Only Allah Is Eternal

M. Fethullah Gülen · Sermon · February 21, 1975 · Muradiye Mosque, Manisa · Second sermon of the "Proofs of Tawhid" series

Last week Hocaefendi described the diseases that stand in the way of guidance. In this sermon he briefly recalls them and moves on to the main subject: the four universal proofs that bear witness to Allah's existence and oneness, and the first of them, the proof of hudus (coming-into-being). The law of heat, the electrons revolving around the atom, and the mass the sun loses every second all point to the same thing: matter is not without beginning; only Allah is eternal. The sermon ends with the answer to the question "Who created Allah?", given through the examples of the book, the preacher, the feet, and the train wagons.

This post follows the video above section by section. The main text is what the preacher says. Scientific explanations, present-day values of the 1975 figures, corrections, logical reviews of the examples, alternative proofs from present-day science, Risale-i Nur parallels, and source notes are in the expandable boxes; these are not the preacher's words. The opening prayers at the start of the recording and the closing prayer at the end are not included in the video; they are given in boxes in this post.

I — Diseases that block guidance

The truth cannot be told to an arrogant heart

Before beginning the lessons in which he will explain Allah through His Attributes and His Names, Hocaefendi recalls the previous week's lesson: "Ignorance is a cause that drives a person toward unbelief. Heedlessness is a cause that drives a person toward unbelief. Boasting and arrogance are a cause that drives a person toward unbelief. Whims and deviation are a cause that drives a person toward unbelief, we said." To settle like a bee upon every tree Allah has planted and to return to the heart with beams of knowledge of Allah depends on casting these diseases out of the heart.

"If a heart is filled with arrogance, if it is boastful, then even if the Messenger of Allah came to it, even if Prophet Moses came and told it the truth and reality, it would stand against him as a Pharaoh, it would be an Abu Jahl; it would not listen to the truth." That the truth goes unheard can be ascribed neither to the truth being illogical nor to the shortcomings of the one explaining it: "The truth is always mighty and always precious." In many eras the real obstacle has been that hearts were filled with arrogance and pride. That is why the one who explains the truth will not give it up, and will not fall into despair even when it is not accepted. And the one who listens, yet in whose heart no beam of light arises, should cast out the arrogance in his heart before saying "This did not satisfy me": "This is Allah's law."

II — Al-A'raf 7:146

Arrogance veils the eye

Hocaefendi recites verse 146 of Surah Al-A'raf. In Suat Yıldırım's translation: "Those who unjustly act arrogantly on earth, I will turn away from properly understanding My signs. Even if those arrogant ones were to see every kind of miracle, they still would not believe in them. If they see the right path, they do not take it. But if they see the path of error, they take that path. So it is! For they have made it their habit to deny Our signs and have kept on being heedless of them." (Al-A'raf 7:146)

As the preacher explains it: the verses Allah has written in the heavens and on earth, the signs that point to His existence, He makes a veil over the eyes of the arrogant. "Were the universe all verses, thundering 'Allah!', were human nature to say 'Allah!', they still would not believe." Seeing the right path, they do not take it; but show them a path belonging to Satan, and they embrace it at once. The meaning drawn from the spirit of the verse is this: "If there is the disease of self-admiration, of arrogance, in a person's heart, however many proofs you bring him, the proofs you bring will be turned upside down and thrown back in your face, and not the slightest beam of knowledge, not a drop of knowledge of Allah, will form in his heart."

III — Wrongdoing and lying

There will be Abu Jahls, and there will be Abu Bakrs

Those who veer into wrongdoing and lying, that is, those who violate the rights of others and the rights of Allah, who lie against the universe and against their own selves, who live a double life, are likewise deprived of guidance. The preacher recites two verses; in Suat Yıldırım's translation: "...Allah does not guide the wrongdoers, nor bring them to their hopes." (Al-Baqarah 2:258) and "...Allah does not guide those who have made lying, ingratitude and unbelief their habit, nor bring them to their hopes." (Az-Zumar 39:3). In the preacher's words: "Allah guides whoever seeks it. But the wrongdoer has lost his right to guidance."

Lying has its kinds: lying against the universe by denying Allah, the lie of clinging to suppositions and hypotheses, the lie of not approaching the truth, the lie of always fleeing from one's own heart. "To a person of this nature, even if you offer faith like the water of life, as a sweet drink, he will throw it back in your face as poison." Still, there is no despair: "There will be Abu Jahls, and there will be Abu Bakrs too. But without falling into despair, asking for the help of the Almighty, we will keep on explaining."

