At-Tawbah 52: Say; “You are only waiting for one of two good things (to happen) for us. And we are waiting for Allah to give you punishment from Allah’s side or by our hands. Now wait! Verily, we are waiting with you as well.”

Of Surah At-Tawbah, we have come to verse 52. Say: for us, only one of two good things you are awaiting. One of two good things. And we are waiting for Allah, from Himself or by our hands, to give you a punishment. so wait; surely we too, along with you, are waiting. Yes.

Now in the verse: Say, for us you only await one of two good things. That is, those polytheists (?), what are the good things that can satisfy their own nafs? The calamities given to Muslims. For them that is good. They await one of two good things. One of the two good things is either that Muslim's death, his being gone, or that a calamity comes upon that Muslim. Yes. And it says: Say, for us you only await one of two good things. Either a calamity will come upon them; they wait for that. Or they will die. And we are waiting for Allah, from Himself or by our hands, to give you a punishment; we await it. How beautifully it puts it.

Look, here Allah Almighty with His word, how beautifully He holds a light before people. So wait. Surely we too are waiting with you, it says. Yes.

The hypocrites and polytheists, those who rebel against Allah and His Messenger, those who don't believe in the hereafter, regarding the believing men and women who follow Allah and His Messenger, to take revenge on Islam, to satisfy their whims over Islam, await either the death of Muslims or a calamity that will come to Muslims. One of two good things. Either a calamity will come, good for them. Or that Muslim will die. They wait for that. When such events reach Islam, these people who are enemies of Islam, at the calamities Islam has suffered, rejoice, and since they've got what they were waiting for, they have satisfied the desires of their nafs.

So when some ailment touches a Muslim, when a calamity touches him, these: they were (?) people anyway. We took our precautions earlier; had we been with them, to the same calamities we'd have been exposed, they say. On Allah's decree over people they put their finger, and in this way, that they are without faith, that in Allah and His Messenger they don't believe, before themselves, those around and Allah Almighty they call as witness.

Whereas if people who are enemies of Islam, believing that good and evil come from Allah, had submitted,

they wouldn't think like this, wouldn't exchange the hereafter for the world, wouldn't buy the torment of hell while in the world. So these people, within their own nafs-driven feelings, way back in pre-eternity, since they did not recognise Allah as Allah, since they expected the Lord of their own imagination, gave their covenant there that way, gave it as deniers, and had these desires written for themselves as destiny. Yes, they, within those destinies, with those characters, will prove themselves this way in the world too. However much Allah and His Messenger address them, their: Hatemallâhu alâ kulûbihim ve alâ sem'ihim ve alâ ebsârihim gışâveh, ve lehüm azâbün azîm. On their eyes there is a veil, in their ears a plug. Their hearts are sealed too.

For them there is a (?). They cannot leave and get out of that thinking and world. In this case: we don't understand what you're saying. Our ears are blocked, they say. Yes. So they plugged their ears like this (?). A plug, that is, they had them stoppered. They had their hearts sealed, too. By their own wish and desire; our Lord did not seal them by His own wish and desire. The one who seals is our Lord, but He did not seal by His own wish and desire. Because He does not will injustice for His creatures. Since He left partial free will in man's own hands, partial free will, He, through his partial free will, by man's wish and desire, their desires wrote for them as destiny.

And so that they could live these destinies, He worked characters into them. As a result of those characters, they cannot get out of and leave that world. Yes, when such people, at the calamities that will touch Islam, give voice to their joy, they prove that they are enemies of Allah and His Messenger, that they bear hatred against the religion of Islam. Because, according to the verse: did every soul think that, without proving what kind of person it is, it would die? Through the causes Allah Almighty has created, these hold themselves as witness before themselves, those around and Allah Almighty.

Such people are disbelievers. If they bring their life, their lives, to an end this way, they will have wronged their own selves. What is this wrong? That the life of eternal hell they buy. Swapping the world and the hereafter, with "who has ever come back to life in the hereafter", (?), with their words, thus in suspicion, denying Allah, denying the resurrection in the hereafter, through such talk they themselves, outside this light of Islam, their way of life has left them subject to Allah's word. Which word? It has left them subject to the word: disbelievers. Now, among Muslims too there are doubting people, about the world of the hereafter.

