Summary: Surah Al-Ankabut (29:16-25). Truth evades those who submerge themselves in the pursuit of worldly pleasures. In this lecture: worshipping Allah (S) as a means of thanking Him, the pervasive phenomena of death and resurrection, the supreme intellect of prophets ('alayhimusSalaam), the inevitable meeting with Allah (S), the violent reaction of an intellectually defeated people, adopting a worldview of tauheed, Ibrahim (AS), as a shining example of one who was born into a community steeped in polytheism yet making the conscious choice of ascertaining and believing in Allah's Oneness. Allah (S) does not need to punish, but He has the prerogative to do so. It is from the Absolute and Sovereign essence of what makes God worthy of worshipping, unfettered by the limitations of human imagination and the impositions of finite thought.
