Al-A'raf 176: If he had desired, he surely would have elevated himself with these verses. But he was stuck in this worldly life and followed his desires. His situation has a resemblance to that of a dog. If you approach it, it will take out its tongue and pant, if you leave it, it will take out its tongue and pant. This is the situation of people who deny Our verses. Tell them about this history so that they will contemplate.

In the last lesson the one who coveted the world and, the people who wanted him to curse Moses — taken in by the words of those people, cursed Moses and was damned, or was condemned to an eternal life in hell: we gave information about him. In one narration this is Ba'ura, in another, certain other people.

So Allah Almighty, in verse 176, says the following. This has been interpreted wrongly; we have corrected it.

Perhaps: if We had willed, We would surely have raised him through these verses. He has sent the verses to people anyway, so that those people would find the truth through these verses. Allah Almighty saying: if He had willed, with these verses We would have brought him to guidance — uh, saying We would have raised him — amounts to saying He makes adjustments among people, raising whomever He wants, raising whomever He wants, which means taking partial free will away from people. So this is not how this verse should be interpreted.

What does it say? If We had willed, We would surely have raised him through these verses. But he clung to the world and followed his desires. His condition is just like the condition of a dog, it says. Uh, let us correct the opening phrase. If he had willed, if he had willed, We would surely have raised him through these verses. Not "if We had willed"; when it is "if We had willed", Allah Almighty is ascribed a deficient attribute. When it is "if he had willed" — since there were verses before him through which to see the truth, since people's own wishes, desires and aims have become their destiny, and since, as to how people will really behave, Allah Almighty sent them into this state to make them witnesses against themselves, then this person — not "if We had willed", by Allah Almighty's command, but "if he had willed", if by his own wish and desire he had turned to that truth, he would surely have risen to the level of these verses.

Yes, so if people had willed, if they had sought Allah's verses, since through these verses Allah's command would be obeyed, Allah would have raised these people in rank and made them heirs to His paradise, we have said. Now, if it were "if We had willed", what would happen? This would change. When it is "if We had willed", it means: We raise whom We will in this way. Now I am giving the meaning of "if We had willed". We raise whom We will in this way. Through these verses, they toward Us, with these verses — if We had willed, We would have raised him. But We were hostile to him, or We did not love him. And from this, that he was bad — the acts of worship he did for Us, through them We (?) them.

Because I did not love him, I brought him down in the face of these verses — that is what He would be saying then. What happens then? Allah Almighty is ascribed a deficient attribute. Now, this is what "if We had willed" amounts to in meaning. What does "if We had willed" mean? We would have raised him through these verses. But I did not take into account the worship he did for Me. Because I did not love him. That is why I debased him. That is what it would mean; Allah would be ascribed a deficient attribute. But if it is "if he had willed", look what happens. If people had willed, if they had sought Allah's verses, then, since through these verses Allah's command would be obeyed, Allah would have raised these people in rank and made them heirs to His paradise.

But people clung to the world. The fleeting blessings of the world seemed pleasing to people. The whims of the nafs and the seduction of Iblis, deceiving people by making the world look rosy, helped people cling to this repugnant and base world and be deceived by it. Yes, this repugnant world. I mean low — let's not say makruh, rather base, of no use in the world of the hereafter. Yes.

And if a person's aim is to belong to Allah, these events have made him return to his origin. People come into the world in four states. They come in four states. One: comes in Islam, lives in Islam, leaves in Islam. Two: comes in Islam, lives in kufr, leaves in Islam. Three: comes in Islam, lives in Islam, leaves in kufr. Four: comes in Islam, lives in kufr, leaves in kufr. Hodja, now your words have contradicted each other. How did they contradict? Well, if the word we gave in the world of the hereafter was rebellious, and if a child is known in the mother's womb as wretched or God-fearing, you have had them all come in Islam; now, does that work?