Will we really be resurrected? There are. If you say there aren't, you'd be lying. Maybe not in you, but in Islam there are. Because they are a nafs that has not reached tranquillity. That is, a nafs that has not become a believer. Will we really be resurrected? Does Allah really exist? Will we really be called to account there? Even if he is in such thoughts, that light of faith doesn't let him rebel, that person.

That is, like a disbeliever, like that faithless person, entirely giving (?) to his own nafs, proving it in his own nafs, on the hereafter the Muslim does not turn his back. Within that hesitation there is another hesitation. I wonder... there is, of course; faith says there is. If we are resurrected, then we'll be called to account there. His faith makes him say that. Even if he is in hesitation, he never rebels. We will surely be resurrected and surely be called to account. Even if he hesitates, that is, even if he says, I wonder, will we be resurrected, will we be resurrected, will we be called to account, his faith makes him say yes. Therefore between a disbeliever's "I wonder" about being resurrected in the hereafter, that is, his wondering whether there is a resurrection or not, and a Muslim's thought, in the hereafter, "I wonder, will we be resurrected", there is a great difference.

In one there is the light of faith (?), the light of faith, the light of the shahada. This one: I wonder. I wonder. When he says this "I wonder", this shines upon it. And this bends. From the light of faith. However little he lives Islam. But the disbeliever doesn't have this. When "I wonder" comes, the "I wonder" stands up. Once it stands up, he turns his back on Allah and His Messenger. He swallows that world. With words like: who's been resurrected, who's gone and seen it; give it to me here, what would I do with that place, he says. These have no share in the hereafter, says Allah Almighty.

That is the difference between the "I wonder" in Islam and that of a disbeliever. Therefore, on your faith make no compromise. so that you can strengthen your faith, perform your prayers.

People work during the day, they toil, eventually they get tired. They sit and rest. So that the body is refreshed. And at night they lie down and sleep. That body withdraws completely into rest. It becomes nicely refreshed. It gets stronger, that is. The body regains its former strength. Prayer is like that. It strengthens faith like that. Prayer. Just as the body rests and gains strength, prayer too, by giving peace to a person, to his soul and body, strengthens his faith. For this reason, never abandon your prayer. Your prayer. Our ancestors said so too: prayer is the pillar of religion, the pillar.

If that pillar collapses, the building falls, of course. Yes, so with weakness of faith, what does a person do? What this verse says befalls him: Let not Satan strip you stark naked, it says. Yes. But if you pray, you in a way tell Satan stop, tell your nafs stop, and say, I pray, I can't go around like this, and you don't become Satan's plaything. Faith slaps Satan. Yes. However much Satan (?) him, (?) his nafs says, look, so-and-so goes about like this. Well, people pay him compliments. Well, they get married sooner. Well, today people look for people like that. When the nafs says that, how nicely it deceives people for its (?).

Of Islam, a beautiful (?) let me tell you. Nobility. What do they say about nobility? It neither flows nor smells. The nobility of Islam. But those deprived of that nobility, of whom they said, you know, they marry quickly, that's how people look for them now: take a look, all of them in crisis, in restlessness, in distress, humiliated. They've become everyone's plaything. They've become chewing gum in everyone's mouth. Deprived of that nobility, they've come to not recognise themselves.

You can't deny this. They live in this state. Is this life?

Weren't we created honourable?

Didn't Allah create us very honourable, give us of His light? Weren't we the noblest of creatures?

Yes. So if man knew his place as a human being, as Hazrat Abdul Qadir Gilani said, today the dominion is mine alone, he would say, it says. If he knew his place in Allah's sight.

Yes. What is his place in Allah Almighty's sight? Do you know? Since He gave that person a part of spirit, that person He does not separate from Himself; Allah Almighty, who wills him for His essence, who needs nothing at all, Allah Almighty, who created the worlds so that His servants' faces may smile, says: O My servant. You say it, and I'll give it to you, He says. Yes. But people who live unaware of this, who, within their own mental capacity, see everything as right and say I'm doing right, living in difficulties, in wrongs, in errors.

These are increasing more and more.

