At-Tawbah 73: Oh Prophet! Strive against the blasphemers and the hypocrites and show harshness to them (do not compromise against their false words). Their destination is the hell and how wretched a destination it is!

73. We have come to the verse. Surah At-Tawbah, verse 73. O Prophet! Against the disbelievers and the hypocrites strive. Be harsh with them. That is, make no concessions to their untrue words.

They also say to me: you do as you yourself say. Agree with me for once. Now, according to this verse, how can I agree with you? You speak incompletely; by the verse too you speak incompletely. How can I make concessions to you?

I am obliged to tell the truth.

Their final abode is hell. What an evil destination it is, He says. Hell. In this verse, when He says strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, it does not necessarily mean taking up the sword and waging war against them. Explain the Truth to them. Explain what is right to them. Tell them that there is no god other than Allah; tell them. O Prophet, strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites. Be harsh with them. Look how beautiful. He does not say, you know, necessarily take the sword in hand and wage war against them. That is, make no concessions to their untrue words. Their final abode is hell.

What an evil destination it is.

O you who believe! Be harsh with the disbelievers. In today's situation, do not make the disbeliever the crown of your head, do not be a lackey to those clowns, do not stand before them going ha-ha, hee-hee. I was a child, a child; in Samsun there was a priests' church, there were priests, they would see us and fawn on us while we were still children; we looked on them as very, very lowly. Today the times have changed — the times have not changed, man has changed. Man, (?), has fallen for the whims of the nafs, for the allure of the world.

The disbeliever's way of life pleased his nafs. In this case the religion of Islam remained in his heart as small as the tip of a pin. And his nafs enveloped him. And Satan began to move away from him. Because he no longer needs him. He fell into a worse state than Satan. Today whoever bares and strips more is the better dressed. Whoever exposes their private parts more is the more modern.

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Yes. God willing I'll find it. I found it, look what it says: the blessed one — Who said the European is civilized? There is neither modesty nor shame, the body stark naked. If civilization is baring and exposing the body, then say that animals are more civilized than us. Yes. Today, are we not in that state?

O Prophet, O you who believe, be harsh with the disbelievers. The meaning of this: O you who believe, if you are deceived by what they say, fall for worldly things that look like your benefit, believe what they show and consent, they will surely turn you from your religion. Because disbelievers do not take in among themselves those not of their own. Yes. Because they cannot bow their necks. To whom? To Allah. They have put lale on their necks. It is in Yasin. What is a lale? On dogs' necks, so that wolves do not attack, like this they put a collar with nails. So they cannot bow their necks. They cannot bend their necks to Allah.

Because the whims of the nafs have lifted them up to the skies. Out of their arrogance and pride, with grandeur, out of their glory and fame, they have denied Allah. Yes.

Strive against them. The meaning of this, in the first sense: however strong the army of disbelievers attacking you may be, trust in Allah, and help — from Him seek help. Fight against those who would put out Allah's light on earth. Whichever Muslim people fears the disbelievers facing it and does not fight, and in the land it lives in puts out the light of Islam — according to the verse "Allah will complete His light until the Day of Judgment," bringing other peoples in their place, He keeps the light of Islam alive, (?).

Today, through Islam's submitting to (?), its flight, its fear, we see what states they have fallen into.

Today, the state of Iraq. Yet it was in a very superior position. They only, He says, fight from behind strong fortresses. That is, with their tanks, their rifles. But Allah is with them. He is with the Muslims. Desert storms. It took over and marched on. The helicopter coming down, coming down out of fear. But finding no one facing them, the men, hands (?), strolled in at ease. Very recently our ancestors, in the Caucasus, at Çanakkale, in their battles, were martyred there down to the last man; they did not leave their places, they did not abandon the trenches.

Muslims were slaughtered; the great Ottoman Empire fell to 10 million. But still religion stood upright on its feet. Because it did not bow its neck to the disbeliever's filthy boot. At Çanakkale, with the Elizabeth sinking into the waters, it wrote the epic "Çanakkale cannot be passed." We are the children of those ancestors.

What has happened to us? Their blood, under the boots of these filthy clowns, will we let it be trampled? Will we betray this homeland? Will we have our religion (?) by these clowns?

What has happened to us? We have changed. We are the children of those martyrs.

