Al-A'raf 187: They ask you about the hour (on which the Day of Judgment) will come and strike them. Say, “Its knowledge is with my Lord. There is no one who can tell its time other than Allah. It weighs heavy on the heavens and the earth. It will come upon you unexpectedly.” They ask you about it, as if you possessed knowledge on it. Say, “Its knowledge is only with Allah, but most people do not know.”

They ask you when the Hour will come upon them. They used to ask the Prophet (peace be upon him) too. "O Messenger of Allah, when will the Hour come?" "When will it come?" To that question of theirs, Allah Almighty says: Say, its knowledge is only with my Lord. None but He can reveal its time. Yes, no one can say the Hour will come at such a time. But its signs exist. They list its signs. But its knowledge is with Allah. What are its signs? As far as our Lord has told us, in His verse: when the mountains pass like clouds — that is the Hour taking place; I'll tell its signs too. When the seas swell, when the sky flows like molten metal, as He says; and some of its signs are the world turning (?) around itself, volcanoes becoming active, earthquakes and such disasters increasing; these are among the signs of the Hour.

Even Israel founding a state is among the signs of the Hour. Well, these signs of the Hour are appearing. Nothing happens all at once. It appears over time.

None but He can reveal its time. That is, none but Allah Almighty can reveal it. It has weighed heavily on the heavens and the earth. Of course the Hour will weigh heavily on the heavens and the earth. Because the heavens will flow like molten metal, and the order of the earth will break down. Yes. It will come to you suddenly, it says. My death too is something that will come suddenly. My death may come suddenly. And when it says it will come suddenly, well, when the world starts spinning fast around its own axis, people will say, "What is happening to this world?" They ask you as if you knew about it.

So no one but Allah knows the time of the Hour. In this verse it symbolizes exactly this point anyway. Say: its knowledge is only with Allah, but most people do not know. Yes, people do not know that Allah Almighty keeps some things hidden with Himself. For example, when a person's life will run out, where and how much rain will fall, they do not know, and how much it will rain they cannot know. When the Hour will come — such knowledge some people cannot know.

With this verse Allah Almighty makes known that some events are reserved for Himself alone. For example, people's destinies and what will happen within those destinies, that is, qada and qadar being in Allah's knowledge, we cannot know what will befall us a moment later. This is in our Lord's knowledge. Why did He do it that way? When we say "If only we had taken precautions" — so that every person proves what kind of person he is, Allah Almighty will test them with their lives and their wealth, the people; He will make them witnesses against themselves. So their future affairs, what befalls them, He has hidden within their destinies, reserved for Himself.

The coming of the Hour is also with Allah. Yes.

The coming of the Hour is also with Allah Almighty. Only Allah knows when and how the Hour will come. For this reason they ask you, "When will the Hour come?" Say, its knowledge is with Allah. And none of the created beings is aware of it, say. None of the created beings.

Yes. No one is aware of when the Hour will come. No one. On what basis do we say this? Let's say it again. Let's repeat the verse again. They ask you as if you knew about it. If the Prophet (peace be upon him), who came as a mercy to the worlds, to both realms, cannot know it, then no one can know it. If he cannot know it. What do we say? When we get into a dead end, or when we make some decisions, we say, "Allah and His Messenger know best." We say, "Allah and His Messenger know best." So if Allah and His Messenger know rightly, know rightly, and if, for us, even the Messenger of Allah had no knowledge of when the Hour will come, as Allah Almighty tells us, then none of the created beings, when the Hour will come, can know. Yes.

None but He can reveal the time of this Hour. That is, none but Allah Almighty can reveal it. Because He created these worlds with knowledge, and they will end with knowledge. He created with knowledge. The reason is that Allah Almighty is the one who created the heavens and the earth and also what is between them.

This Lord of ours, when He created these places, that is, these worlds, how He created them, until when they ran their course and will run their course, since He programmed all these worlds, He knows it second by second. These creations of His have been programmed with a program. How many people will come until the Hour, what will happen between His creatures and the Hour, what will cause the Hour to come and how these causes will appear — since all this knowledge is with Allah, its exact time Allah knows. This Hour will come upon people suddenly. Some signs of the Hour will appear. But people will attribute them to nature.

