Al-A'raf 28: Whenever they commit wrong, they say; “We have found our fathers on this path and Allah has ordered it on us.” Say; “Allah does not order the wrong. Are you saying things against Allah that you do not possess knowledge about?”

To Surah Al-A'raf, verse 28, we have come. When they commit an indecency, they say: We found our fathers on this path. And Allah commanded it to us, they say — Allah protect us. Look at the lie, the lie, the lie. That is, they use Allah as a tool. As if Allah told them, do that evil. Their fathers — what path were they on? In shirk, they worshipped idols. Or else, without heeding halal and haram, they swindled this one and that one. And these people saw their fathers on that path, or in immorality they saw them. They saw it there, and they use Allah as a tool for it too. And Allah commanded it to us, they say.

Say: Allah does not command indecency. Of course Allah does not command indecency. Do you say about Allah what you do not know? He says. How patient He is. How compassionately He treats people. Look, He does not scold them. He does not scold. Are you saying things you do not know, attributing them to Allah? He says. Because you do not know, He says. I sent you to the world. And I send scholars, books. I send prophets. But instead of (?) to Me, to your nafs, to what I called accursed, to Satan who is your enemy, you believe his whispering, He says. Use your reason, He says. Your reason. In this way, things you do not know, He says, do not attribute to Allah, He says.

Because Allah does not command indecency, He says. He does not scold man. Yes. Because the human nafs desires evil, people very quickly into evil ways slide. So they adopt the deeds that please their nafs and do them with pleasure. When you show such people the truth, they do not accept it. Because accepting the truth is heavy on their nafs. People who have made these evil ways their banner, who have taken devils as friends, exposed their private parts, associated partners with Allah, worshipping idols — they have become such people. Such people, deceiving poor and helpless people, are used to taking their property from their hands, usurping people's rights with interest, making unjust gains — that is who they are.

When the evils they commit are shown to them, when Allah's commands to them are conveyed, they say this: We found our forefathers on this way; Allah commanded us so, they say.

Allah commanded injustice, unfairness and shamelessness? That's what they say. Because it doesn't suit them.

Allah's command doesn't suit their interest. The reason is the pride, arrogance, grandeur, the whims of the nafs in them. When He said 'I am your Lord', our Lord, at that address Alastu bi-Rabbikum, to their own nafs it was heavy — why was it heavy to know Allah? They saw Him as like themselves. Because our Lord was in the form of a human. When He said, 'I am your Lord'. Therefore, since they saw grandeur, pride and arrogance in themselves, they waited for the Lord of their own imagination. How did they wait? He would descend from the sky and say to them with grandeur, I am your Lord — then, by frightening you, you would have obeyed Him; whereas Allah Almighty, valuing you, leaving you free to your own will, willed that His Being be known.

Now, Him making you worship Him by frightening you, by oppression or by torture is one thing; you being (?) to the One who created you of your own desire and wish, your knowing Him, is another. So, if We had wished, He says, We would have descended from the sky with clouds, with angels, He says, descended from the clouds and made you prostrate, He says. He knows people's feelings. What they expect, what kind of god they expect. Yes.

Well, Allah does not command indecency. Do you say about Allah what you do not know? What makes them speak like this is their nafs and the devils who are their nafs' friends. That make them speak that way. It doesn't suit them, because (?). That, in the first barzakh, we say. In our lesson.

Yes. As He created you at first, so you will return to Him, He says. As He created you at first, so you will return to Him. Where did Allah Almighty first create us?

Allah Almighty created us as spirit, nafs and life. As He created you at first, He says, look. The first creation. Then people think the first creation is our father Adam and our mother Eve. The first creation. What does He say? Pay attention. As He created you at first, so you will return to Him.

As He first created us from our mother Eve, from our mother Eve — will we return with a body to Him? To Allah Almighty.

Well, Hodja, of course it will go with the body too into Allah Almighty's presence. Bodies will go into Allah Almighty's presence, but when the bodies are paired, when the souls are paired, He says. It will not enter into the body. When you come into My presence with a driver, He says. He will revive our bodies as witnesses. So, in the way We first created you, He says. As We created you at first, so you will return to Him. That is, as spirit, nafs and life, you will leave the bodies. In the form of the first creation, He says, you will return. In the form of the first creation. Just as, while still in the world, before being clothed in flesh and bone, being created in the realm of Lahut, making the covenant at the address Alastu bi-Rabbikum, our soul taken up to the barzakh, as our soul waited in that barzakh, to the world — when the time came and we came to the world, our being clothed in a body is not our first form of creation.

It is our first creation in the world. That is, in a body, in the world. Rather, the first creation is the realm of the hereafter. Spirit, nafs and life. That is what He means here too. As He created you at first, so you will return to Him, He says. yes, from this body we will be stripped away.