At-Tawbah 89: Allah has prepared for them paradises in which they will dwell eternally and beneath which rivers flow. This is the great gain.

We return to our lesson. In verse 89 of Surah At-Tawbah Allah has prepared for them gardens in which they will abide forever and from whose ground rivers flow, it says. That is the great triumph. Allah for them — for whom? For His righteous servants. Gardens of Eden, gardens from whose ground rivers flow, He has prepared. When it says “Allah for them”, there is a distinction here. Yes.

It says: E'addallâhu lehum. Cennâtin tecrî min tahtihe'l-enhâru hâlidîne fîhâ, zâlike'l-fevzu'l-azîm. Yes. Allah for them, in which they will abide forever. For them. Who is this? E'addallâhu lehum. Who are they? The righteous servants. It does not say: to everyone who believes, to every Muslim, I have prepared Paradise, and I will give them Paradise beneath which rivers flow — it does not say that. Yes, Allah Almighty promises Paradise to the Muslim. Even if he has been (?) to punishment, he will finally come out of Hell, (?), and he too will go to Paradise. But if the word “them” did not appear here, that is, if the words “those righteous servants” did not appear, if He had said: We have promised those who believe gardens beneath which rivers flow — if He had said that, no Muslim, even a sinful one, would enter Hell.

There would be a deficiency in Allah's attribute of justice, and with that deficiency Allah Almighty would have brought out how much tolerance He grants to Islam among the servants, and that to those rebellious disbelievers He grants no tolerance whatsoever. But whoever violates Allah's laws — Allah Almighty, who judges with that attribute of justice, will, in just the same way, together with the others, punish them. In this case it does not address those who believe; it says “them”. That is, the righteous servants. It says: from whose ground rivers flow. Those from whose ground rivers flow: in the Gardens of Eden, at the level of nafs radiya, Allah's righteous servants and the scholars.

The scholars whom Allah has raised. Along with the righteous, along with the prophets, those righteous servants will also be gathered. Allah Almighty also calls the prophets righteous servants. Righteous servants, rivers, gardens beneath which rivers flow. Of course, although it is the same Paradise, their ranks will be higher, the prophets'. Like what? Let's say I have a house here, I have a house in the same neighborhood, you have a house on the bank of the same river; the other will have a mansion, a villa, a palace. Yes, we will be gathered with them like this, but still their ranks, compared to the others, will be more magnificent.

But no one will envy them like this, as in the life of this world. Because Allah Almighty says: I will give the people who enter Paradise a new endowment. With that endowment everyone will be content with their state, everyone will live satisfied with their state. No one will envy anyone. No one will covet anyone's property. Yes.

Allah has prepared for them gardens in which they will abide forever and from whose ground rivers flow, it says. For those righteous servants. For the saintly servants of Allah Almighty.

For those scholars — the people of whom it is said that the angels and the scholars are made witnesses to Allah's existence, the people of whom it is said: your scholars' passing to the Hereafter is like the sun going and darkness coming — to these people Allah Almighty promises gardens from whose ground rivers flow. Indeed, in the verse He says again that neither sorrow nor any stain will ever touch them, in the Hereafter, where they are greeted with smiling faces; and because their loved ones go to Hell — they went with faith, yet they have punishment — so that they are not sad, Allah Almighty, according to the state of His saintly servant, from seven people up to seventy people, will give them the right of intercession.

Yes, and that is the great triumph, it says. So what is the great triumph? It is to win Paradise. The aim is not to win Paradise; the aim, while still in this world, is to win Allah's good pleasure. Indeed, if we win Allah's good pleasure, we have won Paradise — that is what it means. Because then it is in the bag, if you win Allah's good pleasure. Why is Paradise in the bag? What is the reason? The reason is that Allah Almighty never goes back on His promise. According to the verse “Who is truer to his word than Allah?”, the person who wins Allah's good pleasure also wins Paradise. Yes. And that is the great triumph.

