At-Tawbah 30: The Jews said; “Uzeyr (Ezra) is Allah’s son.” And the Christians said, “the Messiah (Jesus) is Allah’s son.” These are statements they mutter with their mouths. How they make their statements resemble the words of the former infidels. Allah’s destruction may be on them! How they turn (from truth to wrong beliefs).

So, yes, in verse thirty of Surah At-Tawbah, which is also a wrongly interpreted verse, at the end a single word changes the meaning. When the meaning changes, attributes are ascribed to Allah Almighty. Or people look for contradictory loopholes. That single meaning, like this: what does it say? May Allah destroy them, how they are turned from truth to falsehood, it says. They are turned from truth to falsehood. Instead of being turned from truth to falsehood, it is: they turn. They turn from truth to falsehood. When it says they are turned, it goes to many meanings. A person could not use his partial free will, bowed to someone else's pressure and force, was turned.

Then, against that powerful one, they would have words to say to Allah Almighty: he forced me, when it is 'being turned'.

Or: I had no other choice, I had no power to resist them. of necessity I could not bear the pressure on me; I was turned, I turned. For example, when it says they are turned, in this way, for material gain too, people can turn. Whereas with 'they turn', partial free will is in the person's own hands. In the deeds he does with his own hand he will earn reward and sin. But if it seems he is turned, as if turned, but he does not actually turn, there is no harm in that. For example, when you face coercion, He says, and you have no way out of it, appear to be one of them, but, He says, in your hearts affirm your Lord; do not turn, do not turn in heart and mind, He says.

Yes. Just as the hypocrites appear to be on the side of truth, and after going away from Islam say we will mock them, so the Muslims too, in the face of that coercion, without compromising the truth, like those hypocrites; those hypocrites, without acknowledging the truth, with a rebellious spirit, are people who appear Muslim. This one, under coercion, appears to have abandoned Islam but actually does not compromise the truth. In between there are exact opposites, and people who truly submit to Allah. Yes. In this case, even if it is a single word, 'they are turned' is one thing, 'they turn' another.

In the... Allah Almighty, as we said, upon letters builds His word. Upon letters. And we also said that if a single letter changes the meaning, attributes are ascribed to Allah Almighty, we said. Or people find loopholes, we said. In this case Allah Almighty cuts off even people's loopholes in advance. Yes.

The verse is like this. The Jews said Uzair is the son of Allah. The Jews. They say it, of course; the tongue has no bone.

If it were a god with a family and children, with a family and children.

then Allah fits into their minds as far as it can. If He has a family and children too. So they, even if they say Allah, cannot know Allah. Because according to Surah Al-Ikhlas Allah Almighty is Ahad, the One. He neither begot nor was begotten, nor has He family or children. Yes. He is one in His essence. He is living from pre-eternity to eternity. Well, at the same time He is the Owner of the manifest and hidden worlds, He, the First and the Last, our Lord. He has neither spouse nor partner, neither family nor children. Now, when the Jews say Uzair is the son of Allah, they hold what Allah created equal to Allah.

Because they associate partners with Allah, because of their stubbornness, because they drown the light of faith in the darkness of shirk, they associate what Allah created with Allah; if they do not obey Allah but obey Uzair, which we do too, of course, he is a prophet, as a prophet we obey him. As a prophet, as a servant of Allah, we obey him. Yes, if they obey him as the son of Allah, as Allah, and turn their backs on Allah out of their grudge, then of course these neither know Allah, nor understand Allah, nor turn to the side that does not suit them. They turn to the side that suits them. These are a completely deviant loss.

Those within this mentality are a completely deviant loss. Deviant people. Now, the Jews said Uzair is the son of Allah. And the Christians said the Messiah, Jesus, is the son of Allah. People who have gone astray in religion, even if they are its greatest scholars, if they do not know the truth as truth and return to it, and tell people Jesus is the son of Allah and overstep the bounds, even if the scholar of scholars, the pope of popes, the path they follow is wrong. They cannot protect themselves from the fire of hell, from the eternal fire, and in that hereafter they are without anyone and alone, according to the verse in which He says this, other than dragging both themselves and the people around them into the fire they find no gain of any kind.

They will surely be dragged into that fire. These, who prefer the blessings of the world to the hereafter, with nafs-driven feelings, within a whim given to them by pride, arrogance and grandeur, seeing the world rose-tinted; so their eyes, this pride and arrogance, the worldly life of pomp, blinded, and deafened their ears too. And because they turned not to the hereafter but to the world, their hearts too were sealed with respect to the hereafter. Hatemallâhu alâ kulûbihim ve alâ sem'ihim ve alâ ebsârihim gışâvetün ve lehüm azâbün azîm. Such people too have a great punishment.

