Al-A'raf 101: Those nations; We are informing you about some of the news about them. Verily, their Prophets had brought to them clear proofs. But they were not to believe in truths that they had denied before. This is how the infidels have made Allah seal their hearts.

Surah Al-A'raf, we have come to verse 101, praise be to Allah. 'Those are the lands; of their stories We relate to you some' – some of them. 'Indeed, their prophets had brought them clear proofs, but they were not going to believe in the truths they had denied before. Thus do the disbelievers have their hearts sealed by Allah.' You see, the mistakes interpreted one after another, we correct like this. By telling people about some of the lands He destroyed, Allah Almighty wants people to take a lesson from these events.

The state of some peoples He tells us. The people of Saleh, the people of Ad, the people of Hud, the people of Lot, Pharaoh, the people of Thamud – by telling us how it was, how Noah's flood came about – that we take lessons from the past and that the universe is not without an owner, that Allah Almighty, like the boss of a factory, is the Owner of the universe and aware of everything – this He tells us so beautifully.

The world, it says, is a factory.

A factory. The people on it are workers. And its Owner is Allah. So if the owner of that factory is not aware of that factory, that factory goes bankrupt. Allah is such an Allah that from deficient attributes He is free. He is aware of every particle of this universe. That is why Allah creates what He creates firmly; He is aware of what He firmly created, and they are not without an owner. But when it comes to people, people, in the lives they live, within their own nafs, think themselves unaccountable. 'Allah never sees, knows, or hears these things.' According to their own reason, casting Allah's commands behind them, deifying their nafs, they try to carry on their lives.

In this case, with that partial reason of theirs, from calamity to calamity, from trouble to trouble they fall. But since they know nothing of peace, like the zaqqum, that bitter bud blooming in the swamp, their lives they see as rosy.

If a person could compare his own life with the truth, if he could compare his life outside Islam, he would see the truth as very beautiful. These talks of ours weigh heavily on people. But this is the word of the Truth. Look, I want to share with you a dream I had. With you.

I didn't want to tell this, but not for pride, not for a whim of the nafs, but as an example I will tell it. With our heart's surrender to our Lord, with our explaining His verses, with our trying to remove superstitions from the religion, after the lesson I gave you on Saturday evening, I see a dream at night.

May Allah turn it to good. I am in Medina al-Munawwara. The blessed tomb of the Prophet had not been repaired since very old times. It stands like that, in its old form. Let's say (?) about 200–300 years, about 200 years, about 150–200 years – in such a time it had never been repaired.

I repair that place very beautifully. Very beautifully. At its wall here, I say, let me pray a couple of rak'ahs. There is a place there where the Prophet prayed. I say, let me pray two rak'ahs. On the floor, all lace work. Just as I am about to start the prayer, I see writing on the wall. Raised letters, about this big. Written in red and with wires. Maybe gold writing, I don't know.

On the top plate it says 'The Light of the Age'. The Light of the Age. Below it, very beautiful majuscule writing. It says 'The Lamp of the Time'. The Lamp of the Time. These words don't feel foreign to me, but I said: I wonder what it is? And below it, 'Abdülmetin' is written. At that moment I fall into prostration, I weep. 'My Allah,' I say, 'praise and glory be to You for granting me this,' I say. Now, is the Prophet's house old? In the world it was built expensively. His house is his faith, his religion. For 150–200 years superstitions have entered the religion, superstitions. Our removing these superstitions – that is his house, his faith, his religion.

And how beautifully our Lord shows it there. The Light of the Age, the Lamp of the Time, Abdülmetin. Yes. So this world is not empty. Allah is just toward what you do. He will surely give you its reward. Yes. Just be sincere. Your state and your actual deeds, your tongue and your actual deeds, your actual deeds and your tongue (?). Yes.

'Those are the lands; We relate to you some of their stories. Indeed, their prophets had brought them clear proofs. But they were not going to believe in the truths they had denied before. Thus do the disbelievers have their hearts sealed by Allah.'

By telling people about some of the lands He destroyed, Allah Almighty wants people to take lessons from these events. Yes, I too, by relating to you the dream I saw just like this, say it so that you take a lesson. My sincerity toward you, my devotion to Allah, and in the religion, my explaining the verses that never contradict one another always by supporting them with one another. My removing from the religion the things that ascribe attributes to Allah Almighty, and my taking a stand against superstitions. All the superstitions together, and I alone, with Allah behind me, my telling the truth without looking at any of them – this is a lesson for you too.

Yes. I am not daunted. I am not daunted. My Lord gives strength to my heart. Yes.

