At-Tawbah 74: They take an oath that they didn’t say (those words). But they surely said those words of disbelief and after becoming Muslims they changed to became infidels. And they attempted a thing at which they did not succeed (assassination of the Prophet). And they tried to take revenge only because Allah and Allah’s Messenger have made them wealthy by their grace. If they repent, it will be better for them. If they turn away, Allah will give them severe punishment in the world and in the hereafter. On the face of the earth, there are no friends or helpers for them.

we say. Surah At-Tawbah, verse 74, the noble verse. Yes.

What (?) are we reading? O Muhammad! Those words! Who is this? Those words — those hypocrites, those polytheists. They swear by Allah that they did not say them, it says. That is, they swear falsely by Allah. They are setting a trap for the Prophet. Sir, although, having left the religion of Islam, they insulted the Prophet, when confronted they say: we did not say it. They are lying. Look what it says: O Muhammad, they swear by Allah that they did not say those words. Yet they certainly did say that word of disbelief, it says. That "certainly". Allah Almighty informs the Prophet (peace be upon him) of it in the verse.

And they disbelieved after becoming Muslims, it says. Is there no one who turns to kufr after becoming Muslim? There is. Very many, in fact.

Toward something they could not achieve — what could they not achieve? Their trap against the Prophet did not succeed. They set a trap for him. They even attempted to assassinate the Prophet, and only because Allah and His Messenger, out of His grace, had made them rich, they set out to take revenge. Out of His grace, Allah and His Messenger — because they made them rich out of His grace. Why? Because they gave them worldly goods. The more they were carried away by worldly goods, the more, through them, people began to see themselves as somebody. Somebody. And so, worshipping those worldly goods, they looked down on those who had none.

They saw them as helpless. Yes. And only because Allah and His Messenger had made them rich out of His grace, they set out to take revenge. If they repent, it will be better for them. If they repent. Allah Almighty created people fallible. He created their intellect incomplete. Why did He create them that way? Allah Almighty was going to create a being. A being. That being would know its Lord by its own desire and will. It would not be programmed. It would not be programmed by its Lord. That person would have himself programmed by his Lord. By his own desire and will.

This entire universe, the 17,000 worlds, Allah Almighty programmed by His own desire and will. He left humans and jinn free in their own will. Since humans and jinn were programmed in the sight of Allah Almighty according to their own desires, they became responsible before Allah Almighty. Because of the deeds they did, they came to incur sin. In this case, in this case, when it says if they repent it will be better for them — We gave you a partial intellect. We created you among the forgetful and with an incomplete intellect. Had Allah Almighty created it complete, with a universal intellect rather than an incomplete one, He would have created a being equal to His own Self.

In this case man will know his helplessness, will make mistakes, and when he realizes he has erred, he will turn to Allah Almighty and ask for forgiveness. This will conform to Allah Almighty's purpose in creating. So in this case, those people err, and this human I created with my infallible attribute, whose intellect I created incomplete — when through error he leaves the religion of Islam and then realizes he has done wrong, and again repents to Allah Almighty and returns to the religion of Islam, it will be better for them. For them. If they turn away, Allah will strike them with a painful punishment in this world and in the hereafter, it says. Does He not strike them?

Today America is in storms, in disasters. We, it says, give them three or two calamities a year. Why? Why? Perhaps, it says — Allah Almighty knows — it may be that among them there are those who will find the truth and return, it says. Among them, those who find the truth will return. But they still persist in their stubbornness and, against the disasters that come, without remembering Allah even once, keep wrestling with those calamities on and on. Even though they suffer this every year, if these people said "Allah" just once, Allah would lift these calamities from them too. Yes.

On earth they have neither a friend nor it says. If we are to explain this — we continue with the verse.

On earth, it says, they have neither a friend nor a helper. On earth. Now, if we pay attention here, to this verse — if in understanding the verses we decide according to our own minds, then this verse now contradicts another. On earth, it says, they have neither a friend nor a helper, it says. Yet what does the verse say? They are friends of one another, it says. They are helpers, it says. And here it says they have neither a friend nor a helper on earth, it says. Now the verses seemed to contradict each other. Yet for whom does it say this? It says it for the disbelievers. For those who know Allah, these have neither friends nor helpers on earth.