They will say, "What is happening to this nature, what is happening?" For example, one of them is the sun rising from the west and setting in the west. Until that comes, many more signs will appear. For this reason people always cling to life, full of hope. Clinging to life, they still believe that the world will not end, that the Hour will not come, and that they will go on living their lives. Amid these events, people will suddenly see that the time of the Hour that Allah Almighty promised has come. How did it come? To those peoples who were destroyed, too, that destruction came suddenly. What does this mean, one meaning of "suddenly"?

But people will attribute these to nature. That is, they will attribute these natural events to nature. They will say, "What is happening to this nature?" To this nature. Because people cling to life. As I said a moment ago, to the destroyed peoples too it came suddenly; that doom came crashing down on their heads. Destruction came crashing down on their heads. It came to them suddenly too. The people of Salih, for instance, are suffering a drought and see a cloud there; a cloud comes. They say, "Now we'll cool off under this cloud; it has become very hot." Whereas that cloud is a coming that will take them to destruction.

When it comes over them, with a single cry they all sink to their knees and stay there. That is a sudden destruction. So since people are attached to the world, even though such signs of the Hour's coming reach them, since they are still hopeful in life and attached to the world, even if they know the Hour will come, they will see it as far off. But what is to happen will happen. The Hour will come. Because at that time people's faith and belief will have grown very weak. Even at their workplaces, let me put it this way, "He's a Muslim" or "He says Allah," they will point at him with their finger.

With the finger. That's how few people there will be. Of course, their creed and faith too, uh, since they do not obey Allah's command, through carnal feelings they will suddenly meet destruction.

They will say, "What is happening to this nature?" For example, one of them is the sun rising from the west and setting in the west. Until that comes, it says, many more signs will appear. For this reason people always cling to life, full of hope. Amid these events, people will suddenly see that the time of the Hour that Allah Almighty promised has come. When the mountains are scattered like carded cotton, when the seas swell, when the heavens flow like molten metal, when man says "What is happening to this earth?", the time of the Hour will have come and arrived. Then it can no longer be stopped.

Yes.

It will weigh heavily on the heavens and the earth, it says. On the earth.

Why does it say it will weigh heavily on the heavens and the earth? When the Hour comes, says Allah Almighty, that is, when the time of the Hour comes, the earth within that order and harmony We created will not be able to sustain itself, nor, it says, the heavens. All of them, when the time of the Hour comes, will not be able to bear it, and (?), (?) all of it will collapse into one another. The heavens and the earth will collapse into one another. That is how it will have weighed heavily on the heavens and the earth. What is meant by this verse: the order of the universe that Allah Almighty created with knowledge will break down, and the earth will be shaken violently.

That is, it will reach a state of explosion. What kind of explosion? As we said a moment ago and in earlier lessons too, like the sun setting in the west and rising in the west, with the world turning in reverse, at an uncontrolled force the world, which begins to spin, will reach such a point of spinning that, as the Messenger of Allah reported in his hadiths, years like months, months, he says, like weeks, weeks like days, days, he says, like hours, hours like seconds — when they pass like that, then, because of centrifugal force, the world will explode. When the world hurls out what is inside it, it says.

That is, everything that is inside, and as the magma layer, that layer of flame, comes out from under the seas and swells up. Yes. The earth will be shaken violently. That is, it will reach a state of explosion. It will hurl out what is inside it. What is meant: if you tried to spin the world fast around itself, it would reach a point where, because of this spinning, it explodes and is scattered all around like carded cotton. That is how the mountains will be flung like carded cotton. As the earth, moon and sun system turn around one another, their order breaks down, and when the gravitational force also disappears, they too will begin to be hurled fast (?), and as a result of this flow, through friction with the air and because of the speed of the flow, meteorites or stars will melt and flow like metal.