He wants people to take a lesson from these events. Indeed, although the prophets brought them clear proofs, these peoples who overstepped the bounds were not going to believe in the truths they had denied before. Everyone has a destiny. Everyone will live that destiny. Yes.

A question like this may come to our mind. From what we see, people later regretted the evils they had done before, saying 'remorse'. Among these destroyed peoples too, were there none who, saying 'remorse' for their sins, would obey Allah? we say. (?) it comes to our mind. It comes to my mind. Yes. And then after that we give its answer. Was injustice not done to them this way? These are the points we have wanted to explain since the beginning of the first volume.

If people can grasp the situation I will now explain again, they will realize that Allah is free from deficient attributes and how much (?) injustice Allah would do.

At Kalû belâ, while people were souls, Allah Almighty, with these souls, with these souls made a covenant. Moreover, so that His essence would be known, a reason was given to the soul as (?). What is this reason? Aql-i maad. The aql-i maad in the souls. We call this aql-i maad. Through this reason, the program of speech was loaded onto this reason, so that when people were exposed to Allah's address, they could perceive and understand the word of their Lord; so that when they made the covenant with Allah, the thing that straightens the will, that is, the freedom and authority given to their own intents, they could use with their own will.

How clearly (?) these are. Yes. Allah Almighty gave man a soul as a part of His essence. Through this soul Allah created man as the likeness of His essence.

For this reason, while people were making the covenant with Allah, when exposed to Allah Almighty's address 'I am your Lord', there they could not believe that Allah was Allah. Allah, who leaves everyone free in their will – everyone. Allah, who leaves them free in their own will.

Yes.

What do we say? When they were exposed to the address 'I am your Lord', that is, for this reason, while people were making the covenant with Allah, when exposed to Allah Almighty's address 'I am your Lord', they could not believe there that Allah was Allah. Why? Because since He gave a part of His essence, people too were created with the attribute of essence. As our Lord stood before them with the attribute of essence too, and since people were waiting for the Lord they expected in their own imaginations, that Allah Almighty who created them and stood before them they could not recognize, and they waited for the Lord of their imaginations.

So these will not see their Lord. The verse comes from there anyway. Yes. Allah, who leaves everyone free in their will, according to the souls' intents there made the covenant. This verse, later in Surah Al-A'raf, verse 172, will be explained in more detail, we said. We have been telling you from the start anyway; our students know these things we talk about very well. Surah Al-A'raf, verse 172 – when we come to that verse they will not be strangers to it. And they will understand it even better, inshallah.

Yes. So, the covenants given there, the times chosen, the same mindsets together – for the progress of their own lives, people who chose the same times have gathered together. The same mindsets. As we said, 'We made you peoples and tribes on earth so that you may know one another' – according to this verse, Allah Almighty, since He knows in which people each person will best define himself, brings them into those peoples; within those mindsets, those persons, living their own lives, make themselves witnesses before those around them, before themselves and before Allah Almighty even better. So, the covenants given there, the times chosen, the same mindsets together – for the continuation of their own lives, people who chose the same times have been gathered together.

Among them there are also a small number of people who will obey Allah and His Messenger. They too chose the same times by their own wish. These people, as proofs of Allah's existence against the wrongdoers, with people the unbelievers being separated, are being tested against one another in the realm of Mulk. And among them, since the believers follow Allah and the Prophet, Allah Almighty saves them from among the polytheists; the others, all of them, are people who rebel against Allah, revolt and overstep the bounds. In the continuation of this verse we understand that this is so. When it says 'they were not going to believe in the truths they had denied before,' Allah Almighty, who, when He made the covenant with them, gave everyone's intent

to them as destiny – Allah Almighty informs us that these will not believe in His verse. Because He gave them their desires as destiny. Allah Almighty, who knows with His eternal knowledge what they will do, says, 'They are not going to believe.' What we call eternal knowledge: at Kalû belâ, in the (?) of the covenant, Allah Almighty, who wrote their wishes and desires, their intents, as destiny for them, and according to those destinies (?) characters – Allah Almighty informs us of these. Among these destroyed peoples there are none who will believe. For this reason Allah, who is free from deficient attributes, just as He never errs toward created beings, since He Himself is perfect, there is never any error in Allah Almighty.

'Thus do the disbelievers have their hearts sealed.' This verse too proves what we explained above. Allah, who gives everyone their own intent as destiny and with partial will leaves man free in his own will – these people, in the direction of their own wishes and desires, have had their hearts sealed themselves. Otherwise Allah does not seal the heart of whom He wills on His own; whoever asked Allah to seal his heart, He sealed that one's heart. Allah Almighty says that these people, because they did not believe in Allah and the Prophet, by their own desire had their hearts sealed.