Why are they increasing?

There is a hadith.

In the hadith the Prophet: don't speak ill behind the back of the hajji and the hodja. Whoever speaks ill behind the hajji's and the hodja's back is as if he has played with his own head, it says in the hadith. If we open this up a little, if we open it up a little:

if we speak ill behind the back of the honourable hajji, the honourable hodja, our children will feel coldness toward the hajji or the hodja and drift away from religion; it's for this. The Prophet says a very beautiful hadith.

I'm going to speak ill behind the hajji's back, but — not the hajji's, I'm going to speak ill behind the hodja's back, but behind the backs of those kinds of hodjas I'm not speaking ill. Not behind the hodjas who say Allah. These are the ones who say Allah, and then say yallah.

Of people who say Allah, and in the consciences of people who live the religion, Islam, try to set up a throne and try to exploit them: about them I'll speak. Pay attention. In these people there's no verse, no hadith. These people: such-and-such saint did this, lived like this, went like this, came like that. Such-and-such man did this, went like this, lived like this, went like that.

Make it up, make it up, tell a story, a story. Hey, hajji efendi, aren't you ashamed? Hajji efendi, you talk like this, you'll say to me. I'm telling what's written in the books, you'll say. And I'm telling you from what's written in those books anyway. What use is that way of life of his to me? What use is it to me? Does it benefit me at all? About that man who lived, passed, went: whom are you holding up as an example? Tell Allah's verse, then. Tell the hadiths of the Prophet, then. Tell of the existence of Allah and His Messenger, then. Tell those people that tomorrow at the Supreme Court they will be called to account.

Tell those people that with the deeds you've done, you've fallen into a sin bigger than yourself. Tell those people that with these troubles you made in the world, we sold the hereafter, that you've turned the abode of eternal bliss into a dungeon.

What kind of hodja are you? What are you telling?

Yes.

One truly gets saddened.

People unaware of what Allah says. People who make up even the verses as they please and recite them, people who don't fear Allah, wrapped in the guise of a hodja, telling people stories. They'll exclude me; let them exclude me. May Allah not exclude me. I'm telling the truths.

I'm telling the truths.

If what I say is right by my own lights but wrong by the truths, please let them warn me. Under the light of the verses, let them set me straight. But I call out to them from here.

The path you're on is wrong.

Try to explain Allah's verses to people.

From hadiths, but not from stories. From true hadiths. Speak of the hadiths that correspond to the verses. say what you know. Refrain from what you don't know.

And try to make people love Allah and His Messenger.

Yes.

What are we saying? When such people, at calamities that will touch Islam, voice their joy, they prove that they are enemies of Allah and His Messenger, that against the religion of Islam they bear hatred.

Such people are disbelievers. If they end their lives this way, they will have wronged their own selves. And we are waiting for Allah, from Himself or by our hands, to give you a punishment. We too are waiting with you, says Allah Almighty in His verse. According to this verse, a Muslim does not wrong anyone unjustly, nor unjustly take a life. Even, when a calamity touches someone, he grieves. He grieves. Why does he grieve? If a believer cannot share in a believer's state, his faith has not reached perfection. Allah and His Messenger do not will injustice for people. Allah does not will injustice for people.

According to the verse, when it says "take on the character of Allah", that Muslim too, when his nafs reaches perfection, wills no injustice on a person, and to the injustice that person suffered he never bows, never consents, and becomes his helper. His helper. So only a non-Muslim, to wrong his own self, when to a Muslim or a person an injustice comes, rejoices at it. Yes.

Muslims are those who bow to Allah's command, who abide by Allah's verses. So the evil, nafs-driven thoughts the enemies of Islam think about them, the Muslims tie to Allah's decree. Within their destinies, they bow to what comes from Allah. Because Islam is with Allah and Allah helps Islam, Allah from His own presence gives these enemies of Islam a calamity and makes them abased and wretched. Or, in the face of an attack the disbelievers make on Islam, punishing them by the hand of Islam, He kills them. Or has them taken captive. Or punishes them by having them made subject to jizya. Since such events lie with Allah and Allah knows the unseen, both sides, about themselves, one with false and nafs-driven, the other with true feelings, (?). Yes.