And when leaving the world through this air layer, at an angle — they leave at an angle and enter at an angle; otherwise, if they don't leave at that angle, at that speed, from the friction, those satellites burn up. And when entering, likewise, they enter at an angle, a certain angle. Allah Almighty has protected our world with an air layer of 81 to 83 kilometers. When meteorites fall to the world, they enter the air layer at random, and so, because of the friction, these 83 kilometers — our Lord calculated it. How the heaviest of those meteorites burns up and turns to ash before it reaches the world, and does no harm to the world — He made that calculation.

And this pressure we call one atmosphere, the air pressure at sea level, in the heart — by balancing it in the heart with one atmosphere of pressure, He gave life to man and to His creatures, like this. He created all of it within order and harmony, with knowledge and learning, our Lord. Yes. The 83-kilometer-high air layer has one atmosphere of pressure at sea level. Man is under one atmosphere of pressure; as when you take the air out of a can and the can's walls cave in on each other — so that he does not cave in like that, Allah Almighty has balanced the heart of the human body with one atmosphere of pressure against the air layer.

Only with the human body and the layer pressures of the animals He created in the world. So when people climb to heights, since the layer pressures become too much, when they climb mountain peaks and the like, pressure builds up in their ears. Even bleeding occurs. Yes.

You might say this: Today, when someone asks why this doesn't happen in an aircraft flying at 65,000 or 70,000 feet, there is a pressurized cabin there. Fixed at exactly one atmosphere. The pressure inside maintains the pressure at sea level.

Yes. So the Hour: meteorites and stars will melt and flow like metal, and then the Hour will have come. All beings will collapse into one another, all order will break down, and not a single living being will remain alive. That is how the Hour will have weighed heavily on the earth and the heavens. That is, no being will be able to carry and bear it. It means that the heavens and the earth will not be able to prevent the Hour from coming. Surely this Hour will (?). It weighs heavily on the heavens and the earth. In one sense too: Allah Almighty's promise is true, the Hour will come. However much people try to prevent the world's, let me say, this ozone layer from tearing, they will not be able to stop it.

And they will not be able to prevent this order; Allah's word will be fulfilled as truth, and this Hour will come, it says.

Knowledge of it is only with Allah. None of the created beings can know its time exactly. In Surah Al-Ma'arij, mocking the coming of the Hour, Abu Jahl and Nadr ibn Harith demand from the Prophet (peace be upon him) that the Hour come. In verses one, two and three as well: someone asked for the punishment from Allah, Possessor of the degrees of ascent, that will come upon the deniers and that no one can (?), it says. Yes, the verses are like that.

Shall we read Al-Ma'arij? Shall we read it and look there? Yes.

Page 567, Surah Al-Ma'arij. Mine, here, says 1-2-3-1. It has taken them together. I separated it earlier, in my translation. If we read from my translation, it would be understood better. The verses are understood better.

Yes.

Surah Al-Ma'arij, 1: A demander demanded the punishment that will befall. A demander. Who are they? The likes of Abu Jahl. Well.

Abu Jahl and Nadr ibn Harith. These are hypocrites. Nadr ibn Harith is a hypocrite too. He wants the Hour to come. In response, Allah Almighty sends down the verse. What does it say? A demander. Yes.

A demander. Demanded the punishment that will befall. For the unbelievers there is none to avert it. For the unbelievers. "Hodja, now a meaning like this emerges here. The Hour will come. Allah will complete His light until the Hour. Until the Hour. When He completes it, when the Hour comes, are there no Muslims here?" Muslims. Here Allah Almighty says: for the unbelievers there is none to avert it.

Now, since Allah Almighty's verses do not contradict one another but always confirm each other, how does it work here? Now it seems as if the verses contradict each other. Right? Yes, that's how it looks. In fact the verses do not contradict each other at all. Now, Allah Almighty will complete the matter by the Hour. Even the last person to come will hear of the religion of Islam. When the Hour is about to come, a samum wind will blow. A wind of death. Sam means death. And yel means wind anyway. A wind of death will blow. Along with this wind of death, the Muslims, the Muslims there at their work, will be overcome by sleep.

With sleep they will taste death. They will die. The Muslims.