He calls Jesus the son of Allah. And these do not leave the churches. If their priests take a stand against the religion of Islam, drag people after ideologies, saying it is Allah's verse, ascribing attributes to Allah, attempt to associate a partner with Him, and drag people too into misery, convince them and try to draw them onto their own path, and if people of the same capacity, since such states please them, since they flatter their nafs-driven feelings, follow these two-legged taghuts, of course one will say Uzair is the son of Allah, and the other will say Jesus is the son of Allah. Accordingly, accordingly, the absolute Owner and Ruler of the worlds, who has no spouse or partner, Allah Almighty, look what He says to them.

In the same verse. Yes, they said Jesus is the son of Allah. These are words they mouth, He says. Words they mouth.

They liken their words to the words of those who disbelieved before, He says. To the words of people who disbelieved before they liken them. That is, they follow their path too. That is, we found our forefathers on this path, they say. And Allah Almighty gives them such a fine answer. Even if their forefathers, He says, knew nothing? Even if their forefathers were upon nothing? They continue on the paths of their forefathers, He says. Allah Almighty gives them such a fine answer. Yes. May Allah destroy them, He says. Look at them. Allah Almighty curses them. A curse. May Allah destroy them. Allah protect us. What does Allah's curse mean?

One's hair stands on end, one shudders. Yes. May Allah destroy them, He says. How they turn from truth to falsehood, He says. From truth to falsehood. That is, although you have a Lord who created you, although He gave you so many blessings, although He made you addressees of His essence and created you honored above the worlds, although He gave you a part of His spirit, which He gave to none in the universe, how, He says, to Allah, the One of guidance, who gives guidance, who placed all blessings at people's command and made them vicegerents on earth, to that Allah how they turn their backs, He says.

Yes. Even so, Allah Almighty says too little to them, that is. He says too little, even. Yes.

People who do not acknowledge Allah and His Messenger, who are not honored with the religion of Islam, people not honored with the religion of Islam,

have betrayed Allah and slandered Him. Yes. They have slandered Allah. Allah is self-subsisting in His essence. The name Hu: you know, some say, oh, this hucu, hucu. They do not know the meaning of Hu.

What is Hu? Hu means the One self-subsisting in His essence, created by no one, existing by Himself. Hu has a meaning. These say hucu. Hucu. Even in His verse Allah Almighty says Hüvallâhüllezî lâ ilâhe illâ hû. What does Allah Almighty say? Hüvallâhüllezî lâ ilâhe illâ hû. He, He says, that Allah who, that is, He, that Allah self-subsisting in His essence, other than whom there is no god, that Allah, He says. So when you say Huc, how well you prove your enmity to Allah, how well you ascribe attributes to Allah. That is, that Allah, other than whom there is none self-subsisting in His essence: you, the Jews: say Uzair is the son of Allah.

The Christians: say Jesus is the son of Allah. Ascribe attributes to Him, then by likening yourself to them, for your worldly interests or to satisfy your nafs-driven feelings, how well you prove yourself in the world by saying hucu. Yes. I am a lover of the name Hu. I am the servant of Hu, of that Allah. Yes. Of the One pre-eternal and eternal, Owner of the manifest and hidden worlds, who has no spouse and partner: I am a lover of these words that correspond to that word Hu.

Because we have no other door to go to but Him. There is no other god besides Him who created us. There is no one else besides Him who will call us to account. Yes. So when you took refuge under the beard of which (?), against Allah did you go? Or following the path of which (?), which devil, or which taghut did you stand against Allah, ascribe attributes to Him; that He has sons and daughters, did you say? Yes.

He, Allah, is self-subsisting in His essence. He was not born of anyone, nor did He give birth. Therefore, just as He has no family or children, Allah also has no need of family and children.

But those hostile to Allah and His Messenger, the Jews Uzair, the Christians Jesus son of Mary, they called the son of Allah. Who says this? Those hostile to Allah and His Messenger.

Why did Allah Almighty not bring a prophet from the Jewish people? Even if He had, (?) would not have changed their nature.

