Al-A'raf 65: And to the nation of A’ad, We have sent their brother Hud. He said; “Oh my people! Worship Allah. You have no deity but Allah. Are you not going to abstain?”

Surah Al-A'raf, verse 65. And to the people of Ad We sent their brother Hud, Hud (peace be upon him). However much Hud (peace be upon him) warned his people, he could not draw them to Allah, to the path of Allah. So when his people overstepped the limits Allah had set, Allah Almighty destroyed that people. What does it say here in the verse? To the center of a town We will destroy, He says, to the center of that town We will destroy, unless We first warn its transgressing leader, We do not destroy that town, He says. So, although Allah Almighty, through prophets, made Himself known in person to those transgressing peoples by warning them, because they deified their own nafs, they did not heed Allah's word.

With the whims and pride of the nafs, with their arrogance and haughtiness, they saw their own existence above everything, and they looked down on those soft-hearted people who say 'Allah', whose hearts are filled with love of Allah. And by establishing dominance over them, they set about tormenting them. And overstepping the bounds, they set out to destroy Allah's line, called decency, called good manners; they set out to. So Allah Almighty destroyed them. The people of Hud, the people of Lot too; the people of Lot, the homosexuals. They too were destroyed in this way. Pharaoh's people, the people of Thamud: although Allah Almighty warned them all through His prophets, they went to excess.

They stepped outside Allah's command. So they deserved destruction. Yes. And to the people of Ad We sent their brother Hud. He said: O my people, serve Allah. You have no god other than Him. Will you still not guard yourselves, he says. They used to worship gods they made with their own hands. Did these people have no minds? They did. Because Allah gave minds to everyone. What does He say? Do you not use your minds at all? So a person who does not use his mind is a foolish person. So there is a mind, but he does not use it. When they do not use their minds, people who take no lesson from the past are fools.

Those who take no lesson from their past. So since Allah Almighty sent people to an unseen world, He set out to show them the truth through signs, that is, through books, or through prophets. It was an unseen world. Because they, since the world of the hereafter was veiled to them, would start from zero in the outward world. So although Allah Almighty sent messengers, books, prophets, scholars to show them the truth, people did not use their minds and turned their backs on Allah's verses. The reason: because they deified their nafs. In this world? Actually in the world of the hereafter. Have you not seen the one who has deified his nafs, He says.

Allah Almighty declares to the Prophet (peace be upon him): My Beloved, do not mind their calling you a liar. In their time they betrayed Me too, He says. What does it mean that in their time they betrayed Me too? At the address 'Elest-ü bi Rabbiküm'. When He said 'I am your Lord', they waited for the Lord of their own imagination. Out of pride and arrogance toward Allah Almighty, whom they saw as like themselves, they did not believe that He was Allah. So (?) they will not be able to see their Lord, He says. That is, there is no god other than Allah such that the Lord they nurtured in their own imagination they could see.

Yes.

And to the people of Ad, one from among them, their own brother, or else: prophets are in the position of the elders and fathers of their peoples; those who are in his spirit, those who are of his spirit, Allah Almighty sent as prophets. To his people who were in error, Hud (peace be upon him) said: O my people! Serve Allah! Will you still not guard yourselves? he said. As for such people, with regard to their hereafter, with regard to their covenants, the covenants they gave as captives of their nafs are all more or less the same as one another. More or less. And this is the meaning of the verse.

Although little time had passed since the destruction of the others, I mean, since the people We destroyed, how they resembled their forefathers, He says. Because the covenants are the same. Of course he will follow in his forefather's footsteps. What does Allah Almighty say? Even if their forefathers knew nothing at all, He says? They will follow their footsteps, He says. Yes. Indeed, had the covenants they gave not been the same, would they worship what they made with their hands, what they made, as gods, and, for things that pleased them by their own reckoning, saying 'Allah commanded this', would they become people who impute guilt to Allah?