Yes. It works. Now we will explain it to you. If you see the human being as spirit, nafs and soul, as one, and bring him into this world of yours in this way too, then what you say contradicts itself. But if you clothe him in a body in the world — since the body is your horse, since it is a driver, since this starts from zero, those worlds are closed. Those worlds are closed. What did we say? One must understand this point well. After our spirits made the covenant, His raising them to (?). When coming into the world, from Jabarut, uh, to the barzakh He raises them. Coming from the world of barzakh into this world: the world of Jabarut, the world of Malakut and the earthly world.

The world of Jabarut, uh, the world of nearness: the sovereign spirit. The world of Malakut: the spiritual spirit. The earthly world: the bodily spirit. Some call it the animal spirit. Now, if it is the bodily spirit, in this body those worlds are closed, so that, (?), closing and closing, it comes. We explained this in earlier lessons. So all bodies, all the people created on the earth, come upon the fitra of Islam. Because bodies are our horse, in the way we wish we will steer it — we will steer it. Just as you ride a horse with the reins in your hand and steer it where you want, or you get into a car and take it where you want, our bodies are exactly like that.

So all bodies were given on the fitra of Islam, that is, to be obedient to the spirit.

These bodies that come on the fitra of Islam, these bodies that come obedient — what do we say? Comes in Islam, lives in Islam, leaves in Islam. Bodies are on the fitra of Islam, and if the one coming from there is in Islam too, he lived in Islam, he left in Islam. Second: comes in Islam, lives in kufr, leaves in Islam. Again these bodies; uh, if the spirit there also comes in Islam, then to this body that has come on Islam, even if it is in the world of kufr, even if it lives in kufr, in the end it finds the truth, and since it will return to the truth, it leaves from there in Islam. It lives in kufr as a body.

Or, with the spirit steering that body that way, through good deeds and sins, it returns to its origin. In the end it leaves. It leaves in Islam. Comes in Islam, lives in Islam, leaves in kufr. These bodies are in the world of Islam. And the one who comes, if (?) kufr, even if living in Islam in this body, in the end, since he will return to his origin, leaves in kufr. Comes in Islam, lives in kufr, leaves in kufr: there too these bodies come on Islam; that kufr comes upon this body of Islam, that is, upon this body that will be obedient to it; he is in a land of kufr anyway, again lives in kufr, again leaves in kufr.

One must understand this point well. When you come into My presence with a driver, it says. This driver, this driver: when you come into My presence with a driver, that is, with a body, what will happen? We will now silence your mouths, bind your feet, and make your hands speak. And the spirit will (?) the body: why are you speaking against me? And it will say: the one who makes me speak — Allah makes me speak. What will it do? It will bear its witness to Us. So these bodies that come on the fitra of Islam were given obedient to the spirit. Obedient to the spirit. If the bodies had not been given obedient to the spirit, that is, if the spirit had not brought this body under its rule, Allah Almighty would be ascribed a deficient attribute, and the spirit would say, that person would say: You could not set right the body You gave me, so it dragged me into its own world. I pulled it this way, it went that way.

What was I to do in that case? From struggling with this, (?) — he would say this, I mean. But just like a horse, like a car, so as to go wherever you wish — at your command one hundred percent, on condition of obeying without the slightest shortfall, this body was given. In fact, the body governs the whole body, every cell, like a spider's web. Yes.

I suppose this point is understood this way.

The states of coming in Islam, living, and leaving in Islam are understood by these four states. To make these a bit clearer: we say coming on the fitra of Islam concerns the bodies. If we read the verses carefully, none of the statements made must contradict any other. If verses are explained so that they contradict one another, then of these commentaries one or the other, uh, has been interpreted wrongly, which means a lack of knowledge in the person. Yes. Even if it seemed good to a person's mind — as we said before, spirit, nafs and soul are one; the flesh is separate. Death concerns the bodies.

