At-Tawbah 69: (Oh hypocrites! You have acted) just as the ones before you. They were superior to you in strength, possessions and children. They benefited from their share (of worldly possessions). Just as the ones before you benefited from their share, you have benefited from your share and you have indulged (into superstition) just as the ones who have indulged. Their deeds have gone in vain in this world and in the hereafter. They are the losers.

They are in charge of themselves and of what is around them. So what was the need for this? If only He had made us answerable directly to Himself and had not made us do these things. But we said there are angels. Angels. Obedient to Him. In standing, in bowing, in prostration, in every state, sir, He created the noble angels in worship of Himself. All creatures have submitted to Him, in worship. This is the honour of man: that his Lord gave him of His spirit, and that he acts by his own will. Well, now, why did Allah make me like this, sir? When someone says, "He should have created me better by His own will," as I said a moment ago, if your freedom were taken from you, your freedom, would you want to live as a slave?

As a slave. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has granted you your freedom. He has secured your life by your own will, your own desire and wish, and within this life He said: know the One who created you. It is that simple. Whoever created you, know that Creator of yours. Now, within this freedom, within this desire and wish, within a free life, if you do not know your Lord, what kind of freedom is that? Yes, freedom, but a temporary freedom. What kind of temporary freedom? Tomorrow at the Great Court, when, because you did not know your Lord, you are left to eternal punishment, your freedom has gone from your hands.

There, He says, they neither live nor die. There is no death for you to die, nor is it life. But (?) if a person knows his Lord by his own desire and wish in this world, Allah Almighty grants him the abode of endless bliss. The abode of endless bliss is granted. There he lives with that full life, with his freedom. In this case now, if you do not know your Creator, even though you were created as the noblest of creatures, if you deny your Lord, if you are deceived by the world and come to the side of Islam, appear Muslim, and when you go to your own partisans say, "We will mock them," if, deceived by the (?) of a few hours of this transient world, you are distracted with worldly goods, the place you will go is surely the fire of hell.

Because of your rebellion against Allah, because you do not know Him, eating and drinking what your Lord gave, without thanking Him, you, what is given, without seeing the Giver — one who sees what he receives, obeys it, is (?) by what he receives and acts as its porter: you are no different from such a person. Therefore, you will offer thanks for the goods you receive, you will see the One who gives to you, and you will be in obedience and worship to Him. Then you will have conformed to the purpose of your creation and you enter among the righteous servants of your Lord. Yes.

Now, with people being divided into three classes, the characters of each class are close to one another. Through these characters, getting along and agreeing with one another is made easy. This division of people in this way is not by Allah's will. People, by their own will, so that they can live their own longings and wishes — it is their own desire and wish. And Allah Almighty classified them according to these desires and wishes of theirs. Yes.

Already at that address, "Elestü bi Rabbiküm," they divided into three classes.

What the verse in Surah Al-Waqi'ah says, "ve küntüm ezvâcen selâseh," when you become three classes, is the division of people according to their own desires and wishes into three groups. Allah did not say, "I created you as three groups." Had He said so, without letting people use their own will, Allah would have made it appear that by His own will He created people as the right-hand, the left-hand or the class of those brought near, and since no person can object to what Allah created, Allah would have discriminated among His creatures and would be given attributes. Allah Almighty would be given attributes.

Man would say, "Why did You create him like that and me like this?" Yet no person will be able to call Allah Almighty to account. The reason is Allah Almighty's attribute of being God. All the questions people would ask will have come to light, and man will be left with no question. Yes. These hypocrites, in terms of the meaning of life and character, the earlier and the later ones are the same as one another. For this reason the verse says, you too did as those before you. Its saying, "even though they were stronger than you in children and family, in wealth and in build," means: since the characters in human traits resemble one another, whether a person is like a giant or as small as an ant, he will do the same deeds, if the characters are the same. That they have no difference from each other, Allah Almighty declares to people.

They benefited from their share of worldly goods. Just as those before you benefited from their share, you too benefited from your share, and you plunged in like those who plunged into falsehood. That is, like your forefathers or the people walking on that path, that is, walking on the path of hypocrisy, since you too have the same characters, since you possess the same mentality, you too were distracted along with those who plunged into falsehood. Yes. If people's characters are going to resemble one another, if they are alike, then whatever they were at first — that is, when people came into the world through our father Adam, (?) of the generation to come, whatever meaning and traits its hypocrites had, the traits of the hypocrites who will continue until the Day of Judgment are of the same consistency. Since they are alike, "they benefited from worldly goods, from the share that fell to them, and you benefited from your share, you plunged in like those who plunged into falsehood" — by saying this, that hypocritical people will do the same deeds in every age, how beautifully Allah declares to His servants.

And in this way He enlightens people. Just as the good deeds such people did in the world went to waste, they have gone to waste in the hereafter too. In the hereafter too. Because we said it in our earlier lessons too. Not just this world, if man had another world; not just this universe, but seven layers of heavens as big as this universe, the sky, even including the Throne of Allah — when he denies the One who created it, when he denies his Creator, the reward of that much weight — in return for this denial, the sins wipe those rewards out. Because the Creator, without needing anything, created what He created for the sake of His creatures; He creates.

Allah Almighty, who creates His creation for His creatures, because He Himself is the Creator, does not need what He created. For this reason, how beautifully Allah Almighty says it. At that Great Court, on that day of reckoning. Not this world, He says, another world's worth, He says, if you had that much wealth, you would want to give it as ransom to be saved, He says. But no ransom is given to Allah. Because He is the Creator; He needs nothing. What He created is for us. So we will look not to the created, but to the Creator. And we will try to please Him. For these blessings the Creator has offered us, by thanking the Creator, by praising and extolling Him, in worship of Him, in reverence and in submission, we will offer our gratitude and our thanks.

If we do not do this, if we do not, we fall into ingratitude, and Allah Almighty does not love the ungrateful at all. He also takes his wealth and property from his hands. His wealth and property. And He drags him into destitution. In that destitution people (?) many misadventures. In this case a person's life becomes a dungeon. Yes.

The meaning of their going to waste in the hereafter: the deeds of the hypocrites. Since the deeds of the hypocrites do not save the hypocrites from the eternal fire of hell and its torment, for this reason the good deeds they did brought them no benefit, (?). Not only the hypocrites; non-Muslims here are in the same situation too. People who are bound for eternal hell because they deny Allah. In this way these people are, in hell too, in layers divided. Hell is layer upon layer. The hypocrites, though, are in the lowest layer.

So such people are the very ones who suffer loss. Such people, because of the whims of their nafs and their stubbornness, are people who drag themselves to ruin.

Allah Almighty says about non-Muslims: they, out of their pride and arrogance, He says, did not submit to Allah.