IV — Heedlessness

Standing, sitting, lying down

Heedlessness makes a person evaluate events backwards; it keeps him from seeing their true nature and meaning. That is why the Qur'an spreads events before a person like a book and invites him to reflection. The preacher recites verses 190-191 of Surah Al 'Imran. In Suat Yıldırım's translation: "Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in night and day following one another as their lengths grow longer and shorter, there are indeed many proofs for people who think. They are those who remember Allah now standing at attention, now sitting, now lying on their sides, who reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth and say: 'Our Exalted Lord! You did not create these without purpose, in vain. We declare You free of such deficiencies. Protect us from the punishment of that Fire!'" (Al 'Imran 3:190-191)

As the preacher explains it: standing and walking about, the believers search for proofs of Allah behind every event they come across; sitting, they say, "It is Allah who seats me. It is Allah who created these joints fit for sitting"; lying down, they reflect on rest. In the end they say, "Everything is brimming, filled with wisdom." "But the one in heedlessness understands neither the meaning of lying down nor the meaning of rising, nor the meaning of walking about." Surah Yusuf describes the same state; in Suat Yıldırım's translation: "How many proofs there are in the heavens and on the earth showing Allah's existence, oneness and power, which people pass by without noticing, because they turn their faces away!" (Yusuf 12:105). As the moon moves, as the sun rises, as the grass turns green, as the birds sing like nightingales, "everything says 'Allah,' says, 'Let me tell you about Allah.' Yet he passes by all of this, he turns his gaze away from all these signs."

V — Sin and the rust on the heart

Sin rusts the heart

Plunging into sin, being unable to hold oneself back from disobedience, is also an obstacle to guidance. According to the preacher, because the unbelievers discovered this subtle point, they prepared the ground for people to sin, and in particular stirred up the excitement and passions of the young. The preacher recites two verses; in Suat Yıldırım's translation: "Thus do We insert that denial and mockery into the hearts of the guilty. Though the calamities that befell past communities stand as a lesson, they still do not believe." (Al-Hijr 15:12-13) and "No! The truth is not so! The evil deeds they kept doing have gradually rusted their hearts." (Al-Mutaffifin 83:14)

As the preacher explains it: "Because of what they have earned, there are wounds and bruises in their hearts, there is rust; when the truth comes, it will find no echo, it will not be well received; Allah will be explained, but there will be no opening of the heart, no shiver, in him." In an age when opportunities for sin are spread out in the streets, Hocaefendi calls on the congregation to raise their hands and pray: "May He make our hearts ready to understand the truths of faith and the Qur'an."

VI — Four universal proofs

The universe, the Qur'an, the Prophet, conscience

Before moving on to the main subject, Hocaefendi adds a note: since the matter, rather than stirring feeling and excitement, "appeals entirely to the mind and the heart," it may weigh heavily on the listeners. But: "Everywhere Allah is making Himself known." With everything, from the ear being placed here and the nose there, to the face of the sky being studded with stars and the earth being adorned with trees and grasses. "So the greatest truth in the universe is Allah being made known, and the greatest truth for human beings is their understanding Allah."

To explain all these proofs would take years: "Because every event is a book in itself." Hocaefendi lists four of the universal proofs. The first: "What tells us about Allah is the book of the universe, which Allah wrote by His power and will and set before our eyes and our sight." The second witness is the Qur'an, the translation and interpreter of that book; the third witness is Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), the interpreter of that interpreter, for whose sake the universe was created; and the fourth witness is conscience, "which does not deceive or mislead a person, which, even when he is in misguidance, makes him say 'forever, forever.'"

VII — The horizons and the self

"True, just as your speaking is true"

The preacher recites from Surah Adh-Dhariyat. In Suat Yıldırım's translation: "On the earth there are many proofs for those who seek certain belief. And in your own selves there are such proofs too. Will you still not see? And in the heaven are both your provision (the means of your provision) and the Paradise you are promised." (Adh-Dhariyat 51:20-22). And he asks: "Have you never looked at your face in front of a mirror? Have you never thought about your own nature?" "In a single verse, a connection is established between the great world and the small world." Provision too comes from the sky: the evaporation of the seas, the falling of the rain, the blowing of the wind come about by Allah's command; and the promised Paradise is also in the heaven.