Otherwise, even if you load the wealth of the world on your back, all souls will taste death, the inheritance of the heavens and the earth will remain to Allah — according to that verse, even if the wealth of the world is yours, in the end you will leave it in the world and go. You will be called to account for the good and evil in the world and for the worship you performed. So the greatest gain: because you use the blessings Allah has promised you in a good or bad way, and so receive evil and good, whichever is greater, your rewards or your sins, beside that you take your place. If your rewards are greater, to Paradise; if your sins are greater, to suffer punishment in Hell you go. If you have gone as a denier, an eternal life in Hell will be your lot. May Allah protect us.

In this case, the greatest gain is to win Allah's good pleasure, while in the world to carry out Allah's commands and not to step outside His command. Yes.

For them Allah has prepared gardens in which they will abide forever and from whose ground rivers flow; He has prepared them. And that is the great triumph, it says. People toil and strive in the world of possessions and become lords of some goods and property, vineyards and gardens, farms or land. In the end these are the goods of this world. The goods of this world. These are, for a temporary time, entrusted to people, worldly blessings. With their death all of it is taken from their hands, and with the deeds they have done, with their rewards and sins, they are left alone.

And think: this person appears before Allah Almighty with a burden of sin, and instead of the life of pomp in the world, he has become (?) to Allah's punishment. Is this not the state of a merchant who has been robbed and gone bankrupt? Not like that. While in the world, everyone is at your command, everyone says “my lord, my pasha” and bows before you. You go wherever you want, you live however you want. You have money, property, position, your car, your yacht, your palaces, your summer houses, your (?), your mountain houses — you have them all.

If a bandit came and swindled you, took all your property, all you have, from your hands, what would you do? So the person who has grown used to this life of pomp in this world, if he is deceived by this world's temporary realm and forgets the Hereafter, then just as in the Hereafter he cannot find a single speck of this life of pomp, all the pleasant things he did have gone to waste, and in the end he has fallen into the state of that bankrupt merchant; the end of that life of pomp has turned to pain — a person who, with pain and torment, has bought an eternal life in Hell. Now, Allah Almighty has given us a very fine blessing of reason.

In many places Allah Almighty says to people: Do you not use your reason? In this case, if a person builds up his world and leaves his Hereafter empty, he has wronged his own self. Allah Almighty does not tell us: always only work for Me, worship. Allah Almighty has laid responsibilities on us. Children, family, teaching the religion of Islam to future generations. In worldly life, so that through buying, selling and trade we prove what kind of person we are, He has laid down fine laws. In this case, if a person knows that he is a test in the world, that he is being tested, and acts accordingly, he wins both his world and his Hereafter.

Yes. If he inclines only toward the world and, in this temporary world, longs for his few hours of life, and so turns his back on Allah's verses, on His command, he falls into the state of the bankrupt merchant in the Hereafter.

Yes, my child Güray. He says: “The essential thing is winning Allah's approval, I think, Hodja,” he says. Yes, the essential thing — what is Allah's good pleasure? It is Allah's approval. Winning Allah's good pleasure. Same meaning, my child Güray. You are a lawyer; lawyers should know fine words better. Yes, what is good pleasure? That Allah Almighty is pleased with him, that He likes him. Yes, winning His approval.

My child Güray is right. Güray expresses it with a clearer meaning. We say “what He holds pleasing”. And Allah's approval — what does that say? In meaning, both are the same at the root. Yes, my child Güray.

So the human nafs never, toward Allah Almighty, toward Allah Almighty's command, acts in a way that shows consent. What did he say? Nafs, spirit and soul are one. The bodies are separate. The bodies. In this case, this outward form of a person, this form you have seen, is made up of two elements. One is the spirit, the second is the body. Did Allah Almighty not create the body of our forefather Adam from clay and then load into it from His spirit? Then this bodily garment, which will give the spirit its outward appearance in the world, serves as the mirror of the spirit, and in whatever way the spirit has used this body, this body will, on the Day of Judgment, bear witness (?) to that spirit; so it will.

Yes, when you come into My presence with a driver, it says, We will silence your mouths, (?), and make your hands speak, it says. And when the spirit says to the body, “Why are you bearing witness against me?”, it says, “Allah, who makes me speak, makes me speak,” and

after the testimony against the spirit is over, it says, you are returned to the One who first created you; a second time it dies there. And the body created from earth becomes earth.