When it is said every nafs will taste death, this means the nafs, soul and spirit do not die, but taste the pain of the body as it dies. If the spirit, nafs and soul were to die too, this tasting of death would no longer apply. What does it say? Every nafs will taste death. So, since soul, spirit and nafs are (?), they are immortal. There is no death for spirits. If there were death for spirits, a question like this could also come to mind: Is our Lord, too, mortal? Yet what does the verse say? Our Lord, who is the universal spirit: Hüve'l-evvelü ve'l-âhiru ve'z-zâhiru ve'l-bâtın. Since He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, since He is living, since He holds the attribute of al-Hayy, since He subsists by His own essence, there is no death upon Him.

So, since spirits are a part of Him, there is no death for spirits either. So it is the bodies that die. Yunus Emre says so too. Souls are not mortal, bodies are mortal, he says. Yes.

The verse is like this. Rather, when it is said every nafs will taste death, the death of bodies is meant. So spirit, nafs and soul are one, the flesh is separate. With the death of our bodies, it is the nafs and soul tasting the pain of the body's dying. Having understood this much, we say: having understood this much — in a hadith, we said, while a child is in the mother's womb it is known whether it is wretched or God-fearing. How is it known? It is known from Allah's covenant with people at Qalu Bala, we said. Then if a person is rebellious, how does he come on the fitra of Islam? This is the important point, the point that must be understood.

Above we explained it somewhat indirectly so that it would be better understood. Spirit, nafs and soul are one, the flesh separate. If it is separate, what comes on the fitra of Islam is not spirit, nafs and soul, but our bodies. They were created in Islam, that is, obedient to Allah; directly, within the garment of the body, the spirit encompasses it and takes it under its rule, and since the body does not know the world of the hereafter, the body was created in this world. Since it was given a state, an intellect — the intellect called akl-ı maaş — with which it can manage itself, yes,

our bodies, since they were created fully obedient to the spirit, are thereby on the fitra of Islam. Since it is by the command of Allah Almighty, since it will be wholly obedient to the person, that is, to that spirit, this is being created on the fitra of Islam. Since it does not know the world of the hereafter, since it is like our horse or mount on earth, since it is obedient to it, since it is wholly obedient to Allah's command — for it was created that way, uh, obedient to the spirit, so as not to go beyond its command — and since the spirit, since it encompasses the whole body, holds it under its rule, the human being, by the command of Allah Almighty, is created in this world on the fitra of Islam.

His body. These bodies are on the fitra of Islam. How so? Think of the horse under a person; the reins are in his hand. You drive it wherever you want. The body is a person's horse. Wherever you drive it, it goes. So that a person can be seen in this world, Allah, in a garment of flesh and bone, (?). He gave him a visible form. Now, coming on the fitra of Islam — since it is the bodies — is our spirit entering the embryo while it is in the mother's womb, then these bodies being born and, until reaching maturity, not incurring good deeds and sins; then, from the moment one begins to act consciously, the person's, that is, his spirit's, inborn traits — these are the person's own wishes and desires, that is, his destiny.

His acting on them, and while he does these deeds, the bodies not objecting to him in any way.

A very beautiful meaning emerges here.

Since Allah Almighty judges with the attribute of justice, if He had taken the bodies into account, taken them like our spirit, then Allah Almighty, for the crimes these bodies had committed too, would have had to punish these bodies of ours as well.

I draw your attention to this. He would have had to punish our bodies too. But after the testimony is over, after the testimony to the spirit is over, the bodies — this is exactly what is said to the spirits: you are being returned to the One who first created you, it says, and there the body dies a second time. We made you die twice, We make you die twice. From this it becomes clear that the body has no sin at all. That is one. For how you used the trusts I gave you, I will call you to account, it says. That is two.

He will not call our bodies to account; He will call us, our spirit, to account. That trust is the bodies. So the bodies are the fitra of Islam. Because they were created by Allah's command, people's coming upon this body is their coming on the fitra of Islam. Yes.