Then comes the verse of the oath; in Suat Yıldırım's translation: "By the Lord of the heaven and the earth, this promise is a truth, just as certain as the fact that you speak." (Adh-Dhariyat 51:23). Here Hocaefendi states his own understanding: "Perhaps the commentator did not grasp this. But I understand this meaning." Just as you speak, the universe too, with its signs, with its trees, leaves, fruits and seeds, tells about Allah: "Between that speech and this speech there is essentially no difference. This one addresses the ear. That one addresses the eye. If both are evaluated under the arbitration of the mind, the conclusion to be drawn in the laboratory of the heart will be the truth that Allah is the Creator, that Allah is One."

VIII — The Qur'an and the prophets

So that they have no argument left

That the Qur'an is a proof, again the Qur'an makes us see. In Suat Yıldırım's translation: "Is it not enough for them that We have sent down this Book, which is recited to them? Surely in it there is a mercy and a sufficient reminder for people who believe." (Al-'Ankabut 29:51). "It is impossible for such a thing to come from one who was unlettered." Whichever verse they probe, by its manner of expression, its eloquence, its telling of the unseen, its perfect description of the universe, its explanation of the riddle of humanity, it becomes clear that "it cannot be the book of an unlettered man who lived fourteen centuries ago"; it is the Word of the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

All the prophets, and especially our Prophet, are decisive witnesses to Allah's existence and oneness. In Suat Yıldırım's translation: "We sent those messengers as bearers of the good news of Our mercy and as warners of Our punishment, so that, after the messengers, people would have no excuse left to put forward against Allah..." (An-Nisa 4:165). The prophets told that the right path leads to Paradise and the crooked path to Hell, so that before Allah people "cannot say, 'We could not see, we could not know.'" The last verse turns our gaze to the fourth proof, conscience: "Otherwise, should they not have pondered the Qur'an? Or are there locks upon locks over their hearts?" (Muhammad 47:24, Suat Yıldırım's translation). Hocaefendi leaves the explanation of these proofs to the coming Fridays.

IX — The proof of hudus

Encompassed by His Attributes, known through His Names, unknown in His Essence

The first of the proofs concerning the universe is the proof of hudus, "or in more modern language, the proof of coming-into-being." Coming-into-being shows one of Allah's Attributes; the universe having been created adorned and embellished shows another; its continuing and its perishing show yet another. That is why one must also consider to which Attribute and which Name each proof refers. Allah's Essence, however, cannot be comprehended: "The inability to comprehend Allah is the greatest comprehension. It begins with Abu Bakr." "The Creator's Essence can never be understood." Sound knowledge about the Attributes and Names means a sound conviction about Allah.

Why such a weighty matter? "But the believer is obliged to seal every hole through which Satan would slip doubt into the heart, every window through which doubt might come." For "you may be a delusion, the universe may be a delusion. But the Essence of the Creator cannot be." One of the breaches is the claim of those who worship causes: the atom turns into energy, energy into the atom, and this goes on forever as a perpetual cycle. In this way "what should be given to Allah they hand out to causes, they divide it up." Hocaefendi says he will present the matter in popular terms suited to the congregation, and asks the specialists to bear with him.

X — The Attribute of eternity, the Name "the First"

Allah existed, and nothing else existed

After hudus comes the matter of eternity: "eternity means having no beginning." Allah's Name "the First" rests on the Attribute of eternity, and "the eternal is also everlasting." That the atom is not eternal, that it was created later, is seen with the microscope, with electron beams, with X-rays. "Only Allah existed. Nothing existed, let me say. Allah existed. Nothing existed."

If this truth enters the heart, "we give eternity, beginninglessness, to Allah, we dethrone matter," and this conclusion follows: Allah created matter. "In Jeans's words, Allah said to light, 'Be,' and light came into being." Hocaefendi says he will show this through three points: the law of heat, the motion of the electrons around the atomic nucleus, and the sun and its energy.

XI — The first proof: the law of heat

Every originated thing has an Originator

"According to this law, matter was created later." "A thing does not come into being by itself from nothing." The old theologian used to say from his chair: "Everything in the universe is originated. It came to be later. For every originated thing there is an Originator." So the universe is originated, and its Originator is Allah. "But is the universe truly originated?" One name for this law is Carnot's law; its technical name is the second law of thermodynamics. Through Hubble's observation it was seen that the nebulae are fleeing and the universe is expanding; it was understood that some suns were going out and becoming dwarfs. "Today this law is taught in universities as an established, positive law." Eddington, and Jeans in his "Mysterious Universe," are great defenders of this law; "Einstein's account of the universe also tends to confirm this law."