So this Hour will break upon the unbelievers who remain. What does it say? For the unbelievers there is none to avert it. Allah does not subject those He loves to punishment. Just as, when He was about to destroy a town, those who followed the prophets — He takes those who followed the prophets out of that town. Like Salih, like Noah, like Lot — those who followed them He takes out of there. If He gives that destruction to them, then at the Hour too He will give the Muslims a beautiful sleep, they will die, and the Hour will break upon those unbelievers.

For the unbelievers there is none to avert it. That punishment is from Allah, who possesses lofty degrees, it says. Lofty degrees, that is, Allah Almighty Himself. Now, the fourth verse — they have explained it wrongly anyway, explained it wrongly. What does the fourth verse say? "The angels and the Spirit," it says, see, the angels and the Spirit. This one too has explained it here as Gabriel, made the Spirit Gabriel: "to there, in a day whose measure is fifty thousand years in world years, they ascend." Where? Where do they ascend? There. (?). Allah Almighty says: they ask you about the spirits.

Say: it is a command of my Lord.

Here, in some places, well, they say the Spirit is Allah Almighty — and it isn't me saying it. They say it in the Diyanet's book too. And in some places it says Gabriel. The Spirit cannot be both Gabriel and Allah. So we know that the Spirit is Allah Almighty Himself, in the light of the verses. What does it say? They ask you about the spirits; say, it is a command of my Lord. So if the Spirit is our Lord's own Being, what does the verse say? "The angels and the Spirit" — that is, together with the angels, the Spirit became Gabriel. Gabriel ascended there in a day whose measure is fifty thousand.

Where? That is not its meaning. The angels, in a day whose measure is 50,000 years in world years, come into the presence of the Spirit. Into the presence of the Spirit. To bring about the Hour. My Messenger, now be patient in the finest, most beautiful way, it says. Indeed, they see that punishment as far from likely. But We see it as near. On that day the sky will be like molten metal. And the mountains will become like flung wool. Friend will not ask after friend, it says. Yes. When the time comes, we will explain these to you more thoroughly and better. Yes.

Yes. In the fourth verse, when it says the angels and the Spirit ascend there in fifty thousand years, it is that no one can prevent the coming of the Hour. Which is not "the angels and the Spirit." The angels, in a day whose measure is fifty thousand years, come into the presence of the Spirit. These verses will be explained to you when their turn comes. It is worth touching on this much. Until the world reached its present state, it changed state seven times. Seven states. For example, it went through formations such as a state of fire, of smoke, of vapor. In each formation, Allah Almighty created beings that could live on it.

Thus, until the world reached its present state, six peoples came and went upon it. The seventh is humans. So the knowledge of when these Hours came no one has but Allah.

Hazrat Ahmed Bican says so.

Six peoples came and went upon the world, he says. The seventh is humans. They ask you as if you knew about it.

They ask you as if you knew about it. What this means is not that the Hour's (?) exactly — that the Prophet (peace be upon him) knew it. It is that he knew the Hour will surely come. Against those who deny the Hour, Allah Almighty: "They ask you as if you knew about it" — that is, surely this Hour will come, and you are the best, among those who know it best; that is the meaning. You are among those who best know that the Hour will come. Because among all people, the one who knows Allah most and affirms His oneness, the believer who holds Him as One, is the Prophet (peace be upon him). After him comes Abu Bakr as-Siddiq.

If you put the faith of all people on one pan of the scale, Abu Bakr — if you put Mount Uhud on the same pan, if you put the faith of all people on one pan, and Mount Uhud too on the same pan, and Abu Bakr's faith on the other pan, then Abu Bakr's faith outweighs them. Why did he get the name Siddiq? When the Messenger of Allah went on the Mi'raj, he relates the Mi'raj. The likes of Abu Jahl, the hypocrites, the polytheists mock him. And when they come across Abu Bakr: "Muhammad," they say, "is telling this." Allahümme salli alâ seyyidinâ ve nebiyyinâ Muhammedin ve alâ âlihî. "Do you believe this?" they say.

"What is he telling?" he asks. "That he went on the Mi'raj, that he went up to the heavens," they say. "He's cracked," they say. He immediately affirms it. Yes. Yes. That is why he gets the name Siddiq.