Al-An'am 142: Allah is the One Who has created animals; some are for burden and some are for use of their wool to make mattresses. Eat from the provisions that Allah gave to you but do not follow Shaytan, for he is a clear enemy for you.

We left off at verse 142 of Surah Al-An'am, Hodja, he says. Page 900. Page 900. Yes. Page 900, verse 142. It is He who created, among the animals, those that carry loads and those whose hair is made into bedding, it says. Now, Allah Almighty is always proving His essence, and also telling us things. Here: among the animals, those that carry loads. For example the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey. Sir, and also those whose hair is made into bedding, it says. For example sheep, goats. From their hair, sir, from sheep's wool very nice wool quilts, wool mattresses are made. These wool quilts and wool mattresses have fine qualities.

Now people have come up with spring mattresses, orthopedic mattresses. Even if they are related to your health, as beneficial to a person as a wool quilt or a wool mattress they are not. Why are they not beneficial? Now, wool has qualities. When you sleep with a wool quilt and on a wool mattress, your rheumatism pains ease. You hardly catch rheumatism. Because wool, in the warmth, acts just like insulation. It doesn't let cold to warm or warm to cold pass, so with a wool quilt on a wool mattress you warm up very nicely. Even in winter with frost, even frost, minus ten, minus twenty, minus thirty, you warm up in it; but today in a fiber one, in other, sir, mattresses, that is in some mattresses, at minus twenty or thirty, its warming, if you get in, you can't warm up. Allah Almighty, by giving these sheep, goats, these animals this wool, both protects them from the cold, because on stones, concrete, grass they lie down.

He protects them from diseases. and also has the animals serve people very well. Allah who created this, Allah who created it, proves to people with seeing eyes how many blessings they are in. But although man sees everything with these eyes, he somehow cannot turn everything to the truth. He somehow lives in ingratitude. They have no gratitude either.

Every day, it says, before you, before your eyes, thousands of miracles appear. You, it says, are blind, you do not see, it says. Yet Allah Almighty lists these one by one with His verses too. What does it say? It is He who created, among the animals, those that carry loads and those whose hair is made into bedding. Eat of the provision Allah gave you, do not follow Satan. Satan is your enemy, it says. Although I placed all the beings I created at your command, at your command, although I feed you and give you drink, what is the matter with you, it says. What is the matter with you? For all these blessings you turn your back, and with the one who is your enemy you try to make friends.

Is this befitting, it says, a human being, the most honored He created? Is it befitting the most honored human He created? If you still, in the same mindset, are ungrateful for what Allah gave, eat and drink and don't thank Him, follow the footsteps of Satan, whom He declared your enemy, and make friends with him, on the Day of Judgment, driven from Allah Almighty's mercy, you will carry on that life there as one of the people of hell forever, it says. Allah protect us. Yes.

Surely he is a clear enemy to you, it says. Of course. He approaches people from their right, their left, their front, their back. He circulates in people's bloodstream. He gives them (?). But what does Allah Almighty say? The (?) Satan gives to My servant who knows Me is (?). Why? Because My servant who knows Me is ruled by the verses. Every thing outside those verses he knows is from his nafs and from Satan, and he pays them no heed, it says. Yes.

So that they would serve people and meet people's needs, Allah Almighty created His creatures. From the fish in the sea, or the other products obtained from the seas, to the animals in the air and on land, for people's benefit He created beings and animals. Allah Almighty. Yes.

Camels carry loads, their meat is used. Oxen plow vineyards and gardens, their meat is used. At the same time, from their hides, leather shoe soles are made. Sheep: from their wool mattresses are made, their meat and milk are used. Allah Almighty's blessings cannot be counted to the end. Yes.

Allah Almighty, without making known all the blessings He created, by showing people some of His blessings: eat of what Allah created. Eat. But do not follow Satan. He declares. Now let us give you an example. Like this: your child.

Say you put every kind of blessing before him. You show him every kind of thing.

You (?) him nothing.

But he never looks at what you give, he makes friends with your enemy. With your enemy. He makes friends with your mortal enemy. He makes friends with a person who is your mortal enemy. Now in this case, however much advice you give that child of yours, he, with the one who is your enemy, who is your enemy, makes friends, when he becomes his friend, and how much can you trust this child of yours, and wouldn't it hurt you, father? You feed him, give him drink, give him every means, and to the one who is your enemy, the one who is your enemy, he makes friends, he never listens to you. But he takes from you and eats and drinks.

He will always take from you and eat. So Allah Almighty too has created this universe. He feeds, He gives drink. But man turns his back on Allah. With that Satan who is our enemy, with Satan, making friends, he goes outside Allah's command and turns his back on Allah. Wouldn't this hurt Allah? Then what does He say? O man! In this transient one, in this world, within a passing life, you came to prove what kind of person you are. In this case, did you think you would live in the world forever? Every soul shall taste death. In the end, return and say this to Me, He says. Then I will settle your account.

Now do what you like, He says. The will is yours. The judgment is yours. Do whatever you want. Prove what kind of person you are. If you prove well, I have rewards for you, He says. In the abode of eternal paradise. In the abode of eternal bliss and peace. Eternally, very beautiful things I created, beyond your imagination, I will give you in your home, He says. But if you go outside My command, I will subject you to an eternal, endless punishment, He says. Within this short life, now, here's the challenge. Do whatever you will.