Because those natures, at Qalu Bala, at the address Alastu bi-Rabbikum, were given to people as their destinies according to their wishes and desires. If they had changed their destinies, if they had obeyed their prophets, if a prophet had come among those peoples and they had obeyed, they would have obeyed Moses. When he went up to Tur to converse with his Lord, Samiri's ox, that bellowing like an ox, ox he made, they would not have worshipped the ox. Despite seeing so many miracles, despite being saved from Pharaoh's captivity, despite, well, splitting the Red Sea and crossing over, despite Pharaoh, who worked them as if under a chain of captivity, drowning in the Red Sea, despite it happening before their eyes, they still did not believe. Many of them did not believe.

If they had believed, yes, if they had believed, they would have gone to that city of Jerusalem, fought there and taken it. What do they say? O Moses, you and your Lord, take it in battle, and then we will go. Look, then. As if Allah Almighty were unable to destroy those places. As He destroyed the people of Noah, as He destroyed the people of Lot. As He destroyed the people of Thamud, the people of Ad. As if Allah were unable, He will go and fight there. Look at the words they said. Yes.

They mouth these with their mouths, they are mouthing them. That is.

Without relying on any proof, they, captives of nafs-driven feelings, of feelings of grudge and hatred, as they are, these people, restless and scattered because there is no light of faith in their hearts, have tied their whole lives to the world. The world has become a god for them. They spend all their effort so as not to part from it. In this case they fall into the state of wretched people who do not use their minds. Because the blessing of the world, compared to the days of the hereafter, is a blessing of a few hours. Those who trade the eternal abode of bliss for a few hours' blessing are fools.

Yes. These. The Owner of us all is Allah. Whether idolater, Zoroastrian, religious or irreligious. Whoever he may be. The Owner of us all is Allah. So while all of us, as servants of Allah, should obey Allah, we humans split into sects. Allah Almighty also says so in His verse. We divided you into groups on earth so that you may know one another quickly, He says. In this case, though we are divided into groups, all of us, as a part from our Lord, from His spirit He gave us, as the noblest of creatures, in our capacity as created honored above the worlds, it is not that we do not grieve for their state, we grieve.

They are human too. These, who abandon the hereafter for a few hours of the world's pleasures, people, tomorrow, on the Day of Judgment, their outbursts and screams in that punishment of hell, if our Lord let us hear them in the highest paradise, believe me, we would find nothing of that time of peace.

Yes. That is why, even if it were one's enemy, had he fallen into a heap of fire and there, while burning, cried out, a real human being would not bear his cries and wailing and stay nailed to the spot without helping him.

Even in a great hurry, he runs to save him. That is, we are human. But perhaps a person is disrespectful to his elder, his forefather, and just as that elder forgives him, that grandmother forgives him and says, come, my son, you are still, well, our child. Come, let us help you again, as she says, what does Allah Almighty say to them? We will forgive much. I love forgiveness and pardon much, He says. The Prophet also says: even if your sins reached the clouds in the sky, when you repent and seek forgiveness, he says, we change your sins into good deeds, he says. In this case we pray for them. O Allah, reform them.

Reform them. And after they are reformed, have mercy on them, show them compassion, O Allah, we say. When they are reformed. Yes.

They with their mouths are mouthing these. That is, what does Allah Almighty say?

The Jews calling Uzair the son of Allah,

the Christians calling Jesus the son of Allah: these are what they mouth with their mouths; that is, they themselves do not believe it, but out of their nafs-driven feelings, out of their enmity toward Allah and His Messenger, they mouth it, He says.

They do not believe it anyway. They do not believe either that Allah has sons. But those nafs-driven feelings, aren't they there? Doesn't he have the character that with his nafs-driven feelings will drown the light of faith in the darkness of shirk? So with his mouth he will mouth it like this. Yes.

That is, although they themselves know such a thing cannot be, although these too do not believe what they say, and there is a verse, Allah Almighty says no Christian, He says, until he dies, He says, believes in Jesus, He says. Until he dies he does not believe in Jesus. Yes. Although they do not believe, merely because it pleases them, because they want it to be so, they say such words, because it pleases them. Because they are hostile to Allah and rebel against Allah, by their own reasoning they accept Jesus as the son of Allah and because they hope for help from Jesus and want to receive support from him, in this way, not believing, mouthing it, they say Uzair and Jesus are the sons of Allah.

Yes, now, the name of the city I will not give; in a city, the Christians (?), in masses, in masses; there they are Christianizing Muslims, in masses.

They gave some poor fellow a house, a garden, a pergola too, and put a pool next to it, decorated the place. They make him talk: he's very pleased, it's very good, things are going very well. That is, they make this poor man advertise Christianity.

