we should have seen our Lord. In the realm of the hereafter, when they made the covenant with their Lord, although they saw their Lord, they were haughty toward Allah and, in arrogance, did not obey Allah. Now here we say this. What do we say? In arrogance they did not obey Allah. As I said a moment ago, seeing themselves in pride and arrogance, in grandeur, because toward the Lord before them, the Creator, they saw themselves as superior, they waited for the Lord of their own imagination.

Because Allah had given the human of His spirit as a part of His essence. Since Allah Almighty created the human close to His essence, people did not believe in Allah. So they waited for the Allah they imagined. Because every person — that he had come from nothing into being and been created by someone — was aware of this. So this sentence: yes, (?), yes, they said. That is, we were created by a Lord.

The words will all fall into place in verses like these. With this feeling they wanted to see the Allah who created them. That is, although He was before them — although the One who created them was before them — because they saw Him in human guise, because Allah Almighty, the human's essence, (?), because He gave the human of a partial attribute of His, the people possessing pride and arrogance with that grandeur, looking down on the Lord before them, that is, their Creator, as lesser than themselves, felt a greatness in themselves. So they waited for the Lord of their imagination.

Although Allah, besides whom there is no other god, showed His essence at the address 'Alastu bi Rabbikum', the denying unbelievers, denying Allah, waited for a god who does not exist. So while they kept waiting for the Lord of their imagination, Allah Almighty made a covenant with all spirits and wrote people's wishes for them as destiny. For this reason, whatever a person's intention and wish was in the realm of the hereafter, from the world — since Allah wrote the destinies of all people in proportion to their wishes, Allah knows the intentions of the people to come until the Day of Judgment and what they will do. So these denying unbelievers, since they did not recognize Allah and denied Him, when the god they waited for did not appear either, left to themselves, went on in their insolence.

Since they did not know Allah, they did not listen to Allah's laws. Denying the prophets He sent, they did not believe. So the swamps and darknesses that their own minds made seem pleasing to them and that they thought right, they took for the truth. For the worldly blessings pleasing to their nafs, falling into arrogance and pride toward people, they boasted of worldly blessings. And to get the blessings of this world they recognized no right or law. They overstepped the bounds of decency and manners. They committed every kind of evil. So with the diseases they spread in the world of humanity they became an affliction.

Those who are wrongdoers against their own nafs will incur Allah's wrath.