Al-An'am 153: Verily, this is My straight path, so follow it. Do not follow (other) paths, for those paths will lead you astray from Allah’s path. Allah has ordered you with these so that you will abstain.

Surah Al-An'am, verse 153: "Surely this is My straight path," He says. Look how beautifully Allah Almighty says it. What is that straight path? He lists it, you know: do not associate partners with Allah; mother and father — let me tell you — do not go against them, and weigh with the scale, the balance, correctly; do not take lives unjustly. Uh, surely, He says, this is Mine, for you to find peace, a straight path. If you step outside these, you'll be caught by stress, fall into depressions, and your heart will darken. You will make this transient world a dungeon for yourselves, He says. A dungeon.

Yes, surely this is My straight path. Follow it. Do not follow other paths. What are those other paths? What Satan shows you, what your nafs tempts you to, what it lusts for — such things. The world appears attractive to man. It pulls you into a swamp. Things like gambling, alcohol, adultery, interest seem pleasant to man. Falsely, with a passion for (?), gossiping about people, backbiting, uh, picking at people (?) — these seem pleasant to people; they are the whims of the nafs. The whims of the nafs, the claim of ego, the claim of pride and arrogance. And then regrets, regrets and regrets. Yes.

So that you may guard yourselves, Allah has commanded you these, He says. Guard against these. Is it hard, He says? Is there anything to these things He says? Does He want anything from us? In words, He says: do these. That is, prove yourself. Prove to Me that you've taken your place in My ranks. I know, He says, what state you are in. When I give you a position before those around you, let Me make you, He says, a witness to them, He says. A witness to those people. Let Me show what you did, He says, let Me make you a witness, so that in the hereafter, to Allah, Allah's attribute, they won't say, "Look, what did this one do that You gave him this?" So they won't say that.

And in the verse He says, I have made you witnesses over the other communities, and your Prophet over the other prophets, He says. I will make you witnesses, He says. So if we are all witnesses to each other, in this world we'll be careful about the words that come out of our mouths. And we'll be careful about how we live. Whether we turn to the truth or not, by the words from our mouths and the deeds we have done, we'll act weighing ourselves. Yes. That's it. If we act on whatever comes to mind, if with whatever pleases our nafs, uh, we get involved, we forget our own selves. We forget our existence.

Man was created intelligent and capable. In this case he will keep his place.

Yes. Allah Almighty — that the sharia He made known with His verses and His path is a straight path, that there is no other path besides it — declares it to people. Declares it. Good people. There is no other god besides Allah that you might follow and that would bring you to salvation. Yes.

So, since there is no god other than Allah who created you, the path of Allah, who makes known to you His advice and commands, is a straight path. The path of sharia. Allah's path. Not going outside it. Not getting attached to other than Allah. Not seeking help from other than Allah.

Yes. A person may do you a kindness.

You'll think of it like this. First you'll thank that person. If he did you a kindness. You'll say, thank you. Then you'll think to yourself like this. If my Lord intended to give this to me from his hand, He gave it. From his hand — you didn't take it from him. That cause — he was made the cause. It was within your destiny; He made him a cause for you.

So the person who gave you that property or did that kindness, because he did you a kindness, as fulfilling your human duty, that person you'll thank. But you didn't take it from him, you took it from Allah. You didn't take it from that person. Allah gave it to that person too; he was a trustee, he returned it to you. We were tested with each other; he got his reward, and I got the reward for thinking this way. But if, because I got property from him, because he did me a kindness, I see him as my lord and master and try to do everything he says, if I forget the One who gives to you, if I forget the Owner of those goods, the Giver, that's not right now.

now a person helps another person. Here, he says. Charity, for example.

That person takes it.

The one who gives that charity, and even the one who does good to the person in front of him, will think like this:

Allah had me give this to him. I gave for Allah. I gave for Allah. The giver thinks like this, and the receiver too will think like this: Not him — Allah had this given to me, he'll say. Now since the receiver and the giver are both for Allah, they both earn reward, and since they mention their (?), Allah Almighty's given sustenance, since they give thanks for it, they get a separate reward. Allah Almighty says one to three, one to five, one to seven, one to seventy, you know — these rewards. According to people's deeds, of course. So, if both the one who receives a kindness and the one who does it, (?) "Allah gave it to me," and the other, "Allah had me give it" — if they think so, they don't assume a lowliness toward each other.

That is, they feel no smallness at all. That one — in the one receiving help. And the other feels no boasting toward him. In this way, Islam is brotherhood. They are bound by the chain of brotherhood bonds. Just as the beads of a rosary are tied to one head bead, they are all tied to Allah.

Yes.

(?) Allah's path is a straight path.

You made them up in your heads, and, carving with your hands objects Allah created, the idols you produced are things that cannot speak, that are of no use even to themselves. Those senseless ones commit shirk with your lords they imagine, you know; supposedly into that idol they put it, with their own hands, with their own hands; however he imagined it, that idol he makes that way, sits before it and worships. What people there are today! They worship rivers, the Ganges River. When they go in there and bathe, they are cleansed of their sins. Rats, monkeys — don't they worship them? What is there not?