Hocaefendi explains the law in popular terms: "Take an object and boil it, heat it in fire, in water. When it has become a piece of fire, then plunge it into cold water." The heat at the center rushes toward the cold surroundings, and the surroundings become hot to the same level. The universe is full of suns: "Within the Milky Way there are millions of suns like our sun." In the past it was said that there are fifteen million degrees of heat at the center of the sun; some researchers say one hundred forty million degrees. This heat goes out from the center, is scattered around as radiation, and this continues until the surroundings reach the same temperature.

XII — Heat balance and beginningless eternity

Had matter been without beginning, it would long since have gone out

"What if it radiates heat?" This is happening throughout the universe, in all the nebulae. One day every place will be filled with energy to the same degree, and no plus and minus will be left in the universe: "In the old language, zaid and naqis, plus and minus, will vanish." There will be a potential energy, "But there will be no life. Life arises from opposite poles facing one another." The suns will stop, the stars will go out, the moon will fall, the earth will shrivel, scorch and go out.

Its connection with Allah's being eternal is this: the believer calls Allah "without beginning"; beginningless eternity is not a billion or a trillion years: "It means infinite time." Whoever says matter is eternal is giving the believer's judgment about Allah to the atom and to energy. Yet "the law of thermodynamics does not allow matter to be without beginning": "If it were without beginning, by now, a million times millions of years ago, the law of thermodynamics would long since have run its course." "At this very moment, the existence of the universe, the existence of the earth, the existence of life, in the face of this law, shows that matter was created later. The One without beginning is Allah."

XIII — The second proof: the atom and the electrons

The electrons were either at rest or moving

"You and I, the whole universe, this lectern, the pulpit over there, the walls of the mosque, are made of the same stones of Allah." These stones are so small that if you shrank a millimeter by a fraction with twenty zeros, it might perhaps match the diameter of the atom. "The ancients called it 'the indivisible part.'" In the nucleus of the atom there are protons and neutrons; around it revolve electrons, making turns of what "the Arabs called 'ihlilaj'," turns that can take the shape of a pine cone. The preacher takes the hydrogen atom as an example: at its center, like a sun, one proton and one neutron.

"A thing either moves or is at rest. There is no third alternative." Had the electrons been at rest, the positively charged nucleus would have pulled them in: "If every atom's electron were pulled in by its nucleus, the earth would be the size of an egg"; the same weight, but the size of an egg. Neither you nor life would exist. So the electrons are moving. But: "If these electrons had been revolving around the nucleus from beginningless eternity, they would long ago have reached the place they are now heading toward." "So they have a beginning." Of this beginning "we say: Allah said to the atom 'Be,' and the atom came into being."

XIV — The third proof: the sun and the Self-Subsisting Sustainer

A hearth of Allah, a lamp of Allah, a stove of Allah

"The sun is a magnificent hearth of Allah, a lamp of Allah, a stove of Allah, vast enough to contain a million earths." Its diameter is one hundred nine times that of the earth. Every second five hundred sixty-four million tons of hydrogen turn into helium, and every second the sun loses four million tons of its mass: two hundred forty million tons a minute, fourteen billion four hundred million tons an hour. From its mass the sun sends you energy and radiation; by it the grass grows, the young grow, the fruit turns sweet. "If the sun did not come, if it had no light, you would be finished."

Whoever says matter is without beginning is saying that these have no beginning. Yet "if these suns had no beginning, they would long since have come to an end by now." As the preacher relates it, even Einstein, unable to solve this riddle, says of the sun in his book titled "The Universe": "It feeds from somewhere like a parasite." Hocaefendi's answer: "The sun rests on Allah's Name the Self-Subsisting Sustainer; that is where it feeds from. Otherwise, by now it would long since have gone out." Neither the sun, nor the earth, nor energy, nor matter is eternal: "The One eternal, without beginning and without end, is Allah." The preacher also has the listeners do a calculation: even if the sun were the size of a million earths and lost perhaps several earths' worth a year, "after a million years the sun would simply come to an end."

XV — A skull two and a half million years old

The sun is kept fit for life

Hocaefendi relates that "in one of the latest issues of Bilim ve Teknik" a skull said to belong to a human who lived two and a half million years ago was reported, and he draws two conclusions from it. The first: "even the oldest monkey skulls in the world do not go beyond one, one and a half million years"; that a human skull is found from before the monkey is "a proof that Darwin's fallacy has no place." The second: "two and a half million years ago the sun was in a state suitable for a living being to live on earth."