So come to your senses. This world is transient; the benefit of the transient world, a little amusement in the world — let it not take you away from Allah. Act with your destination in mind. If I sent you on a journey, sent you off on a journey, to where you are going with bare pockets, without water, hungry, thirsty, penniless — if one sent you, would you go? You would be afraid, thinking, what will I do there? If I left you alone in a forest among wild animals, you would look for a place to shelter. The realm of the hereafter is more terrible than those desolate forests, than that place you would go to stark naked even worse.

If you cannot bear that torment here, you can never bear it in the realm of the hereafter. So come to your senses. Yes.

In the second sense, the striving against them: of those who are (?) — deceived by the worldliness and transient benefit they put before people, do not take your place in their ranks and consent to what they say. Against what they will give, always defend the truth, and by telling them Allah's command, strive against them. Today in Malatya, in the East, the disbeliever, the Christian, making propaganda, giving money, goods and property to people of a certain mentality, is turning them to their side in masses.

If this whole world — another world too were there, the earth and the sky, the heavens and the earth and what is between them were yours, if Allah gave them to you, with death you will leave each one of them and go. With death. So pay attention to the verse. Do you own even a seed of your world? If that were so, not even as much as a flower's shoot, as much as a seed, nothing would be given to you, He says. Because you would have found creating. If you had created a seed, He says, you would have come to create your own (?) too. So you are in helplessness. All created things, from atom to globe, are Allah's.

Every soul will taste death. The inheritance of the heavens and the earth and what is between them will remain to Allah, He says. So if these all belong to Allah, everything will remain to Allah. So I say: O man, what have you been deceived by? By that zaqqum flower in the swamp? That flower in the swamp that looks like the zaqqum flower is one that grows in the middle of hell — a flower. Its fruit, He says, is (?); it is like the head of Satan. We got hungry, and you will eat of this. It will give you a fever. Its fruit, He says, will swell in your belly, He says, so as to tear your bowels, it will swell. It will drive you into thirst.

On top of it, boiling water and (?), He says, another water, that is, pus, will be mixed. Is it this you envied in the world? Envying the world is envying this. "Well, Hodja, then let's abandon the world." Allah Almighty: approach the world in the proper way. Build up your world too, He says. But just as two watermelons do not fit under one arm, as the poet says, "There can be no guest on top of a guest," he says. As it is said that there cannot be two households in one house, there cannot be two loves in one heart.

If you cannot know the Owner of all these created beings, if you turn your back on Him, if you are with what Allah created, tomorrow (?) that (?) that Allah created, He says. The world will put on its most beautiful clothes. What are its most beautiful clothes? With its streams, its rivers, its flowers, its vineyards it will be adorned. "Grant me to a small wali," it will say. "That wali you call small did not look at you while he was in the world; now should I give you to him?" He will say. He will roll up the world like an old rag and throw it into hell. (?) The world will be rolled up, He says, thrown into hell.

If the world you envy is bound for hell, let me tell you a hadith. A person is resurrected with the one he loves. You too will be resurrected with it. So you will use the world. You will not come under the command of the world. The world will be under your command. O world! Submit to whoever walks on My path. To the one who leaves My path, (?), He says. Yes. Look at worldly people. In stinginess, in want.

Yet there is someone who, though he has wealth he could never eat up, Satan has frightened with stinginess and want. Allah Almighty says in His verse: do you not see the birds flying over the deserts? In the mornings they fly with empty crops; in the evenings, He says, with full crops they return. What deceived you, that you envied this swamp of the world, and, stripping yourself stark naked, became subject to this verse of Allah Almighty: Let not Satan, He says, strip you stark naked.

Both the body stark naked and, by your loading yourself with the spiritual burden of sin, stark naked of good deeds.

Yes.

Be harsh with them. Wealth and property belong to Allah. It is enjoyment for a short time on earth. Taking this small enjoyment and, saying "let their feelings not be hurt," doing what they say is taking your place beside them. Because these never put before a person any worldly thing that is not in their own interest. So reject the bribery and unjust gain that Allah does not want, so that you spread Allah's justice on earth.

Their final abode is hell. Hell. What an evil place of return it is. In some of His verses too He says: what a return, what an evil bed it is. A bed — eternally there; a bed, that is. Yes.

Disbelievers do not recognize Allah, a book, a prophet. Their lives, as long as they live, are eating and drinking, pleasure and revelry. In this case, of those who are greedy and stingy toward the blessings Allah gave, who forget Allah, the place they return to is hell. It is the dwelling of a deathless, everlasting life full of pain and torment. So be wary of these. Do not be fooled by them; let not their worldly lives, their living in splendour on earth make you envious. Because their living in splendour on earth is only for a very short time, says Allah Almighty in His verse.