Again, you will have come across it, they were showing it on television. One of the girls leads a dhikr of Allah; they filmed it. O greatest of the three, O father Jesus, help, help us, save us, father Jesus, help. Yes, that is, as a human being, a person sometimes is ashamed of his humanity. How is he ashamed?

Did Allah not give you any mind at all? Will these people never use their minds? Although Allah Almighty created man honored, although in every mind he knows he was created by a god, all this time, since the founding of the universe, since humans came into the world, calling out to people and speaking with them, Allah speaking with us, sending prophets and books, seeing this, does he not use his mind at all? Does he not use his mind at all? (?) of his humanity still. And even all the prophets, since they were created, taste death. They taste death. But Allah, the Immortal, remains everlasting and living in His essence.

In this case no person is ashamed, nor wants with his conscience to turn to Allah, or because the blessings of this world that Allah created please him, that pomp, that glory and fame, and people around them flattering them and exalting their glory pleasing them, they try to lead people astray from the path of truth and tell them falsehood, and drag themselves to ruin too. Yes. If you go down to their root, at their root there are feelings of grudge against Allah in their hearts; so because of those feelings of grudge, in them the pitch-black world of faithlessness within has shown on their faces.

Yes, they will not come to the eternal path either. Those who gave their pledge that way, of course.

In the peoples before them, they too said so and became unbelievers. Those before them.

That is, those who came before the Christians, their own forefathers, who went as unbelievers; how they came to resemble them, He says. Yes. The peoples before them also said so and became unbelievers. These too, emulating those who disbelieved, being of the same state and character, since the rebellion of the old ones against Allah pleases them, they too, like the past peoples, call Uzair and Jesus the son of Allah. Yes. Unless he reforms this nafs, the human nafs, he cannot go an ant's length forward. All the worship he has done, like a bucket full of holes, the nafs eats up and finishes. The nafs is like an unstoppable fire.

If you cannot reform it. The nafs is like a raging, unstoppable flood disaster. If the nafs is not reformed, it is more turbulent than tsunami waves. At least those tsunami waves, those fires, those floods take away a certain part. But this takes the person himself away too. Yes. He must reform his nafs. If he cannot reform his nafs, this person cannot taste the joy of humanity. He cannot find peace in his heart. Even within the life of this world he lives in, he cannot know whether he is dead or alive. They are just like the living dead. What were they like? Like the living dead. Yes. Because when a person lives, he must enjoy living.

Like what? We go to a summer resort. A place just as we desired. Its indoor pools, springs, places of amusement. And a person within his own feelings, within Allah's commands, a splendid life, splendid. You enjoy it there, it pleases you. And imagine you had gone to the opposite kind of place, as if both feet were stuck in one shoe; that is, in the swamps of drinking, adultery, gambling houses, or, let me say, near those (?), the men who fight, if you were there, if you had to be there, and since their talk, movements and manners do not suit you, both your feet would be stuck in one shoe. So however wealthy they may be in the world, as if their two feet were stuck in one shoe, people living as dead, let me say it once more, people living as dead, are dead.

Everyone says something. The Hodja says it too: dead. I have proof in my hand. As proof, a verse. Do not be with the dead, He says. In the verse. What does Allah Almighty say? Do not be with the dead. These dead are not the dead lying in the grave. We have nothing to do with them. They have gone to the hereafter, they have left the world. So the living dead: Allah Almighty means the living dead; they are the dead. That is why a person, while living his own nature in the world, in order to understand that he is living, will be governed by the religion of Islam, by Allah's commands, and find peace, so that he will understand he lives in that world; he will understand. Otherwise they all join the ranks of the living dead.

Yes. I was young. Young. Around 18 or 19 years old.

In Ramadan I used to go to the coffeehouse to pass the time. Together with our landlord. A dear old man. May Allah have mercy on him. He was a good person. We would sit there until sahur. A man would come and want to play backgammon with me. I'll play only with you, he would say. Backgammon. Well, let's play. Sometimes, even when he was winning, the man would pay for the backgammon and leave.

One day to me he said, you don't know me, he said. I don't, I said. You're a person as I see you here, I said. My name, he said, is Ahmet. Good. May Allah bless it, I said. I am a (?) marriage registrar, he said. Well. (?), I said. Why do I come and play backgammon here? he said. I don't know, I said. I am the one who writes La Fontaine's children's fables, he said. Yes. When I get stuck somewhere, he said, I come, he said. While playing with you, he said, my mind, he said, is always there. When I solve it in my mind, he said, I leave at once. And I pay for it, he said. Now I have a piece of advice for you, he said.