For those who know Allah. It does not say this for the disbelievers.

Whoever envies them, Allah Almighty says in the noble verse, is like them, it says. In this case a Muslim neither envies a disbeliever nor regards them as a helper, as a friend. Because Allah Almighty says they are friends of one another. If you do not follow them, they will never take you among them, it says. How beautifully He says it. Allah Almighty awakens us. So accordingly, toward a Muslim, a person of faith, they have neither a friend nor a helper.

Allah Almighty's mercy in the universe is for everyone, in the hereafter only for the believer; Allah Almighty does not say this about His own Self either. For whom? Among people themselves, between the people of faith and the faithless — that is what it describes here.

I suppose this part is now understood like this.

While the Prophet (peace be upon him) was waiting for the enemies at Tabuk, revelations came to him, and he kept reproaching those who stayed behind from that battle.

A hypocrite named Julas ibn Suwayd said: if what Muhammad says about our brothers is true, let us be lower than donkeys.

Let us be lower than donkeys.

So this time he is denying what he said. Amir ibn Qays, hearing this, answered at once. Muhammad certainly speaks the truth. This time the Companion speaks the truth. That's why it says they have no helpers — see how beautiful. Nor do they have a friend.

But you are lower than donkeys. When the Prophet returned to Medina, Amir reported the matter to the Prophet.

Julas denied what he had said, saying: he is slandering me. The Prophet ordered both of them to swear in front of the pulpit. Both swore that they were truthful. So the hypocrite swears too. That he is telling the truth. Then Allah Almighty sends down the revelation to Gabriel the Trustworthy. He sends down the verse. To the verse. Surely, it says, they are lying, it says. From this the verse comes about. Yes. But after his oath Amir raised his hands and prayed: O Lord, confirming the truthful one, send Your Prophet a verse that exposes the liar. The Prophet and the other believers said amen. Then this verse was revealed.

Julas confessed his guilt and repented. So the hypocrites, since they do not believe in Allah and His Messenger, swear oaths easily. They are like chameleons. They change color according to where they are. That is how the chameleon is. It takes the color of the place it is in. The hypocrite comes to Islam's side and becomes Muslim. When he goes to the disbelievers he says: we are mocking Islam, we are ridiculing it. We are with you, they say. When they come to the Muslims: we are on their side, but we are with you, they say. In this way they get their profit from Islam. In fact they are enemies of Islam.

Yes.

For this reason such people's oaths count for nothing. That is, those oaths are not accepted. Allah Almighty supported the truth with His verse. Julas, who witnessed this event, repented and was again honored with Islam. When a person leaves Islam and reaches kufr, then repents again and enters Islam, he becomes a murtad. That is, they call this a turncoat. A turncoat. Yes.

The people among these hypocrites, if after some miracles and verses they see the truth and repent, Allah Almighty accepts their repentance. Because Allah is the One who accepts repentance abundantly. Allah Almighty is Tawwab. Why does He accept repentance? Why? Everything there is, from the atom to the globe, is what Allah Almighty created. Allah does not will injustice to the worlds; you wrong your own selves — according to the verse. Because He created people deficient in intellect, because He holds people as addressees of His Self, because He gave people a power from His spirit — when people repent of the sins they committed by mistake, since it conforms to Allah Almighty's purpose in creating, He accepts the repentance.

What are the traits that conform to His purpose in creating? He created man's intellect incomplete; man cannot know some things, he may take the right for wrong and the wrong for right. In the end he realizes his mistakes; if he turns back — Allah Almighty created man precisely so that His Self would be known. So that His Self would be known. In this case too, a person who knows his helplessness through the mistakes he made, when he turns repentant to his Lord, Allah Almighty both forgives him and, since there is no god but Allah, upon His servant's returning to (?), increases those people in their rewards.

