At-Tawbah 72: Allah has promised to mu’min men and women the Paradises in which they will live eternally, and beneath which rivers flow and Allah promised nice dwellings in the Paradises of Eden. Allah’s contentedness however is above all. This is the great salvation.

Surah At-Tawbah, verse seventy-two.

Allah has promised the believing men and the believing women, to abide in them forever, gardens beneath which rivers flow, and fine dwellings in the Gardens of Eden, He says. He promised fine dwellings in the Gardens of Eden. And Allah's good pleasure is greater than all; that is the great salvation, He says. The great salvation.

Look what Allah Almighty says in the verse. Allah to the believing men and to the believing women, and — "Vaadallahü'l-mü'minîne ve'l-mü'minât," He says. He does not say "ya eyyühellezine amenü," that is, to those who believe; to those who believe He does not say. To whom is the promise? To the mu'min, to the mu'minat. To the Prophet (peace be upon him) He says: pray for the mu'min. Pray for the mu'minat, He says. Why? To the Prophet (peace be upon him) He says: pray for the mu'min or the mu'minat. There is a verse about the Prophet: he does not speak idly. So, if he does not speak idly — had the Prophet prayed for those who believe, no Muslim, living in his nafs-i emmare, perhaps in a worse state than a disbeliever, saying "I live the religion of Islam," without compromising his faith, living his life in a way that outdoes the disbelievers — if there were such a person, he would not enter eternal hell.

He would not get eternal hell. That is, he would not be punished. So on what basis do we say this? My mercy is for everyone in the universe, in the hereafter only for the mu'min, He says. For the mu'min. Why for the mu'min in the hereafter? Because the mu'min has passed the nafs-i emmare, passed the nafs-i levvame, passed the nafs-i mülhime, and in the nafs-i mutmainne has attained the manifestations.

O hodjas of the outward!

I am calling out to those hodjas now.

Those who say there are no manifestations. Those who say there can be no manifestation. Those who say there is no inner knowledge. I am calling out to them. Allah Almighty, in Surah Al-Fajr, verses 27 to 30, calls out like this: O soul at rest! Pleased with your Lord, your Lord pleased with you, enter among My servants, enter My paradise, He says. Do you know the meaning of this? This is promised to the nafs that has risen to contentment, honoured with Allah Almighty's Beauty, with no return ever again — neither to the nafs-i mülhime, nor the nafs-i levvame, nor the nafs-i emmare, nor to being a non-Muslim; who will never fall again — to that mu'min and mu'minat He promises this.

Yes. He promises it to them. If He had said "people of faith" here, since all Muslims are people of faith, all of them would have been given gardens and mansions beneath which rivers flow. The nafs — believers, people who are mu'min — after the nafs-i mutmainne there is the nafs-i raziye, there is the door of ilm al-yaqin, there is a matter in which scholars are raised. "The passing of your scholars to the hereafter is like the sun leaving and darkness coming" — that state of the nafs, there are people who have reached it. The Prophet says this about them: The walis of my community are like the (?) prophets of the Children of Israel, he says.

Yes. In this case these are not raised by Ahmet and Mehmet.

You who deny the inner knowledge, I am calling out to you, I am telling you. These are not raised by Ahmet and Mehmet. These are people raised by their Lord Himself.

Like whom? From the way in which Uwais al-Qarani was raised, such people will come until the Day of Judgment. They will come.

However much you deny, Allah will complete His light until the Day of Judgment. Not from you, but by raising scholars, having them explain the truth, removing superstitions from religion, until the Day of Judgment His religion He will keep standing. If you too could have carried this religion on until the Day of Judgment, one of them says something like this; he wrote it here. Now I will read it to you.

God willing, I will find it here now. He wrote this to us.

I found it. Look what it says here. Allah Himself protects the Holy Quran. True. A verse. What does it say? We sent down the Quran. And We are its guardian until the Day of Judgment. Not a single letter of it is distorted, nor is distortion made, He says. What does he say now? Allah Himself protects the Holy Quran. Everything human hands touch changes, he says.