Which reason are they serving? They have no reason at all. So when they made the covenant with Allah Almighty, their intentions, those thoughts, were intended such — they themselves intended it — that to them such destinies, such characters were inscribed, and they, what they desired, whose script they prepared in the world too, uh, that script, as actors, they carry out in the world, they play it, they prove themselves, it seems. They can't get out of that world, they can't think. Yes.

In this case, making what Allah made lawful for yourselves forbidden, forbidden, and what He made forbidden lawful, do not worship idols, He says. Idols. Now, what Allah Almighty made lawful and what He made forbidden He makes known to us. Yes, (?) to them: what has Allah forbidden? If you have witnesses, bring them. If they testify, don't follow them, He says. In the end He will say, come here now. On the Day of Judgment. "You said this, didn't you. Call that witness of yours, let's see." Those witnesses will say, O Allah. Those idols they worshipped will come to speak. "O Allah, we were not even aware they worshipped us.

They are lying," they will say. Yes. They will testify against themselves.

In fact, neither Allah nor your idols told you these lawful and forbidden things. They are your own fabrications, keeping your own interests in view. Keeping their own interests in view, people who provide benefit to themselves. In this case, with Allah's lawful and forbidden, calling the forbidden lawful and the lawful forbidden, saying "Allah says so," for their own benefit, their (?) of the world. Beneath these fabrications of yours, in reality (?) idols, appearing to worship your own fabrications, are you aware that you are deifying your own nafs? In fact you too know they're an idol, they're of no use to you, but since your nafs shows it to you so adorned, in fact your seeming to worship an idol is your worshipping with your own nafs.

Yes. Those who deify their nafs.

O idolaters, you too know very well that they can neither harm nor benefit you, those idols; but to distance yourselves from Allah, to be with what pleases your nafs, also following Satan's temptation, the objects you wear, counting them as good luck for worldly benefits, are all things Allah created. Yes. Your benefit in the world — according to the verse that Allah Almighty does not load on man a burden he cannot bear — in the book of (?), what you wish, your desire and intention, written for you as destiny, all of it is within your destiny; Allah Almighty, in return for His testing over you, in return for witnessing what kind of person you are, while you're alive, with abundance, and within your destiny with hardships, with privations, with sufferings He tests you. And you go and sit before the idol, ask from it in that moment of suffering, and when Allah Almighty brings you to abundance — when you reach abundance, your saying "Look, I begged my idol, my god saved me" — that is beyond reason. Yes.

So, leaving the crooked and evil paths, come to Allah's straight path so that Allah, who created the worlds, brings you to salvation. Come to that straight path. Repent once. What will you say? O Allah, I lived in ignorance, my eyes blind. Far from my own self, far from the longing of humanity, in a swamp of a world I spent my life. But now, that there is no god but You, that there is no other door to go to but You — I have realized it. My Lord, You are our (?), loving, (?), abundant Lord. I have turned to You. With my soul, my heart, my feelings, with all my will and wish I believed there is no other door than You, and I turned to You.

"For me, (?) is enough, O Allah" — once I have said that, that Allah — it is impossible that He would not forgive you. Impossible. Yes. Our Lord wants that anyway. Why does He want it? We were created in pain. He intended our Lord to be known. That's why He also created our reason incomplete. And He shows us the paths.

For from this straight path of Allah (?). The paths sought by people who seek paths for themselves distance them from Allah's straight path. Then they find for themselves neither a helper nor an intercessor. For themselves. They, in the hereafter, when Allah Almighty lifts His mercy from over them — mercy —

they will be without anyone and alone there. Without anyone.

Isn't Allah their owner? If Allah Almighty had there used both being their owner and His mercy, there would be no torment for them. So when mercy is lifted, as the recompense of what they did, because they did not know Allah and because they will never be able to know Allah eternally, there they are eternally alone. Eternally alone. Again Allah Almighty says, there they, after burning for many thousands of years and suffering torment, many thousand years, many thousand years of the hereafter, will no longer taste or feel, He says. Just as in the world people are put to sleep with morphine during surgery, they cut, they slice, and they don't feel the pain, Allah Almighty too, it seems, will remove their nerve sensations.

That's what He means when He says they will remain eternal logs of hell, you know. They won't feel the pain, but they'll remain as logs of hell. Then let's say this world's life, its pleasure and delight, even every kind of blessing, every kind of golden palace, satin sails, vineyards, gardens, rivers, treasure chests full of gold — so what if you have them? In the end — "Or do you own even an atom of the world?" He says. "If that were so, you would be given nothing of your world." Every soul shall taste death. The inheritance of the heavens and the earth will remain to Allah. So all these blessings will again remain to your Lord. He created them. And you, with torment, will be honored.

Is that reasonable?

Which reason, which weight — this scale of reason, comparing the world's blessings with the hereafter, leans toward the world's blessings? Which reason? Do you know which reason leans that way? The minds that deny Allah. So, O man, never compromise on your Lord. This is a world of trial. We'll pass through here and go. Think of your tomorrow. Just as you think about your future in the world and prepare for it, don't forget to prepare for the eternal abode of bliss of the hereafter too. Yes.

Thus does Allah explain His verses. To whom? To people. Thus He explains. So that people may think and reflect. That is: why did I come to this world? Why was I created? What is my duty — we think.

The commands from verse 151 up to here are called the 10 commandments or 10 bequests. 10 bequests. These exist in the sharias of all the prophets. What they said exists in the sharias of all the prophets. Yes.