Al-An'am 36: Only those who listen sincerely will accept your invitation. And Allah will resurrect the dead ones on the Day of Judgment. After this, they will be returned to Allah.

Verse 36: Your call is accepted only by those who listen sincerely, with all their heart, it says. Those who listen accept. Your call is accepted only by those who listen sincerely, with all their heart. What is his call?

Back then, in the time of the Prophet, idolaters, there were. The House of Allah was full of idols.

What is the Prophet's call? Not only for that time. With the people of that time, it is the call of the religion of Islam, which will continue until the Day of Judgement. What is the call in the religion of Islam? It is the Testimony of Faith. This is the call. (?) to Islam. O people! Seek no god other than Allah.

There is no god other than the one God who created this universe. The absolute ruler of this universe and the absolute owner of this universe is Allah, the one God; so then do not enter the world of shirk by associating partners with Allah; you would be committing a great slander against Allah. Such is the Prophet's call. In this case, say the Testimony of Faith: La ilaha illallah. Ashhadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluh. I too am Allah's servant and messenger. So you can only, it says, make those who listen with all their heart accept this. As for the dead, Allah will raise them on the Day of Judgement, then they will be returned to Him. Here the dead has two meanings.

One, the living dead. Two, together with those who die, the living dead will be raised in the hereafter. And the living dead, after tasting death, will die a second time; a second time, a second death. That is, a second death, but one death is the nafs tasting, the nafs tasting a death. A person's heart not (?) to the nafs and not finding life is a death, a living death. The second: when he tastes death, the dead will wait in the grave; in the hereafter, it says, they are raised, then they are sent to Him, it says. Those dead who turn their backs on your call, it says, those dead; look how beautifully it says it: your call is accepted only by those who listen sincerely, with all their heart.

As for the dead, Allah will raise them on the Day of Judgement; the dead. Who are they? One, the living dead; and the dead who, after dying, wait in the grave, and after the Day of Judgement are raised in the hereafter. There they are raised, then returned to Him, it says. When you come before Me with a witness, when the Supreme Court is set up, Alaysallahu bi-ahkami'l-hakimin: Allah Almighty, the Judge of judges, who says on that day the judgement is Mine alone; when we come before our Lord, then, at that time, the dead are still dead.

The dead are still dead. That is, the living dead.

Why? Allah Almighty says it there: O Allah, my Lord, send me back to the world; all of their saying this is not from the heart but with their tongues, to escape the punishment. Even if We sent you back to the world not once but several times, you would do the same thing again, it says in the verse. The reason is that our desires and wishes settled in us as character traits. With these traits our destiny was written. Even if we came into the world not once but thousands of times, we would do the same thing again. Does it not change? Never does it change. Since He placed our own will in our own hands, since He willed that we know our Lord through our own being, that is, through ourselves, Allah Almighty will call to account in this way those who knew and did not know with our partial will.

Since their traits will not change there, these are again living dead. They will enter Hell. A place of eternal punishment. A place of eternal punishment. We always say it. Let us remind again. What does Allah Almighty say? If only they had known Me here, He says. If only. That is, if only they could have changed their traits. Since they will not change, for what does Allah Almighty say in the verse? Unless We will, you cannot will. That is, with this verse He tells us that the destiny Allah Almighty made with these traits He gave people, and man having himself programmed to our Lord, no power and might other than Allah can change, that not even man himself can change it.

Unless We will, you cannot will. So their asking, my Lord, have me sent back to the world, is only to deceive their own selves. Yes.

When the prophets invited people to the one Allah and to His oneness, those who answered this call, the prophet, let us say the prophets, introducing Allah Almighty, when they told people that there is no god other than Allah, those who answer this call are only those who listen to Allah's messengers from the heart, sincerely and with all their heart, who use their minds, weigh truth and falsehood with reason, and not the side pleasing to their nafs but are bound by what their reason shows to be right; they accept.

What was it? Let us read it once more. A beautiful sentence. A long sentence. When the prophets invited people to the one Allah and to His oneness, those who answered this call are only those who listen to Allah's messengers from the heart, sincerely and with all their heart, who use their minds, weigh truth and falsehood with reason, and not the side pleasing to their nafs but are bound by what their reason shows to be right; they accept. So, not the side pleasing to my nafs, not my pleasure and amusement, but with what my reason shows to be right, by saying stop to my nafs, that he truly is our Lord's messenger, by his telling Allah's verses, by his showing us what is right; if we are bound by that reason of ours with which we understood it, then, it says, those who listen to you with all their heart, who obey you, are not the dead, it says.

Not those who follow their nafs and turn their backs on you, it says. Yes. As for the dead, Allah will raise them on the Day of Judgement, then they will be returned to Him. In its first meaning, this verse applies to everyone: with the verse every soul shall taste death, people die, and in the hereafter Allah raises people again, on the day they will be called to account before Him, it is their being gathered.

Yes. In a second meaning, according to the verse where He says do not be with the dead, those whose heart's nafs has not found (?), who are far from Allah and deny the hereafter, people in that state are meant. The dead. He will gather the dead. Let them turn their backs as much as they like. So they are the ones who turn their backs and go. You cannot make the deaf hear. You cannot make the dead hear at all, it says. The dead who turn their backs and go. The living dead.

So in the first meaning, all souls will taste death and in the hereafter will be gathered. In the second meaning, the living dead will die too. Those living dead. All of them, before their Lord, in the hereafter, will be gathered.

These are people whose hearts are dead through their denial of Allah Almighty.