With the words of people raised by one another, with superstitions, the meanings of the verses change like this. They change like this. Now I will read this to you without explaining.

I am starting it from the beginning. Allah Himself protects the Holy Quran. Everything human hands touch changes. To protect the Holy Quran, Allah Himself gives lessons and sends teachers, he says. Yes. A person, a person who has reached a certain place. A person who has reached a certain place. Yes. Satan also prods. And he even phones (?). Certainty. Yes. He Himself gives lessons. He sends teachers. These teachers come living with the spirit of the hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets (?). Without their memories being lost, they have no reading and writing. Their hearts' eyes are open. They have no concepts of time and space.

Without taking a book in their hands they read (?), he says. That is, they read from the heart, he says. The unchanging — (?) — untouched, correctly interpreted Holy Quran is this; here is the proof, he says. That is, he is pointing to us here. Here is the proof, he says. Yes, so those who have fallen into the passion of being head, who, within a community, want to show themselves as that community's leader, with lies, falsehoods and superstitions, their outward knowledge — mind you, if he knew the truth, if with outward knowledge he knew the truth, he would have a place above my head. Those who with those superstitions show people dead ends, dead-end roads, who drag them into falsehood, I have a piece of advice for them.

First, let them read Allah's book. Not the book of Ahmet and Mehmet. If they do not know the meanings of the verses, let them ask one who knows. Let them learn from one who knows. Let them not fall into the passion of being head. The passion of being head. Yes. So here Allah Almighty addresses the mu'min. The mu'min. What does He say? For them there are the Gardens of Eden, He says. Sir, there are fine dwellings. What does He say? Gardens beneath which rivers flow, and in the Gardens of Eden fine dwellings. And Allah's good pleasure is greater than all. Of course it is greater than those gardens too.

Why is it greater than that paradise too? Because had there not been Allah's good pleasure, you could not have earned it. Because our Lord created those gardens. You earned His good pleasure, and so you went there.

Once upon a time, Rabia asks Dhun-Nun al-Misri. They had come with a friend to Dhun-Nun al-Misri.

She asks Dhun-Nun al-Misri: Why do you worship, she says. I, he says, worship because I long for Allah. She asks his friend: Why do you worship? I worship because I fear hell, he says. To Dhun-Nun al-Misri she says: you are like a worker who takes on a job and receives a wage in return for that job, she says. He takes on a job; in return he will receive a wage. To the other she says: and you are like a worker who works for fear of a beating, she says. Dhun-Nun al-Misri asks Rabia: "You, (?) do you worship?" I, she says, neither for His paradise, she says, nor for His hell. I, for my Lord, she says. For His Essence, she says.

Because I long for Him, I worship for His sake, she says. Whether fire, she says, or light. Yes. Earning Allah's good pleasure is above all. Earning His good pleasure. And earning His good pleasure is not, like the accursed one, spending one's life bowed down in prostration.

Those who cannot understand this say the Hodja is turning people away from worship. If they cannot grasp this meaning. One attribute of the accursed one is also "greedy." In the sense of a miser of worship. There is not a span of ground, he says, where my forehead has not touched in prostration to the Merciful, he says. On earth. He rises as far as being the teacher of the angels. In the end he is cursed through pride and arrogance. So what shall we do, Hodja? In My sight, worship is the little that is constant, Allah Almighty says. Look what He says: the little that is constant. Then the Prophet says in his hadiths: if the acts of worship you perform do not keep you from evil, it is (?), he says.

Allah Almighty says in His verse: pray, being mindful of the prayers and the middle prayer, He says. Poor people call the middle prayer the afternoon prayer. Yet He says: being mindful of the prayers and the middle prayer. The meaning here: wiping all that is other than Allah from your whole heart, when you say Allahu Akbar, that you are in your Lord's presence, that with the realm of the heart you are with Him — in this way, with this longing, that you pray; and for those who have attained the manifestations, with us, in their Lord's presence, even if they do not see, in that divine presence, it is their spiritual prayer.

That is the middle prayer. It is the prayer performed in the heart.