He exalts them. Why do we pray as we do in our prayer? O Allah, as servants You created, knowing our helplessness, our Lord, besides whom there is none, the Lord of the worlds, You know our needs better than we do; with all our heart, our soul, to You, with all our inner feelings, we have taken refuge at Your door, we ask from You, not from Your creatures, we say. And this is exactly what Allah Almighty wants from people.

He wants them to know their Lord. Yes. Allah is Tawwab. He accepts repentance abundantly. Man, however, is very ungrateful. He is irresponsible and (?) toward the blessings given. Allah, however, with His attribute of patience, though knowing what these people will do, is the One who waits patiently. Because in the end all souls will return to their Lord. Yes. If a thousand years of this world are like one day of the hereafter, then a person's sixty or seventy years of life here are like one or one and a half hours compared to the hereafter.

Therefore Allah Almighty, who creates time within time — while life seems long — makes us live like one or one and a half hours compared to the hereafter; our Lord, who makes us live in this world, holds us witness to ourselves as to what kind of people we are. Did you think you would die without proving what kind of person you are? it says in the verse. Yes.

These hypocrites also attempted to assassinate the Prophet (peace be upon him). But their assassination attempts came to nothing. Because the One who spoils the game of those who play games and brings their games to nothing is Allah. They, it says, set a trap, and We, it says, set a trap, but We are the best of those who set traps, it says. What does this mean? He sets a trap — but what is the best of traps? Let's say Mesut sets a trap for me outside my destiny. Allah Almighty also sets a trap. Within my destiny He spoils his game. So the best of it is: until the end of both our lives, no event outside our destiny does He let us live, and in the situations where we are to prove ourselves to ourselves, Allah Almighty spoils the games that would go beyond that.

Isn't this the best? The best of those who set traps. Yes.

When Allah Almighty with this verse made known what the hypocrites had prepared against the Prophet, a group of them returned to Islam. But another group continued in their kufr and, of their own will, sought Hell. Yes.

And only because Allah and His Messenger had made them rich out of their grace, they set out to take revenge. If they repent, it will be better for them. If they turn away, Allah will strike them in this world and in the hereafter with a painful punishment. On earth they have neither a friend nor a helper. Some of the people of Medina were poor; after the Prophet came to Medina they became rich. Then the hypocrites, being ungrateful, toward the prophets, set out to do harm to the Prophet. Yes.

So the hypocrites, with the coming of the Prophet (peace be upon him) to Medina al-Munawwara, for the sake of the Prophet (peace be upon him) being among them, became rich through the blessings Allah gave. The blessing of the Prophet — for the honor of his face, wherever he goes is in abundance. Where he is, is safe — safe. Where they are is safe. When Allah Almighty is about to send a disaster on a land, He takes those sincere servants of His out of that land and pours His calamity on that land. Like the people of Lot, the people of Noah, the people of Ad, the people of Thamud, He takes their prophets out of the land and pours His calamities on them.

The places where the prophets are are safe, and the places where the scholars, their heirs, are, are also safe. When a calamity is to come, Allah Almighty creates a cause, even if the person himself does not know it, takes him out of that calamity, and gives the calamity to the others. Yes. To those who do not believe in Allah and

His Messenger, in the face of this wealth, obeying Allah and living with honor and dignity by Allah's commands over people felt heavy. Following the nafs and Satan, living in pleasure and as their hearts desired, attracted them. That is, it seemed appealing to them. Lust, carnal feelings, worldly desire, the temptation the nafs gives people, Satan letting them run rampant, the world looking rosy — these became spoiled. In this way they reached the point of seeing no one but themselves.

Since the laws the Prophet laid down stood in the way of their living by their nafs, they did not like these laws. For this reason, since they felt guilty before Allah's Messenger and the laws of Islam, they became enemies of the Prophet and of Islam. Turning their backs on the Owner of these blessings, being ungrateful, they veered into denial. In this case, since they did not believe in Allah and His Messenger, they will, in this world and in the hereafter, be struck with a painful punishment. (?) they are being struck already. There they will have neither a friend nor a helper.