As I always say, use your reason.

Take your place not beside the enemies of Allah but beside Allah's (?). Yes. Allah Almighty does not use force on us in any way. He doesn't push us either. He doesn't say, work and give to Me too. What does He say in His verse? If I had said, work and give to Me, He says, this would be heavy for your generation. You would (?) and go, He says.

Yes. So what does Allah Almighty want from us?

Know that there is no god other than Me, He says. What's the big deal? You were created, you know this. You were created. Is there a god other than Allah? If there had been, what does it say anyway? That one would take what it created, the other would take what it created. The world would drown in corruption, it says. In corruption. Well then, in this case, in this case, will a person refrain, sir, from saying la ilaha illallah? Then we said: know all the prophets You sent as true, He says. Well of course, if you have said la ilaha illallah, you will know that prophet as true too. And the books, it says, don't deny them.

I gathered them all in the Quran. Accept that too, it says. All right. That is, then say this, He says. Say: Eşhedü en lâ ilâhe illallah ve eşhedü enne Muhammeden abduhû ve resûlüh, He says. Say it. If, He says, you pass to the hereafter like this, like this, even if you have sins, that faith will one day reach perfection. You will come out of hell, that place of punishment. If you say the testimony of faith like this and do good deeds in the world, He says, I too will grant you My paradise, He says. Well, is this a bad thing? That is, doing good, making people happy, let me tell you, helping people as much as you can, for Allah's sake not doing this to people, not thinking evil of them, this is anyway given by humanity, that is, of the qualities given to us, the qualities in people because of the creation of humanity.

Today what do they say of those who don't do these things? They say murderous souls, they say heartless. Isn't it so? Even people shun them. Well, if people shun them, Allah Almighty will shun them (?). So if you appear as human in forms unbefitting humanity, how will you come before Allah tomorrow? Yes. We will always use our reason. We will do what we do relying on our Lord's pleasure.

That means we will not follow Satan. Yes. When a person's stomach is full and he has money in his pocket, his nafs tries to push him onto evil paths. So man, Allah who created him, our Lord who knows very well what human characters desire, by showing us the path of His friends, the straight path, says: in return for so many blessings Allah gave, you give thanks to Allah. Give thanks to Allah. He has given so many blessings. He gave you health. He gave you life. Leave health aside. Indeed, the healthy and the unhealthy will tomorrow, at the Supreme Court, come before Allah Almighty. Perhaps for those sick ones it will be an atonement for the sins they committed.

Perhaps those sick ones, those sins, things, through their illnesses Allah's mercy will attain. That is, in this case, what seems to us a calamity may be for our good, and what seems good may be for our harm. Let us leave these aside. Best of all, He gave you a particle of His spirit and held you as one addressed by His essence. By His essence. Since there is no spirit in any being other than man, Allah Almighty, who created man as the most honored of creatures, if He held man as one addressed by His essence, is this not a great honor for man? Yes. So in return for this honor, will you not feel a debt of gratitude to Allah Almighty?

That is, that debt of gratitude is thanks. My Lord, praise and glory be to You. For creating me in a beautiful form, for holding me as one addressed by Your essence, for giving me a particle of Your essence, for creating me as the most honored of creatures, and finally, if I know You, without any effort of mine, only in return for my knowing You, in the hereafter preparing me for places of endless delight, praise and glory be to my Lord; hasn't the time come for people to say this? Yes.

So, by showing the path of His friends, the straight path, in return for so many blessings Allah gave, He says to you, give thanks to Allah. Give thanks. Otherwise, if you turn your back on Allah who gives these blessings and follow the temptation of the accursed one who has no right over you, he has no right over us, and he is our enemy. Yes, since he is a clear enemy to you, he will drag you to ruin; so He makes His verses clear to people. Yes, so a person for what he eats, what he drinks, the breath he takes, whatever state or situation he is in, will give thanks to Allah. Well, Hodja, I am burning, writhing in (?).

How can I give thanks? Bring Job, peace be upon him, before your eyes. He lay sick for forty years, forty years. Covered in wounds and sores. He loses his family members. His wife, O Job, you are a servant whom Allah loves. Please, she says. Pray and be rid of this illness, she says. Pray. He says to his wife: Doesn't my Lord see me? Doesn't my Lord know me? If I asked Him for health and well-being for myself, wouldn't that be shameful for me before my Lord? Wouldn't it be a disgrace? Toward my own nafs. My Lord knows me, he says. He lies like this for forty years. Forty years. Look at the patience, the patience.

Finally (?). He makes his wish to Allah Almighty. And our Lord frees him from those wounds. He gives him his family members back, twice over. So whatever state you are in, never take your Lord out of His due. Do not forget that we are in a world of testing. (?) the healthy one, the sick one, all will one day taste the death of the nafs, and according to the verse, your return is to Allah, we will come before the divine presence. Many healthy ones to hell, many sick ones to paradise. Many people, because of their patience, will attain their Lord's mercy, and many people, because of their impatience, will attain Allah's wrath.