People's — if you knew people, knew Ahmet Efendi and Mehmet Efendi, perhaps with one or two words that please you, you would make him the crown of your head. Perhaps you would love him. But when a person speaks, if his talk you consider in the light of the verses, then you will understand what kind of person that person is.

Speaking with people, knowing them, is in the light of the verses. We tell him Mevlana's saying too; he does not understand (?). He spins like a broken record. What does it say? Tell me a word, and I will tell you where you are. With the words you say, you prove to me very well where you are.

Yes. What did we say? That is the great salvation. What salvation? It is attaining Allah's mercy. That is salvation.

Allah Almighty says in Surah Al-Fath too: We will give you a victory soon, He says. Victory. Allah Almighty's word is both outward and inward. Look now, what does it say? Five hundred, Surah Al-Fath.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Indeed We have granted you a clear conquest, He says. Conquest. This people take as war — as winning a war, you know. Yet the clear conquest is this: Allah Almighty, saying "you never expected this Quran would come to you," sending down the Quran to him, illuminating the universe, his prevailing as a mercy to the worlds, and until the Day of Judgment, with the continuation of his religion's rule, sir, a great conquest He grants him. Conquest.

How do we understand that this is so? It goes on now. So that Allah may forgive your past and future sins, He says. There you are. Conquest, too. If He gave you this religion of Islam, the (?) of this load, the load of this Quran, and if you conveyed it to Allah's servants, if this religion you brought will continue its light until the Day of Judgment, Allah Almighty — of the last religion, the last prophet, the one who is mercy to the worlds, whom He addressed to His Essence, whom He created to see His Essence in His Essence, the Prophet (peace be upon him) — says: I have forgiven his past and future sins too.

What does He say?

So that Allah may forgive your past and future sins. And complete His favour upon you and guide you to a straight path, He says. Yes. (?) the Prophet: He guides him to a straight path. Not that He shows a straight path. He guides him to a straight path. Because He raised him. My Lord educated me, and educated me well, he says. There is a difference between other guidings and this guiding. One must not mix everything up. Yes. And He helps you with a glorious victory, He says. With the battles of Badr, that is. It is He who sent down tranquillity into the hearts of the believers so that they may increase in faith.

To Allah belong the armies of the heavens and the earth. Allah knows everything. He is Wise.

All these favours: He will place the believing men and believing women in gardens beneath which rivers flow, where they will abide forever, He says. His placing them there is to cover their sins. That is a great salvation in Allah's sight. That is the verses meeting one another; all the verses confirming one another. Yes, to those who obey Allah Almighty's command, who believe in the hereafter with certainty, who try not to step outside the command of Allah and the Messenger, who, for Allah, break the evils of their own nafs and rise to the station of contentment — to the believing men and believing women, Allah Almighty, in Surah Al-Fajr, verses 27, 28, 29, 30, "O soul at rest, pleased with your Lord, your Lord pleased with you, enter among My servants, enter My paradise" — to the people to whom He says this, the Garden of Eden beneath which rivers flow, and in paradise very perfect palaces and mansions, fine dwellings, He promised, He declares.

Allah Almighty does. Who is more true to his word than Allah, He says. No one can be. Because Allah created these from atom to globe and programmed them. All the unseen is in Allah's hand. The keys of the unseen are in Allah's hand. Since we do not know the unseen, however true to our word we may be, people are created from (?) — that is, He calls man (?), and "uns" comes from the forgetful ones. Since (?) too is included in the group of the forgetful. Had people not been created from the group of the forgetful, with these pains and pasts man's life would be poison. People's loved ones dying, the calamities that befall them coming and passing, their forgetting them, giving a person hope of a new life — that binds people to life.