Allah commanded it so. By their own reckoning they (?) Allah. With their hands they (?) the beings Allah created. They bring that spirit. They put Allah's spirit inside it too. Then they stand in prostration before what they made for their houses, they worship it. Oh, what a fine country.

Man is eşref-i mahluk. That is, the most honorable among created beings. Among created beings. That is, animate and inanimate. Whatever Allah Almighty has created, he is the most honorable of it. The reason: because He gave him a part of His spirit. So while you are the most honorable being, a lowly piece of matter that Allah created you (?) with your hand, and go and worship it. Where has your honor as eşref-i mahluk gone?

Do you never use your mind? Yes.

So these people, in terms of mindset and the whims of the nafs, are the same sinful people who chose the same time. And since Allah Almighty is just and will hold no one responsible without having informed them, He sends prophets to these people in the world of mulk, informing them, in an unseen world, of His existence. What we call an unseen world: this outward world, the world of this earth, in which He will not be seen, an unseen world. Why a world in which He will not be seen? I said it before, but it is worth repeating. Because there are new children of ours joining our lessons. They cannot know.

At that address 'Elest-ü bi Rabbiküm', when all spirits became three classes, the ezvâc that would come to one another, that is, generation. Three classes. Fe ashâbü'l-meymeneti mâ ashâbü'l-meymeneh, those of the right. Ve ashâbü'l-meş'emeti mâ ashâbü'l-meş'emeh, those of the left. O you of the left, woe to you. Ve's-sâbikûne's-sâbikûn. The third group, the group of the Sâbikûn. The group of the saints, the prophets, the martyrs, the witnesses. Now, before them Allah Almighty says 'I am your Lord', and man, to whom He gave a part of His form, He created as the mir'at of His essence, that is, created him as His mirror; and man there, those deniers, awaiting the Lord of their own imagination and turning their backs on Allah out of the arrogance of their nafs, so that those people would not say to Allah Almighty: 'O Lord, had You sent us to the unseen world, had You not shown Your essence, and Your essence that You did not show, had You made it known to us, we would have worshipped You', for this Allah created these worlds.

Because Allah Almighty is free of deficient attributes. No one will be able to call Allah Almighty to account. If Allah Almighty had said there right away, according to their states, 'You are for Paradise, and you are for Hell', He would have been ascribed an attribute. 'How should I know that You created me?' 'Because all of a sudden I come into being.' 'Within that coming into being You say: I created you.' 'How should I know?' 'How should I know?' See what a fine order Allah Almighty has established. Come on then: for the time you would say 'how should I know', I, He says, all those thoughts of yours, that they are deficient thoughts, I will prove with signs upon you, He says. How will He prove it?

He will create these worlds, bring us into the world, and by a mother and father have us raised with cooing and coddling, prepare good grounds around us, then He will say: come on now. 'You have reached maturity. Now let us see you know your Lord,' He will say. And according to your covenant there, you will do the same thing in the world too. Because there you had your script written. Here you will play that script as an actor. Yes.

Allah Almighty, since Allah Almighty is just, and since without informing (?) He will hold no one responsible, He sends prophets to these people in the world of mulk, informing them of His existence in an unseen world. So, with Hud (peace be upon him) introducing their Lord to his people, although Hud (peace be upon him) introduced Allah Almighty to them, these people, in keeping with the covenants they gave, still stubbornly opposing their prophet increased their insolence. To all the prophets those people of meager intellect, (?) people, said the same thing. You too are a human like us. Who are you? they said.

Or, as with the prophet Salih: 'We felt you were someone of promise, but you too have gone astray,' as they said.

The Prophet (peace be upon him), who came as a mercy to the worlds, they too called possessed, called mad; they even said 'madmen', that is. When he went to Taif, they stoned his feet and made blood flow from his feet. Well, everyone will live out their covenant. As a result of the covenant they gave, in the world people will prove what kind of people they are. In the verse Allah Almighty says so. Did you think you would die without proving what kind of people you are, He says.