Al-A'raf 177: Wretched is the case of people who have denied Our verses and committed oppression against themselves.

Surah Al-A'raf, verse 177: How evil is the condition of the people who deny Our verses and who have wronged themselves, it says. May Allah, may Allah protect us from such an end. Of those who deny Our verses, it says. Yes, how evil is the condition of the people who have wronged themselves.

Would a person want to go and enter the fire burning right there? Would he want that? Would a person want it? Uh, to go and have himself put in shackles, and in these shackles have himself (?) whipped every day? Would a person want this? Well, would a person want to be in the state of a slave?

As they used to row on the sailing ships in the old days, with chains fastened to his feet, rowing from morning till evening for a morsel of bread?

Again, would a person want it? To scorch himself under the blazing sun? These are torture.

The condition of people who go against Allah's command is like that.

What a bitter thing.

How evil is the wrong that people have done to themselves, it says. How evil is the wrong those people have done to themselves. So if we pay attention, if we put a finger on this point, it does not say: how evil is Our wronging of such a people.

Allah does no wrong. So: how evil is the condition of the people who deny Our verses and have wronged themselves, it says. They are wronging themselves. As I said earlier, would a person scorch himself under the sun? Would a person go and walk into fire? Would a person have himself shackled and whipped?

Who is doing this? If you yourself desire it, you are bringing it on yourself. So if you count Allah's verses as lies, then in that life of hell, the wrong you have done to your own self — how evil it is, it says. If only you knew, if only you knew. Yes.

By denying the verses of Allah Almighty, people who will not (?) Allah Almighty in the slightest (?) — people who cannot (?), who cannot (?) Allah Almighty in the slightest way — although with every act they do they realize they are responsible, although for everything they do they know they are responsible, out of the pride in their nafs toward Allah Almighty, its grandeur and arrogance, they do not bow to their Lord. With every bad act they do, they are wronging their own selves. They leave themselves exposed to wrong. Allah Almighty says: do not drink alcohol, do not gamble, do not commit adultery, do not eat what is forbidden, do not swindle people, do not deal in interest, be honored with the religion of Islam, and in keeping with My creating you honored above the worlds — except for the shortcomings you commit now and then, except for mistakes, which We also forgive when you ask for pardon and forgiveness, He says.

So come into My presence in keeping with the purpose of your creation. If you go outside this — with your own decisions that you have made, with your partial free will, with the bad deeds you have done — you, He says, in this world where you see yourself as if free of all restraint, there is in fact such a witness in you that wherever you go, you cannot escape it, right up to the moment of death. What is this witness? As I explained earlier, the body. What else? The Kiraman Katibin angels on your right and on your left. What else? If all these images you project are taken in a camera as a photograph, if these images I project appear on your computers, on televisions, then Allah Almighty, to freeze these images and show them to us — is that not possible with His knowledge?

So we have no way out at all. And we ourselves give ourselves away so neatly. With every move we make, with every deed we actually carry out. Here we recall a saying of Mevlana. Either appear as you are, or be as you appear. So beware of slipping into hypocrisy. If — just as you are of Islam, live Islam. Within it, in backbiting, in gossip, in hypocrisy, in lying, do not compete. In the whims of the nafs, in pride, in arrogance, in glory, in fame, in grandeur, in egoism, in worldly desire, do not compete.

Know your helplessness. Know the worth of the (?) your Lord has given you. And when using them, thank Allah. So that, in keeping with the purpose for which Allah created you, tomorrow, (?), at the Gathering, at the Supreme Court, when you go into the presence of Allah Almighty, you may be received with favor. Otherwise, thinking this world is without accountability, thinking that within your own freedom no one interferes with you, if these blessings given to you, you misuse — the wrong you have done to yourself within your own free will, if only you knew. If only you knew. Yes.

If only the peoples who behave this way knew how harsh their condition is, we say. It is impossible that they do not know, we say. It is impossible. Because Allah Almighty will not call anyone to account for something He has not made known. Yes.

So all people know that Islam exists. They know that the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel are in Islam too. They know they are in the Quran. Yet because it runs against the whims of their nafs, they do not come near the Holy Quran. It is impossible that they do not know. But that pride and arrogance of the nafs in them consents to bear every kind of torture and torment, as long as it does not hear the word of Allah and the name Allah is not said. And as they remain in eternal torment in this state, such people's hatred toward Allah Almighty will keep growing, and as eternal people of hell they will remain. May Allah Almighty protect us all from such an end.

May He reform those who do evil. And may He grant His mercy to those who are reformed. Granting guidance to all the people of faith in the visible world, may He make us in the hereafter heirs to His paradise, among His servants honored with the sight of His beauty. Yes.