In this case, since people were created in the group of the forgetful, Allah Almighty, calling out to people, says: Who is more true to his word than Allah? No one can be. Because we forget even the promise we gave. Then we say, "Oh no, we forgot this," and without knowing we will have deceived people. This does not count as deception, but since we forgot — since deeds depend on intention — we will have put the person to trouble, made him wait, usurped his right; but Allah never gives up being true to His word. Yes, if a person truly wants to see paradise and His Beauty, besides worship he will struggle with his nafs, break his nafs's bad states, remove everything other than Allah from his heart, bring Allah's light down into his heart — "Allah's light," He says, the whole of that verse he will bring down into his heart; our Lord will place that light of His there; on that light, He says, falls the shadow of neither east nor west; in the east the sun rises — that is the outward knowledge; in the west the sun sets — this is the inward. That is said of the scholars We raise, He says.

Neither the shadow of east nor of west falls. They are the people of the Quran. They are those who confirm one another with the verses of the Quran, to whom Allah gave knowledge and, with that knowledge, gave wisdom. Allah's light — the people in whose hearts He placed that light. Yes. In this case, if Allah Almighty has promised us paradise, those people who attain the attribute of mu'min, without any doubt — and they do not doubt, the mu'min; the mu'min does not doubt — will enter that paradise of His. Yes. Allah never goes back on His promise. Because Allah loves His servants very much. If Allah has promised His servants something, He will surely fulfil that promise.

According to the verse "Who is more faithful to his promise than Allah," Allah has declared to His servants that His promise is true. Yes.

And Allah's good pleasure is greater than all. That is the great salvation. Allah's good pleasure is greater than all. Because even if people are pleased with one another, in this mortal and transient realm of possession people only try to be pleased with one another because they love Allah, or to please a person in return for a job he did. It all stays in the world. He benefits from what he is pleased with by a small worldly benefit. But if Allah is pleased with a person, He is in the position of his guardian. He favours him with paradise, laden with eternal bliss, and in paradise with endless, inexhaustible blessings.

That is what pleasing is, and it is the state of man's being pleased forever. Surely, then, Allah's good pleasure is greater than all. How far can you please me here?

Up to a certain point. Then, if you make a mistake, if you treat me wrongly, with you I will not be pleased. Or if you usurp my right, I will not be pleased with you.

Now Allah Almighty's pleasure does not resemble that of people. He is free of all deficient attributes. No one can find fault in Allah. Whoever wants to look for fault, let him look for it in himself.

In this case, the person Allah is pleased with, (?), is the one who attains his Lord's promise. That is the great salvation. If we compare this salvation with worldly salvation: people, if they even fall into captivity, then by getting help, somewhere they have cornered a person. A person, finding an opportunity, has escaped from the hands of people who would do him harm. That too is a salvation. In this way we can multiply the cases. That is, you have fallen into captivity, you have been freed. You have been freed by expiation. That is, they were going to kill you. The (?) side, (?), has pardoned you.

That too is a salvation. But all these salvations of theirs have remained in the world, have ended. If you have not attained Allah's good pleasure, you fall into the state of not having found eternal salvation, so that you accept as your bed hell, the place of punishment Allah Almighty spoke of for those of the left. But if you have earned your Lord's good pleasure, you have attained eternal salvation. Yes.

If this person has rebelled against Allah and His Messenger, the few hours' salvation of this world has come to an end for him with his death. On passing to the hereafter, to the punishment of an eternal, deathless life with no salvation again he is left. However much salvation they attain in the world, benefiting from the world's transient blessings, in the end all means are taken from their hands, and among those left to eternal punishment they are included. The verse: All the pleasant things you did have gone to waste. No matter how much you do. If you have rebelled against Allah and His Messenger, in the world as much salvation as you want, in the world as many rewards as you want, attain them.

All the pleasant things you did have gone to waste, He says. There they are without anyone and alone, He says.

Of the people from whom their Lord has cut off His mercy, no one will help them. Yes.

Salvation is the salvation of those who, by their obedience to Allah and His Messenger, work for Allah, continue their devotions and worship, spread truth and justice on earth, stand by the oppressed against the oppressor, and strive with emigration for Allah. When these pass to the hereafter, it is the salvation of those who win paradise in the abode of eternal bliss, of those who attain Allah's good pleasure. The servants of Allah who are mu'min and mu'minat are Allah's servants who attain salvation. May Allah Almighty join the whole community of Muhammad to those who attain salvation. Yes.