In this case, spirit, nafs and soul are one. So if the spirit was given to the human as a part of our Lord's whole, if our spirit, which is responsible to Allah Almighty, if our spirit becomes captive to that nafs,

it has (?) that abasement. If that spirit brings the nafs under its rule, carrying out Allah's commands, and grants the nafs its desires and wishes only so far as to meet its own need, if it gives it that — for example, in its eating, drinking, clothing, attire, speech, in the deeds it does, if all of it is within the rulings of the Sharia, if it does not submit to the desires of the nafs but puts a bridle on it, then the spirit is exalted. Allah Almighty exalts it. So within this garment of appearance, the death of bodies does not mean the death of the spirit. Spirits are immortal, and when it says “All souls will taste death”, Allah Almighty does not say all souls will die.

It says: All souls will taste death, and your return is to Me. So the spirit is alive. Living. Yes. But some people who cannot grasp these points call us — call us followers of wahdat al-wujud. Whereas wahdat al-wujud is something else. This knowledge is something else. Yes.

So, a person in the world — in the world, if he is not governed by Allah's commands and is deceived by the rosy appearance of this world, if, in a swampy world, he longs for the beauty of the zaqqum tree in bloom and lets himself be drawn into that swamp, he falls into the state of a bankrupt merchant.

So, beside the fate of people who do not know Allah and His Messenger and do not heed Allah's commands, people who obey Allah and His Messenger and try to carry out Allah's commands strive with their wealth and their lives and continue in obedience and worship.

To those who act while in worldly life so as to observe Allah's good pleasure, Allah promises His Paradise in which rivers flow. And that is the great triumph. Yes: trusting in Allah, leaning our backs on Allah, seeking good in everything we do, seeking good, and doing it to win Allah's good pleasure. Going about our work without ever stepping outside the rulings of the Sharia; this verse must not be forgotten:

I have such servants that neither buying and selling nor trade keeps them from My remembrance. That is, this person will not necessarily remember Him saying “Allah, Allah, Allah” while buying and selling — no. Then what is his remembrance? I am selling this glass. I bought it for ten kuruş. It has a fifteen percent, twenty-five percent profit. Not one hundred percent, not seventy percent. If, without cheating my brothers, for Allah's sake, in a way that wins Allah's good pleasure, I sell this, then because I constantly work thinking of Allah, because that thinking is constantly thinking of Allah, it means he has remembered Allah.

In the step he will take, he takes (?). In the words he speaks, is he breaking people's hearts? Is he insulting them? In what way does my speech benefit these people? With which of my words will my Lord be pleased with me? A person who thinks of his Lord like this in everything he does and acts in that way: neither buying and selling nor trade will have kept him from his Lord's remembrance. Is there such a person, Hodja? There is. Not in the universe, no, no. But He has created people with human attributes. Except for their absent-mindedness, since they belong to the group of the forgetful. Because they are among the forgetful, those moments of brief absent-mindedness aside, as soon as they come to themselves, again they go about their work remembering Allah.

Even if they do nothing, even if they are alone, they, with their inner world, are constantly in (?) with their Lord; they talk, they talk constantly. Allah Almighty gives to his heart (?) the meanings of the verses, and he, in return for those meanings, his gratitude to his Lord he (?). Within that meaning the person plunges into oceans and turns around his Lord like a moth.

Yes. There are such people. If there were not such people, Allah's light in this world would not continue until the Day of Judgment.

What are we saying? So, the fate of people who do not know Allah and His Messenger and do not heed Allah's commands on one side, people who obey Allah and His Messenger and try to carry out Allah's commands strive with their wealth and their lives and continue in obedience and worship. To those who act while in worldly life so as to observe Allah's good pleasure, Allah promises His Paradise in which rivers flow. And that indeed is the great triumph. Because there is no longer any bankruptcy or any loss in it. In the life of the eternal and everlasting world, Allah Almighty is their owner. Happy are those who win this, those who master their nafs in the world and win Allah's good pleasure, and who, struggling with your (?) nafs, against that taghut resisting, without being governed by falsehood, placing Allah's light in their hearts, becoming recipients of their Lord's manifestations, win their Lord's good pleasure — happy are they.

Yes.