Since the sun loses this much every day, there should be a great difference between the sun of two and a half million years ago and the sun of today; one day the sun will open like an umbrella, then contract and become a dwarf star. "When they put the star Sirius, twenty times larger than the sun, in the sun's place, they say everything would melt, turn to vapor and vanish." A living being burns at a hundred degrees of heat and freezes at a hundred degrees of cold: "So it has not changed by even a hundred degrees." "Both of these states show that the sun is not without beginning. The sun is not without end." The preacher recalls the verse of subjection in paraphrase: Allah has made the earth, the suns and the stars subservient to your command, "So that you too may be subservient to His command."

XVI — Substance and accident; summary

An accident subsists through matter

The materialist's objection is this: "There was no atom, but there was energy. Energy turned into the atom. In the end the atom too will turn into energy." Hocaefendi's answer: "Perhaps there truly is such a transformation. But this is by Allah's might and power"; la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. "It is Allah who makes the atom energy and energy the atom." The second gap: "Energy subsists through matter." If there were no body, there would be nothing to feel the existence of the heat. "The ancients put it this way: energy, force, is an accident. Matter is a substance. An accident subsists through matter." So "to think of energy as the beginning of the universe is, again, an expression of falling into contradiction with scientific facts."

In summary: "With this lesson we looked at the secret of the universe's coming-into-being." Even if matters are traced back in a chain to the most ancient times, unless they rest on Allah no matter can be explained in the light of logic and science: "Allah said to the atom 'Be,' or to light 'Be,' and light came into being; the solution of the riddle lies within these two sentences." Hocaefendi prays: just as Allah said "I am" behind thermodynamics, behind the sun's energy, and behind the motion of the electrons, may He also say "I am" to our selves, and bring our hearts to inner peace.

XVII — "Who created Allah?"

Seek refuge in Allah, say la hawla

"There is one more fallacy." The Messenger of Allah foretells this truth: one day someone will lie back at ease or cross his legs, one foot over the other, and say: "Allah created this, Allah created that, Allah created this; who created Allah?" they will say. According to Hocaefendi, this is the foretelling of an event to come: of an age in which the heretics will rule, atheism will prevail, Satan will set up his dominion, and some devils in human form will become subjects of that dominion.

The Prophet's remedy: when you come to that state, say la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah and seek refuge in Allah. "All the might and power in the universe subsist through Allah. What you call energy subsists through Allah." The preacher characterizes the use of these words in his own time this way: "The words 'Who, Allah forbid, created Allah?' are words the communists made up." Because they cannot deny Allah's existence in the face of thousands of proofs, they take refuge in this objection.

XVIII — The book, the preacher, the feet and the train

Contingency ends, necessity begins

The example of the book: if you saw a book on the lectern and a little later saw it somewhere else, you would say, "there is someone who took this book from here and put it here"; because a book cannot change its place by itself, and to attribute this to the book "means to imagine will, power, and knowledge in it." The example of the preacher: if you saw Hocaefendi first at the lectern and then in front of the pulpit, you would not find it strange: "You would say, 'He had a will. He was a mover by himself, one who moves.'" The example of the feet: the head moves about on the body, the body on the feet; asked what moves the feet, you would say, "The feet move by themselves." The example of the train: the last wagon is pulled by the one before it, and that one by the one before it; "You can make it a million wagons." Assurance forms in the heart when the matter rests on "one that moves itself by itself."

"We are explaining that things cannot subsist by themselves." "We said that behind them there is One who is not like them. That is, there is One who does not transform like the atom, who does not go out like the sun." "But this is so until you rest it on one that moves by itself; but when you come to the One who moves by Himself, there everything has ended." To rank Allah among creatures is not to know Him: "If you think that He too was created by someone, then whoever created Him, that one is Allah, may His glory be exalted." "Where will creation's chain end? There you'll say: contingency ends, necessity begins." The last words of the sermon: "So there is a Being who is eternal. So there is a Being who is without beginning. Everything other than Him is originated and will later perish too."

XIX — How the video was made

Original audio, visuals drawn in code

The audio is the original recording of the sermon, dated February 21, 1975 (Çınar Media); it has not been altered. The opening prayers at the start of the recording (including An-Nur 24:35) and the closing prayer at the end are not included in the video; they are given in expandable boxes in this post. In the subtitles of the Arabic recitations, the surah and verse number are given in parentheses.

The visuals, which move in step with the speech, were prepared in code with artificial intelligence (Anthropic Claude). The "Note" boxes in the video are not the preacher's words; they are notes on sources and current information. The expandable boxes in this post (scientific explanation, 1975 → today, correction, logical review, alternative proofs, Risale-i Nur parallels, source note) are not the preacher's words either.

Concepts

Sources