Suppose in that case the body were rebellious against the person. If he could not use it as he wished, the person would struggle in the deeds he wants to do and carry out. He could not fully prove himself to Allah. And when Allah Almighty decided about the person, even if He decided rightly, the person would gain the right to question Allah: the body You gave me, I could not use as I wished. So I was dragged along into things I wanted to do. Yes. I was dragged into things I did not want to do. Or, saying I could not do the things I wanted to do, presenting his justified points to Allah, and in that case Allah Almighty would be ascribed a deficient attribute.

Yet our bodies are unconditionally bound to human will. That is, bound to the will of the spirit. And human will — in line with the covenant our spirit gave at Qalu Bala, its wishes and desires have been given to it as its destiny. This is where spirit and body part ways. Those who made the covenant with Allah Almighty are not the bodies but our spirits. Allah Almighty did not make a covenant with our bodies. Our bodies appear in the earthly world. Our spirits made the covenant. Therefore the ones addressed are our spirits. So the body — the spirit — is a trust given to the spirit. Because, for people, it is a trust given to the spirit, He says: for how you used these trusts I gave you, I will call you to account.

This is people coming into the world in bodies, on the fitra of Islam. Moreover, it is an unseen world. That is, a world in which Allah Almighty is not seen. The covenants people gave have been closed off to them. Allah Almighty, showing mercy to His creatures in the visible world with His attribute ar-Rahman, to all people, religious and irreligious, believers and unbelievers, treating everyone equally and favoring no one, has made His command known. Yes.

Then, the covenants people gave according to their destinies — people, through actual deeds, with the bodies given to them, beginning to do good deeds and sins, is what makes a person known as good or bad; that is what it brings about. Having understood this much, now these four fitras we have listed — let us try to explain them, we say. Let us try to explain these four fitras. One: comes in Islam, lives in Islam, leaves in Islam. The person gave his covenant well. Knowing Allah, he said: You are my Lord. When he came to the visible world, he was born on the fitra of Islam anyway. He begins to live in Islam. The environment too is an Islamic environment.

Without being tainted by any evil, without straying onto bad paths, he lives in Islam and leaves in Islam.

Second: comes in Islam, lives in kufr, leaves in Islam.

Yes. Comes in Islam, lives in kufr, leaves in Islam. Again he comes on the fitra of Islam. The covenant he gave is good. He is obedient to Allah. When he comes to the visible world, he is in a land of kufr or in a bad environment. He has been constantly accustomed to evil. He is busy with bad deeds. While doing these bad deeds, this person does not want to do them. But he has to. He has been accustomed to it. Reluctantly he does these evils. In the end good opportunities come his way. He asks Allah for pardon and forgiveness for the evils he did. He returns to an Islamic life. Since Allah Almighty is at-Tawwab, He forgives the evils people have done.

When they do not return to evil again, even if these people's sins were so many that they reached the clouds in the sky, Allah Almighty changes these sins of theirs into good deeds. And those who suffered harm from these people — in the hereafter, until they are content with these people, He gives to those others.

Allah Almighty showed mercy to His servants. These people came in Islam and lived in kufr. Regretting what they did through repentance and seeking forgiveness, they began to live in Islam and left in Islam.

Comes in Islam, lives in Islam, leaves in kufr. These people's covenant is bad; they were rebellious against Allah Almighty, way back at Qalu Bala. These people were born on the fitra of Islam, within a Muslim family. Until reaching maturity they received Islamic knowledge and upbringing. After reaching maturity, they began to do good deeds and sins. Because they are under a bad covenant, even if these people live Islamically, they take no pleasure in it. They perform their worship only out of habit. But since their nafs always desires evil, after a certain time they abandon the Islamic life, choose bad paths, and turn to a life of kufr.

What have I found in this Islam? they say, and take swamps and dark paths for life. The nafs and Satan pull them toward the swamps of the world that seem adorned, and such people pass on to the hereafter in kufr.