Go ahead, I said. Coffeehouses, he said, are the graves of the living dead.

Yes, I never forget it. I was 18.

Oh, these are great people. Great people. They show people the way, show the truth, tell what is right. They act with greatness. Now the kids are stark naked, the grandfather has taken her by the shoulder, he takes pleasure in it. The mother is covered, the daughter stark naked beside her; the life she herself could not live, that she desired, by living it through her she takes pleasure. How well everyone proves themselves in this world. Yes. So people are the grave of the living dead.

Those who cannot live the religion of Islam. Those who cannot live the religion of Islam.

People, that is, who say Jesus is the son of Allah and Uzair is the son of Allah, these people, who in this way persist in their kufr and rebel against Allah, and those who associate partners with Allah: Allah Almighty, from His essence, curses them. From His essence.

Although I offer you so many blessings, how they slander Me, He says, cursing them. May Allah destroy you, He says. Yes.

Those accursed ones, in the hereafter, far from Allah's mercy, with neither a helper nor an intercessor, will be left to a painful punishment. To a painful punishment. Yes.

Since Allah Almighty created the world for people as a place of testing, this place is a place of testing.

In the material world, people's grudge and hatred against Allah Almighty, and also their associating partners with Allah Almighty, waiting patiently — who is waiting? Allah Almighty. Whom is He patiently waiting for? Until the very end of our lifetime. Because within our lifetime, until its end, we will prove what kind of person we are.

Yes. Against Allah Almighty, their grudge and hatred, and also their associating partners with Allah Almighty, He waits for patiently; and since in this passing world, through people's own torment of their nafs, in return for the account they will give in the hereafter, such people He will leave to eternal punishment; since of these deniers who seem to roam unchecked in the world, what their end will be Allah knows best, He leaves them free in their will, and in the end, when He takes them into His presence, because of the sins they committed He will cut off His mercy from them and leave them to a painful punishment.

In the world all mercy rains down. Allah Almighty's rains down on people. But in the hereafter there is no mercy. In the hereafter, only for the mu'min. Then why in the hereafter only for the mu'min? Let us open this up a little too. Is there no mercy for the Muslim? There is. But why for the mu'min? Not for the people of faith. Since the mu'min will never enter hell, will never enter hell, the mu'min person. Since Allah Almighty will receive them with good pleasure, with good pleasure, mercy is for them. For the others, a reckoning. Make a reckoning for these. There is, but for these there are favored reckonings.

These are righteous servants. Yes. These are people received with a smiling face. People who want to explain Allah in the finest way on earth, who want to make Allah known to people. Allah Almighty says a verse for such people. Who is finer in speech than the one who explains Allah? He says. If Allah Almighty says there is no one finer in speech than the one who explains Allah, their value in His sight, the value of those people in our Lord's sight (?), there is the mercy. Straight to paradise. Directly.

And for the others, among Muslims, even if they attain His mercy, even if there are those who never enter hell and enter paradise, since among them there are also those who will, for as long as their punishment lasts, go to hell and come out, He separates His word here like a knife. Yes. He separates the mu'mins and the Muslim right away. Mercy is for them. Yes. For the Muslim too, mercy after punishment. Mercy after the nafs reaches perfection. Yes. So what does this resemble? A referee has a football player take a direct kick. And has him take an indirect kick. Those who take the direct kick are those who enter paradise.

Indirect means those who enter indirectly. Yes.

So, Allah's saying may He destroy them

declares that, far from Allah's mercy, the most painful suffering of the hereafter He will make them taste.

May Allah Almighty have mercy on the whole ummah of Muhammad and from such a painful state protect believing men and women. And may He reform those who do not believe in Allah and His Messenger. O people! Allah is One. No one can associate a partner with Him. He is self-subsisting in His essence. He has no spouse, partner or likeness. Nor does He need family and children. He is self-subsisting in His essence. He neither begot nor was begotten. Being the Owner of all these created worlds, all created things were created by that One Allah. There is no god other than Him. He is pre-eternal and eternal. He is Hayy, that is, the one who gives life to all worlds.

He gives life to His creatures. He is the Owner of the manifest and hidden worlds. All beings began with Him. In Him they will end. All created things, by kun fayakun, will be created again. That there is no god other than Him, and that He is the Owner of all He created and knows their secret, Allah Almighty proves to us in this way. Yes.