In the world they are in the state of the living dead. The only difference: in the world they do not see their Lord; in the hereafter, gathered before their Lord, they know that Allah's existence is true and His promise is true. There they will know. But they will not be able to give up their denial. Yes.

From here a third meaning comes out: those who long for Allah. Those who know Allah and His Messenger with certainty gaze at the manifestations of Allah Almighty, rapt. These are people who in this world enter among the living, whose heart and nafs have found (?), found life. These are the living too. These are people who in this world enter among the living, whose heart and nafs have found (?), found life. These too taste death in this world only on the bodily self, and in the hereafter, by the mercy of Allah Almighty, they are the company of those who attain the salvation of the life of eternal bliss, we say. Yes.

Let us open up the third meaning a little. The third meaning. From here a third meaning comes out: those who long for Allah, that is, there those who gave their covenant well, who gave their covenant well at that address, Alastu bi-Rabbikum; there were three classes, remember: wa ashabu'l-maymanati ma ashabu'l-maymanah, those on the right, and wa ashabu'l-mash'amati ma ashabu'l-mash'amah, those on the left, woe to them, it says, and wa's-sabiquna's-sabiqun, ula'ika'l-muqarrabun, fi jannati'n-na'im; a third group, it says, the group of the sabiqun: the saints, the prophets, the martyrs, the (?). Those who are of this company, it says, this third company; not from those on the right; from those on the right, a Muslim; a Muslim, yes, but a Muslim, until he becomes a believer within that, cannot reach the manifestations.

The believer is aware of the manifestations; it is the fourth (?) of the nafs. It is a nafs that has become content. Nafs al-mutma'inna. Why do they say nafs al-mutma'inna? Now a nafs that has become content, a nafs that has reached the manifestations. This is what we mean here. From here a third meaning comes out: those who long for Allah, those of that middle company, those who know Allah and His Messenger with certainty; with certainty.

A person says: my spirituality is strong, my faith is strong. It may be. But you have no spirituality.

Measuring spirituality by faith is right, but since you cannot fully know spirituality, faith, you say my spirituality is strong. If your spirituality is strong, strong, then what is meaning? Spirituality comes from meaning. Look, from meaning. Spirituality: the worlds you have encompassed in your imagination. But when we say meaning, when you say spirituality, when you encompass those worlds of meaning, encompass them in your mind, when you see what it is like there, your confirmation, the confirmation of seeing. So, have you seen the Prophet (peace be upon him)? You say my spirituality is strong.

Have you reached the manifestations of Allah Almighty? You say my spirituality is strong. You say I am a believer.

Being a believer is not easy. Those who could not master their nafs, who (?) with their desires and wishes, against those who offend their nafs even a little, who raise hell,

who do not think of others for their own interest, when it comes to talking, say that they have spirituality, that their faith is strong. How beautifully Mawlana Rumi says it. Tell me a word, and I will tell you where you are, he says. With the deeds you do, show yourself as alu'l-ala as much as you like, be in alu'l-ala, by your own measure. But your deeds, your speech, the movements you make, and the word coming out of your mouth show you where you are. Maybe you can see yourself in a giant's mirror, but those who see you in the mirror can discover that state of yours very well; with what? That mirror is Allah's verse. Yes.

And when you say I am a person of spirituality, the Prophet you will also see, you will reach the manifestations; if you cannot reach the manifestations, then surely you are not a believer. Your spirituality is not strong either. But you are a Muslim. You are a Muslim. That too is a good thing. Being a Muslim. And your praying is a very good thing. After that, if you turn a little to piety, you come to (?) and become (?). You come to the state of a minor saint. You become one of the people of wonders. And that too is a good thing, of course. But rising to mutma'inna is something quite different.

That is where spirituality begins. From there, there is no going back. So here, those who long for Allah, those who know Allah and His Messenger with certainty; we have closed the word here, within a frame. Those who know with certainty, who see the Prophet, and who gaze at the manifestations of Allah Almighty. Yes. They gaze at the manifestations of Allah Almighty, rapt. These are people whose heart and nafs have found (?), found life in this world. They have entered among the living. They are people who enter among the living. These too taste death in this world only on the bodily self, tasting death only on the bodily self, and in the hereafter, by the mercy of Allah Almighty, they are the company of those who attain the salvation of the life of eternal bliss.

These. Yes.

So, if a person, a person, worships, he will find its reward. If you worship. Here I want to recall again a hadith of the Prophet. If the acts of worship you do do not keep you from evil, they are a burden on you, he says. A burden. So free yourself of that burden. Be worthy of the worship you do. In another hadith the Prophet also says: if you cannot be worthy of that beard, have that beard cut. Do not let your beard be talked about. That is, (?). Do not bring talk upon the beard the Prophet (?) left. If you pray, if you worship, try to be worthy of that worship. Master your nafs, and live on earth as Allah wishes, heeding the lawful and the unlawful, so that you pass beyond the stages of the nafs. Otherwise you keep spinning where you are, like a whirlpool.

Picture a whirlpool, a whirlpool. Throw a plank into that whirlpool. As the water turns around itself, the plank does not sink and keeps turning around the whirlpool. The plank. Give that plank a mind. If you had given it life, what are you doing, you ask, and it says: I am travelling on, it says. It thinks it is making headway. Or picture a mill horse. It turns around itself with its eyes covered. If you asked it, what are you doing? I am going, it says. Yet they are turning where they are. So if the worship you do does not keep you from evil, like this, where you are, you keep turning like a mill horse.