The fourth: comes in Islam, lives in kufr, leaves in kufr. The person's covenant is bad; when he comes to the visible world he is already in a bad environment. He is among peoples of the same mindset. In a verse: We divided you on earth into peoples and peoples so that you may be quickly recognized, it says. Among these peoples, content with his life, even though he knows Islam, since Islam does not please his nafs, he begins to live by his own aims. He too came in Islam with regard to the body. That is, he came in a body, on Islam, on the fitra of Islam. But living in kufr, he left in kufr. This is what He means by: I will call you to account for how you used these bodies I gave you; I gave you an obedient body, so that it would obey you.

This body, this body that would obey you, this body that complies with My command — in what way did you use it? Did I tell you to use it this way? He says, and calls him to account. If you pay attention, in all four cases the wishes and desires are in their own hands. They are living out their own aims. No person will be able to blame Allah Almighty. Because Allah says: I do not hold anyone responsible for something I have not made known.

His condition, it says, is just like the condition of a dog. His condition.

Before explaining this, we first want to conclude this sentence here. We want to conclude it here.

People who come into the life of this world with their own wishes and desires, in these bodies, in this trust — since they use this trust Allah gave us outside Allah's command — whether they come on the fitra of Islam or on the fitra of kufr, that is, on coming into the world, this body that rides on the fitra of Islam, that is, this body to be brought into him — if that person betrays that trust, he will be called to account for that too. What emerges here is that, whatever the case, this body given to him on the fitra of Islam, given so as to obey him, he rules with his own will. Yes.

So, the condition of such people — yes. After this, Ba'ura, who lived in Islam and became a great scholar, or those other people — who lived in Islam and turned to kufr — it is their condition that Allah Almighty now speaks of. The condition of such people, his condition, is just like the condition of a dog. If you go at it, it pants with its tongue out. If you leave it alone, it pants with its tongue hanging out, it says. Such is the condition of the people who deny Our verses. Tell the story, perhaps they will reflect. Tell the story. That is, He told these people about the condition of those people.

So that people until the Day of Judgment see into what kind of state such people were turned, and, when they rebel against Allah Almighty, what kind of (?) they will receive — so that people see this and, taking lessons from it, do not stray from the truth.

People who rebel against Allah Almighty, because of their arrogance and pride, traits like glory, fame and grandeur, do not want to hear the word of Allah. When they hear the word of Allah, because of the rebellion and hatred in their nature, they involuntarily, subconsciously flare up at once and begin to spew hatred. They act in ways that take Allah's verses lightly. Whether you go at them or not. These, with feelings of hatred in what they do, feelings of hatred against Islam, are thus likened by Allah Almighty to a dog panting with its tongue hanging out. Now, why does a dog pant with its tongue hanging out?

A dog's skin is a suede skin. It cannot breathe through its skin. With the breath it takes through its nose or its mouth — filling its lungs fully, and since it cannot breathe through this skin, since it cannot fill those lungs fully, (?), and it ends up far from normal breathing. Since the dog cannot breathe through its skin — although all animals have skins, they can still, through these skins or beneath their skins — Allah Almighty created them that way — breathe.

This animal, however, by hanging out its tongue and breathing rapidly, keeps itself going. Keeps itself going. Yes.

Such people too, such people too are likened to this dog's condition. Even if they look calm, they spew hatred inside, it says. Hatred. They spew hatred just like a dog panting with its tongue hanging out? Whether you go at them or not. In this state, their hearts are both restless and scattered, and rebelling against Allah they live.

They are in constant unrest. Since reason was given to people as knowledge of Allah Almighty, for such people who are hostile to Allah, even reason reminding them of Allah, to anger them out of their feelings of hatred and loathing, to (?), is enough. Such people are in this state.

We call out to such people, to such people. We say: O My Beloved, these stories, these stories — Allah Almighty says to the Prophet. O My Beloved, tell these stories and truths so that perhaps these people will reflect and may come to their senses. Allah Almighty, who gives these people every kind of comparison, leaves every responsibility to people's will; without loading burdens we cannot bear onto the backs of us people, leaving every nafs alone with its own wish, desire and partial free will, He makes people, through the deeds they do, witnesses against themselves.